The Aalto Virtual Planetarium is a tour of the inner Solar System, with the grand structures of planetary magnetospheres show through the eyes of a space physicist.
Instructions for the Windows version
1. Open the zip file.
2. Start the program by clicking the file planetarium.exe.
Hint No 1: Please read the instruction table below, which can also obtained by using h-letter quick key.
Hint No 2: Please keep the sound on because the program includes a dedicated "space sound environment".
Instructions: English
Instructions: Finnish
Instructions: Swedish
A public version of the latest Windows version is availabe here:
The work contains material from multiple sources, see
for details.
Contact point: Esa Kallio, esa.kallio@aalto.fi
Aalto Virtual Planetarium v1.0
The Aalto Virtual Planetarium is a tour of the inner Solar System, with the grand structures of planetary magnetospheres show through the eyes of a space physicist. Aimed at education and outreach, the immersive virtual reality experience demonstrates Aalto space research, including the plasma physics of the Sun, magnetosphere of inner planets, the Finland100 satellite and cometary environments. Complex structures and spatial scales of magnetospheric physics are intuitively presented, with plans for research tools of 3D simulation data based on the system.
A public version of the software (executable package for Windows 10 and SteamVR) is available here:
The work contains material from multiple sources, listed below.
Funded in part by the Suomi100 satellite project, the demonstrator has been used to demonstrate the capabilities of the jubilee satellite, see the the Suomi100 satellite site, including the following Tiedetuubi short (in Finnish):
Credits, acknowledgements and sources
Developed by
Aalto University
Built on Unity
Simulations
Solar dynamo simulations
Maarit & Petri Käpylä
Aalto University & Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung
PENCIL MHD code.
Mercury, magnetosphere
Riku Järvinen
Aalto University
Visualization: Riku Järvinen & Markku Alho
Hybrid description, cloud-in-cell code RHybrid.
Venus, magnetosphere
Markku Alho
Aalto University
Hybrid description, cloud-in-cell code MULTI.
Earth, magnetosphere
Antti Lakka
Aalto University
Simulation performed with GUMICS-4 at Aalto University. The original GUMICS-4 simulation code is by Pekka Janhunen, Finnish Meteorological Institute
Earth, Radio signal propagation
Mathias Fontell
Aalto University
Simulation performed with a novel raytracer code by Mathias Fontell.
Comet 67P, magnetosphere
Cyril Simon Wedlund
Aalto University
Hybrid description, cloud-in-cell code MULTI.
MULTI
Esa Kallio
Aalto University
Space plasma simulation platform
space.aalto.fi
Spacecraft and models
Suomi100 - Finland 100
Aalto University.
Thanks to Arno Alho for the spacecraft model and Petri Koskimaa for input.
ESA/Rosetta probe
Eyes on the Solar System. NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Imagery
Starmap and constellations
NASA Deep Star Maps. Public domain.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Constellation figures based on those developed for the IAU by Alan MacRobert of Sky and Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg).
Sun global 304Å 81-day video
STEREO and SDO composite at 304Å wavelength.
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, de-flickering by M. Alho.
Mercury: Global satellite imagery
NASA MESSENGER, global mosaic at 500m resolution, 2013. Public domain.
Venus: Global satellite imagery
Clouds based on NASA Mariner 10 imagery. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Surface pseudocolor from NASA MAGELLAN radio measurements. Public domain.
Earth: Global satellite imagery
NASA Visible Earth, Blue Marble & Blue Marble Next Generation. Public domain.
R. Stöckli, E. Vermote, N. Saleous, R. Simmon and D. Herring (2005). The Blue Marble Next Generation - A true color earth dataset including seasonal dynamics from MODIS. Published by the NASA Earth Observatory. Corresponding author: rstockli@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov.
Earth: Regional satellite imagery - Croatia
ESA Sentinel-2 via Sentinel Hub EO Browser. CC-BY 4.0.
Mars: Global satellite imagery
NASA AMES/PDS, Viking MDIM2.1 Colorized Global Mosaic
Comet 67P: Global imagery and model
Model and textures derived by the OSIRIS team at Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, adapted for the demonstrator.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Imagery by ESA/Rosetta, CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Radio data
Space Audio recordings
Original space audio recordings provided courtesy of NASA and Donald Gurnett of The University of Iowa. CC-BY 3.0.
http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio
Background hiss
Esa Kallio, 7 m antenna radio background.
Background music
solar fractal by Quarkstar (c) copyright 2018, CC BY 3.0
http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Quarkstar/57874
