UniView: A virtual atlas of the Universe

As demonstrated by Carter Emmart

Whats our place in the universe? This is deep philosophical question thats been pondered over for thousands of years, but modern astronomy can now answer the literally form of the question, to a degree. Humans evolved to view the world as a flat horizon which seemed to stretch out to infinity in all directions. It wasn't until we got high above the earth that we saw the horizon curve and realised we are confined to the prison of a finite sphere. Fortunately, if we gaze up past the horizon to the stars our instincts are once again ignited by the vastness of space.

Carter Emmart's vision was to create a scientifically accurate, hugely detailed, virtual atlas of the universe that captures everything from the small scale features of a planets land

scape all the way up to galaxy clusters. For 12 years he managed a team of research students, astronomers, and 3D artists to create UniView, a realtime visualisation of the universe.

UniView is based at the American Museum of Natural History and was supported by NASA as part of the rebuilding of the Hayden planetarium. UniView now forms the bases for space shows in numerous domes across the world.

The software allows you take a virtual tour through the universe.

From a view of the Earth you can zoom outwards, further and further into the viewable universe until you have left our solar system, our galaxy, and our galaxy cluster, all of which are rendered accurately and beautifully. The further out you travel the further into past you move until you leave the visible universe itself and can view the universe from before time began. From here you can observe the WMAP of cosmic background radiation, the residue from the big bang.

UniView doesn't just feature planets and stars, but also reams of information on satellites, spacecraft, and space missions. You can follow the Voyager spacecrafts on their journey beyond our solar system, or take a look at the mission map of Cassini's visit to the planets. UniView is made more powerful by allowing a continuous influx of new data. For example, images taken of earths surface just hours before can be feed directly onto the virtual Earth.

As a civilisation we are beginning to see ourselves in a much wider context and by doing so it will help us understand where we are in the universe, and maybe why we are here.

For more information visit the UniView website.