High-Level Project Summary
This is a web app that teaches people why some stars twinkle at night.It begins by narrating that although we can see stars with our eyes or our telescopes on earth, these stars cannot objectively be said to be variable because of earth's atmosphere.We then allow the user to select a telescope (teaching them indirectly about the various space telescopes used by various space agencies to study stellar variability) and we then travel to space, beyond the limitations of earth's atmosphere, and we survey the universe for variable stars.Some stars will blink and when the user clicks on them, a modal then opens that gives information about the type of star and the reason for its variability.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Technology
This project was built using React (JavaScript framework) and Material UI with the starry background as well as the animation built using a canvas library - Konva.
Story
It begins by giving a brief intro - telling the user what a variable star is and why it is important that we go to space to actually study these stars rather than viewing them from the ground. Also it explains why stellar variability is important to scientists and everyone in order to understand both the stars and other planets within and outside our galaxy. This intro is delivered in bits, with the user able to click next and previous OR it can be skipped totally...
The user then selects a telescope amongst a range of choices. These are space telescopes provided for us in the resources we can choose from. It is meant to educate the user on the various telescopes that has been used in the past and are still being used by NASA and various collaborating space agencies to study stellar variability (These telescopes are Kepler, Tess [NASA], Most and BRITE [CSA] Hubble [NASA and ESA]).
The user chooses a telescope and then we leave the earth and go to space to study stellar variability. Visually the stars appear bigger, representing the change in perspective from earth to space and the stellar pulsations appear clearer.
Upon reaching space, a random number of stars from the entire multitude of stars will blink/pulsate. These stars will have different types of variability (ranging from classical and dwarf nova variables, cepheid variables, eclipsing binaries and planetary transiting variables). Some variability are quite rare such as classical "Super Nova" so to find such stars by clicking on them are rare also.
The app also gives count of how many of the various types of variable stars are found.
After interaction with the app for a brief period of time, the user will (hopefully) have a clearer understanding of the various reasons stars twinkle and better appreciate the various equipment deployed to study stellar variability.
In keeping up with the this year's theme, "Make Space", the app is also made to support up to 10 different languages in order to reduce language barriers and reach as many people as possible.
Space Agency Data
For description of the some variable stars and other information, particularly the Cepheid Variables, Cataclysmic variables and Light Curves - Resources from NASA was used. Also The Gifs and videos that described the type of variable stars are also from NASA.
The various telescopes used in the app were from the following space agencies:
- Kepler Space Telescope - NASA
- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite - NASA
- Hubble Telescope - ESA
- MOST Space Telescope - CSA
- BRITE Satellite Constellation - CSA
Hackathon Journey
It was a bit hectic and energizing. As deadlines were coming closer, many features proposed kept dropping along the way. The app was planned to be sort of a game - Much Exciting, animation filled, showing not just stars but spaceships, space junks, asteroids and whatnot. It was to be where one can discover stuff and get rewarded with points.
But even building the simple components took time, there were bugs along the way, new libraries to learn, collaboration was even more difficult as we kept waiting on each other to build different parts.
Something we learnt is to always clarify ahead of time so both parties know exactly what is going on to avoid confusion later on.
At the end we were not able to implement the choose your telescope part. But at least we included it as part of the detailed project description.
References
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/toolkits/spacecraft-icons
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/toolkits/spacecraft-icons
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/cepheids.html,
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/most/,
https://donnees-data.asc-csa.gc.ca/dataset/b9e38866-c7b0-4314-a640-c9c08a2a7658,
https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/timing1.html,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cepheid_variable
https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/cataclysmic_variables.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataclysmic_variable_star, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_nova
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star#Eclipsing_binaries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_star#Planetary_transits
Tags
#star, #twinkle-twinkle-little-star, #spaceapps, #hubble, #kepler, #tess, #most, #brite, #variable-star, #supernova, #nova, #pulsating