**WorldWide Telescope (WWT)** is an open-source, cross-platform visualization system developed originally by Microsoft Research (2008) and now maintained under a governance model involving the American Astronomical Society and NumFOCUS - wikipedia 
TED roy_gould_curtis_wong_a_preview_of_the_worldwide_telescope A preview of the WorldWide Telescope (2008)
- A **web-based** interactive globe for Earth, the sky, and planets using WebGL. - A **Windows desktop client** for high-performance visualization. - Support for astronomical imagery, panoramas, solar system models, tours, and more.
# Maintenance & Community - WWT is actively maintained, promoted by AAS and supported by entities like NumFOCUS, NSF, and Microsoft. - The **WebGL engine** is modular and shared between the web client and packages like *pywwt* (for Jupyter integration). - Its GitHub repository (WWT Web Client) is public, MIT-licensed, and regularly updated.
# Web Functionality - A fully interactive, responsive web app (usable across modern desktop and mobile browsers). - Offers modes like *Sky*, *Earth*, *Planets*, *Solar System*, *Panoramas*, and *Sandbox*, each providing different spatial views and data layering options. - Rich support for **Tours**—scripted, multimedia presentations that guide users through astronomical or planetary scenes.
# Developer-Friendly API - The **WWT WebGL Engine**, accessible via `wwtsdk.js`, allows embedding WWT windows in external webpages. - Ideal for building educational or research tools, especially when paired with Python via *pywwt*.
# Scientific Use Cases - Used widely in planetariums, academia, and outreach environments. - The *pywwt* package enables astronomers to embed WWT visualizations in Jupyter notebooks for interactive data exploration. - WWT 2022 release introduced expanded datasets, better data import pipelines, and enhanced tour sharing.
# Related 3D Globe Visualization Tools | Tool | Highlights | |---------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------| | Globe.gl | Lightweight, Three.js-based globe engine. Embeddable, mobile-friendly, with data overlays and easy animation. | | CesiumJS | Full-featured geospatial engine with terrain, 3D Tiles, and high performance. | | NASA WorldWind | Flexible web globe for mapping and visualization (heavier). | | OpenWebGlobe | Open-source SDK for large-scale geospatial data (less actively maintained). | | ESASky | ESA’s sky browser for astronomy data with multi-wavelength support. |
WWT uniquely excels in astronomical storytelling and guided experiences with its Tours, while Globe.gl is more minimal but highly customizable for data overlays on Earth-like spheres.
# When to Use WWT Use WWT when you need: - Astronomy or planetary data visualization across devices (browser or desktop). - Interactive tours or guided multimedia narratives. - A web-embeddable, well-supported engine with open-source foundations.
# Summary **WorldWide Telescope** is a robust, feature-rich platform for interactive astronomy visualization. Maintained actively under open governance, it supports modern web and research workflows. It's complementary to tools like Globe.gl—more heavyweight, but unmatched for immersive, guided cosmic storytelling.
https://projects.wwtambassadors.org/solar-system-explorer/#
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WorldWide Telescope. As you can see standard tutorials do not fit well in narrow screens. But it plays well - preview it here in an exteranl tab wwtambassadors.org
YOUTUBE PLAYLIST PLLuZ2H5bmtN6NX1UFcBkdVibLEH7ciINe
Life in the Universe | The Search for Exoplanets - youtube