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M. Magnor, K. Hildebrand, A. Lintu, A. Hanson, "Reflection Nebula Visualization," Proc. IEEE Visualization (Vis'05), Minneapolis, USA, pp. 255-262, October 2005
Stars form in dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust.
The residual dust surrounding a young star scatters and diffuses its
light, making the star's "cocoon" of dust observable from Earth. The
resulting structures, called reflection nebulae , are commonly
very colorful in appearance due to wavelength-dependent effects in the
scattering and extinction of light. The intricate interplay of
scattering and extinction cause the color hues, brightness
distributions, and the apparent shapes of such nebulae to vary greatly
with viewpoint.
We have developed an interactive visualization tool for rendering
physically correct representations of arbitrary dust distributions
surrounding a central illuminating star. Our algorithm can be used to
create virtual fly-throughs of a reflection nebula for either
interactive desktop visualizations or scientifically accurate
animations for planetarium shows. Besides being able to take the
measured data from a given reflection nebula as input and producing a
plausible simulation of the nebula's appearance from arbitrary
viewpoints, the system also supports the investigation of the visual
effects of changing a nebula's physical parameters. Our tool permits
the exploration of alternate plausible models for reflection nebulae,
and exploit visualization to gain a deeper and more intuitive
understanding of the complex interaction of light and dust in real
astrophysical settings.
Screenshots of a fly-through sequence:
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Physical parameter variations:
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| a=0.6, g=0.6, R_V=5.0, O-class star | a=0.6, g=0.6, R_V=3.1, O-class star | a=0.6, g=0.6, R_V=5.0, G2V-class star | |
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| a=0.6, g=0.6, R_V=5.0, O-class star, without global radiative transfer | a=0.8, g=0.6, R_V=5.0, O-class star | a=0.6, g=0.8, R_V=5.0, O-class star |
Real nebula reconstruction:
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| NGC 7023 calibrated image (color composite) | reconstructed model rendered from same viewpoint | reconstructed model rendered from different perspective |