Related Projects
The Astronomical Medicine Project is only one team within a growing community of researchers using and developing astronomical 3D tools. The compilation below is a first attempt to outline this community. This list started based on the projects presented during the ADASS 2007 conference, and is thus not at all intended to be unbiased or complete.
Please contact Jens Kauffmann, jkauffmann@cfa.harvard.edu, if you have suggestions for further additions to this list.
Astronomical 3D Software Projects
3D Slicer
3D Slicer is a medical visualization tool that is presently being adopted for astronomy by the AM project. It is presently primarily taylored for the analysis of spectral FITS data cubes. Future versions will support arbitrary dimensions and input of tabulated data.
rendering: surface rendering, 3D markers
detailed information: our dedicated Slicer pages
OsiriX
OsiriX is another medical visualization tool that is used by the AM project for astronomical data exploration. It is used to explore spectral data cubes.
rendering: volume rendering
detailed information: our dedicated OsiriX pages
VisIVO
VisIVO is a graphical exploration tool for Virtual Observatory data. It supports FITS data cubes and tabulated data. It is PLASTIC compatibel.
rendering: surface rendering, volume rendering, 3D markers
detailed information: http://visivo.cineca.it/
S2PLOT
S2PLOT is a three-dimensional plotting library. The S2PLOT library was written in C and can be used with C, C++ and FORTRAN programs.
rendering: surface rendering, volume rendering, 3D markers
detailed information: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/s2plot/
GAIA 3D
GAIA is an image display and analysis tool. It provides the usual facilities of astronomical image display tools, plus the ability to query on-line (WWW) catalogues. Recent versions also feature 3D rendering.
rendering: not known
detailed information: http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~pdraper/gaia/gaia3d/index.html
TopCat
TOPCAT is an interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Its aim is to provide most of the facilities that astronomers need for analysis and manipulation of source catalogues and other tables.
rendering: 3D markers
detailed information: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Astronomical Research Groups using 3D Visualization
COMPLETE & Astronomical Medicine Project
The COMPLETE survey of star-forming regions uses 3D visualization to explore the kinematics of 3 nearby (< 300 pc) molecular clouds. COMPLETE directly collaborates with the Astronomical Medicine Project.