Science and Society

This is a tour developed by Professor Alyssa Goodman at Harvard University. This tour introduces cepheid variable stars and how the relationship between their pulsation periods and their luminosities has helped to estimate cosmic distances. Credits Alyssa...

A brief tour of the X-Ray sky and a look at sources of high energy X-Rays Credits Curtis Wong, MSR

Explore the Universe through the eyes of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. WISE surveyed the entire sky in infrared light. Credits Nancy Alima Ali, Bryan Mendez, Kyle Fricke, UC Berkeley, CSE@SSL

An introduction to the terminology of volcanism and a walkthrough of some of history's most famous volcanic eruptions. Tour length: 9:20 Credits Virginia Marcus, Harvard College Peter Turcan, Microsoft Research

This tour discusses the history and significance of the Transit of Venus in front of the Sun, an event which allowed astronomers to determine the size scale of our solar system. Credits Jonathan Jackson, Harvard College

This tour explores the possibilities of the space elevator. Credits Tour created by: Phil Rosenfield Music: Phil Rosenfield Narration: Peter Turcan

Explains how astronomers are able to detect extrasolar planets and some findings from the TrES project and the promise of the Kepler telescope. Narrated and produced by Sanjana Sharma. This tour has a nice animation sequence that shows how an orbiting...

A visit to Pluto using WWT's new 3D mode, showing some of the reasons why it was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Credits Dinoj Surendan

A tour of Sloan Digital Sky Survey objects, highlighting features in their spectra. Credits Mark SubbaRao, Adler Planetarium