Interactive visualization and simulation of astrophysical phenomena help astronomers and enable digital planetariums and television documentaries to take their spectators on a journey into deep space to explore the astronomical wonders of our universe in 3D.

We present a flexible interactive 3D morpho-kinematical modeling application for astrophysics. Compared to other systems, our application reduces the restrictions on the physical assumptions, data type and amount that is required for a reconstruction of an object’s morphology. It is one of the first publicly available tools to apply interactive graphics to astrophysical modeling. The tool allows astrophysicists to provide a-priori knowledge about the object by interactively defining 3D structural elements. By direct comparison of model prediction with observational data, model parameters can then be automatically optimized to fit the observation. The tool has already been successfully used in a number of astrophysical research projects.

Three-dimensional models of complex astrophysical objects like galaxies or planetary nebulae have numerous applications in science, education and entertainment. The large distance of these objects, however, makes it difficult to obtain depth information, and conventional image-based 3D reconstruction algorithms and modeling tools are most often not able to faithfully reproduce their structure. Modeling is therefore typically performed manually by trained astronomers using specialized tools that incorporate additional information like spectral Doppler shift measurements into the modeling process. We present an extension to one such tool, Shape, that alleviates the most tedious part of the modeling process by automatically optimizing consistency of the models with observational data. Our contribution significantly reduces the necessary time for obtaining high-quality models and will be incorporated into future releases of Shape.

Distant astrophysical objects like planetary nebulae can normally only be observed from a single point of view. Assuming a cylindrically symmetric geometry, one can nevertheless create 3D models of those objects using tomographic methods. We solve the resulting algebraic equations efficiently on graphics hardware. Small deviations from axial symmetry are then corrected using heuristic methods, because the arising 3D models are, in general, no longer unambiguously defined. We visualize the models using real-time volume rendering. Models for actual planetary nebulae created by this approach match the observational data acquired from the earth’s viewpoint, while also looking plausible from other viewpoints for which no experimental data is available.

Distant astrophysical objects like planetary nebulae can normally only be observed from a single point of view. Assuming a cylindrically symmetric geometry, one can nevertheless create 3D models of those objects using tomographical methods. Small deviations from axial symmetry can be corrected by means of heuristic processes, though the arising 3D models are, in general, no longer unambiguously defined. Making use of Volume Rendering techniques, the created models are then visualized. Weit entfernte astrophysikalische Objekte wie planetarische Nebel sind der Beobachtung in der Regel nur aus einem einzelnen Blickwinkel zugänglich. Unter Annahme einer zylindersymmetrischen Geometrie lassen sich dennoch mit tomographischen Verfahren 3D-Modelle solcher Objekte erzeugen. Kleinere Abweichungen von der Zylindersymmetrie lassen sich mittels heuristischer Methoden im Modell ergänzen, die entstehenden 3D-Modelle sind jedoch im Allgemeinen nicht mehr eindeutig. Mittels Volume Rendering werden die entstandenen Modelle visualisiert.

Humans have been fascinated by astrophysical phenomena since prehistoric times. But while the measurement and image acquisition devices have enormously evolved by now, many restrictions still apply when capturing astronomical data. The most notable limitation is our confined vantage point in the solar system, disallowing us to observe distant objects from different points of view.

In the "Astrographics" research project, we work on various methods to overcome these limitations using computer vision and computer graphics algorithms. We have, among other things, computed plausible 3D surface data for the moon and complete 2D images of radio galaxies from sparse spatial frequency measurements.