Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 29

Telescope

on distant mountaintops and space satellites. Over the
decades, data exchange over the web became commonplace, and as detector technologies continued to improve
and telescopes became more powerful, the astronomy
community realized the potential for creating a set of
interconnected data and research tools. The ultimate goal:
create the best "observatory" the world has ever seen.
In 2001 the National Science Foundation funded the
creation of a framework that would evolve into today's
U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory. Related virtual
observatory efforts have appeared in countries around the
world. The effort's backbone is the International Virtual
Observatory Alliance (IVOA), an organization that creates
standards for all astronomical data. Though largely invisible to practicing astronomers, the group's work is critical
to making data universally accessible. For example, most
astronomical images come in a Flexible Image Transport
System (FITS) format; IVOA standards put in place a

EXPLORE THE COSMOS Fly through Valles Marineris in the 3D
Mars environment (left) before zooming out to explore stars in the
solar neighborhood listed in the Hipparcos catalog (top right). Keep
scrolling, and soon you'll soar outside the Milky Way, passing through
some of the nearly 1 million galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (bottom right). All screenshots are from WWT.

decade ago help astronomers using different types of software search for, view, and exchange these images.
Today, in spite of funding woes in the U.S. and worldwide, the Virtual Observatory has created a set of free
astronomical resources that are arguably more coordinated and accessible than in any other field of science. But
granting the public access to those resources requires a
different kind of effort. Enter the WorldWide Telescope.

Building the WorldWide Telescope
Growing up in Los Angeles, amateur astronomer and
coauthor Curtis Wong tried to explore the amazing sky
Sk yandTelescope.com April 2015

29



http://www.SkyandTelescope.com

Sky and Telescope - April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - April 2015

Contents
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - Cover1
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - Cover2
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 3
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - Contents
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 5
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - A
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - B
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 6
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - 7
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Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - Cover3
Sky and Telescope - April 2015 - Cover4
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