JEAV will be a tool that, as the name suggests, will present visualizations of astrophysics concepts, simulations, and/or data. I will code the user interface and some of the visualization in Java. I will also likely implement a tool called ION (IDL On the Net). It allows Java apps to communicate with a server upon which IDL (Interactive Data Language) commands may be executed.

It is my hope to create a prototype of a tool that would be used by Astronomy/Astrophysics educators in their courses. They should be able to create lessons and/or present data and images with it. It should be web deployable so students can use it anywhere and on a thin client.

JEAV will be written in Java so as to make it available in a web browser, if desired, and more generally to make it portable. Java can be used to create quality user interfaces. Java also has the advantage of handling both media (images, sounds, and 3D models) and computational/numerical resources. Though Java is not extremely effective as a computational tool, it is nonetheless capable of such functionality. The heavier number crunching will be done server side via ION.

ION is a product of Research Systems Incorporated, creators of IDL. IDL can create visualizations and perform computation, as well as communicate with FORTRAN programs, which may be implemented to perform more intensive numerical simulations. ION allows a Java applet to communicate with an IDL session. In this way, computation and preparation of a visualization can be performed entirely on the server, leaving the client only responsible for the actual rendering of the visualization.

I would like to focus particularly on the use of Java3D. Java3D is a recent release from Sun. With it, interactive three-dimensional virtual environments (virtual reality) can be created. I believe that the marriage of virtual reality and the web will open some interesting doors for scientific visualization and communication. This early test of that marriage will help guide future efforts, and hopefully lead to effective educational tools.

Two primary content models: "museum" and "laboratory":

• Museum - The user browses static content. This content could be image data, 2D simulation or measured data, or non-interactive VR (either 3D data, or geometric models).

• Laboratory - The user interacts with the content. This could mean simply setting up the parameters of a simulation, or it could be dynamically interacting with a simulation in progress. For instance, in a lesson on gravitational fields, the user could simply choose where and how massive each object is in a system of gravitationally interacting objects; or they could "fly around" in such a system in a virtual spacecraft, experiencing the gravitational field at each point as a literal "tug’ on their ship.

I favor the Laboratory model, for the purposes of demonstrating the potential of this technology. However, the museum model could prove to be of equal utility to a classroom, depending on the situation.

As far as the actual astrophysics I would like to present, I should consider concepts which this technology can be used to describe in a way that significantly exceeds what can be taught in the classroom (i.e., it should be something worth going to all this trouble for.) For instance, general relativity is difficult to visualize, and is not easily presentable at the blackboard. Using an interactive 3D environment could prove exceedingly useful. On the other hand, there would be little or no reason to use this technology to explain the classification of stars. In this case a textbook or static web page is sufficient.