One module is designed to graphically illustrate a method to find out where our solar system is located in the galaxy. Is it at the galactic center or elsewhere? And if we are not at the center, in which direction in the sky is the center? The way this can be determined is by counting the number of globular clusters in different directions, until they are approximately equal.

The virtual environment shows the user a view of the galaxy and invites the user to move around until she thinks she has reached the center of the galaxy. This is determined by looking around and estimating at what position the number of globular clusters is roughly the same in all directions. Although in a 3D environment the user is only allowed to move in an xy-plane that cuts through the galaxy. The user does have a choice of views. The web environment will be an ActiveX plugin. Principal programmer: Ioulia Popenko. Principal designer: Janet Esquirol.

title page

inside the galaxy

alternate view of galaxy

Principal Participants:

  Leslie Brown: Associate Professor of Physics

  Janet Esquirol: Studio Art

  Ioulia Popenko: Computer Science

Courses where Module will be Used:

Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology (AST110), possibly Teaching and Learning in the Content Area (EDU300) and Mathematics and Science in the Elementary and Middle School (EDU304)