High-Level Project Summary
Our project is a basic virtual planetarium that features observations made by the JWST and other space telescopes, and stars from the BSC5P catalog. You can view observations made by the JWST and compare them with observations made by other space telescopes and read information about them.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our project features observations of these objects by the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes:
Jupiter
Neptune
Mars
Large Magellanic Cloud
Southern Ring Nebula
the Cosmic Cliffs
Tarantula Nebula
Cartwheel Galaxy
Messier 74
Stephan's Quintet
SMACS 0723 cluster
When other observations get released we can add them into the game easily as all the objects in the game get generated from the data sources automatically.
It is written in C# and uses the popular Unity game engine.
We used Blender to model the JWST.
We hope it can present the complex data from the JWST in a more friendly way so everyone can understand it.
Space Agency Data
We used various observation data from the JWST, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes:
https://webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery/images
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/05/MIRI_and_Spitzer_comparison_image
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/
https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/images
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_inspects_the_heart_of_the_Phantom_Galaxy
We used the BSC5P star catalog converted to JSON: https://github.com/frostoven/BSC5P-JSON-XYZ
Hackathon Journey
In one phrase our Hackathon journey could be described as "last-minute". We originally planned to join this event 450 kilometers away in Iıstanbul however after a series of unfortunate cancellations, we settled on Ankara. Although the equipment carrying aspect of our journey was a bit challenging, It was overall very comfortable. The first day was a blast, with a very insightful lesson into presentation techniques and representatives from the biggest technology companies around the nation. The venue that the event took place in was also great, a park surrounding it so we could take strolls to clear our heads. With the food service we never felt hungry and were always satisfied. Of course work didn’t finish when we retreated into our hotel rooms. We worked until 2 in the morning trying to conjure up something serviceable. The second day was also great, a presentation about entrepreneurship. The technology panels from yesterday were also present, answering our questions with the patience of saints. Even though we worked around the clock for two days, it was still really too close for comfort, a mere five minutes left, to send our presentation. However we managed to pass the eliminations and became one of the twenty teams who presented their projects. Overall the event for us was a huge success, the perfect combination of work and fun.
References
https://unity.com
https://blender.com
https://webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery/images
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/05/MIRI_and_Spitzer_comparison_image
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/
https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/images
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb/Webb_inspects_the_heart_of_the_Phantom_Galaxy
https://github.com/frostoven/BSC5P-JSON-XYZ
Tags
#software, #game, #planetarium, #JWST, #james-webb, #james-webb-space-telescope, #hubble, #NIRCam, #MIRI, #cosmos-unity