About the Project
Project 2 deals with building a Unity based application of a virtual universe that displays exoplanetary systems in 2D and 3D views on the VIVE.
This system allows a user to experience a virtual space, one that he can 'fly through' and also interact with using wands, something that contemporary planetariums don't usually provide.
It works by reading exoplanetary systems data from a file (taken from NASA's exoplanetary archive: ) and plotting them on 2D and 3D views. By having the solar system always in view in 3D, users can compare other systems with ours to understand and see the relative sizes of various stars, planets and their orbits.
While many of these systems have planets that are either too close or too far from their parent star to hold life, there are some peculiar systems with planets residing in the so-called 'Goldilocks' zone or the habitable zone of their star and hence they have a faint possibility of supporting life.
This project was done in a team for the CS 491 Virtual and Augmented Reality course conducted by Professor Andrew Johnson at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Fall 2017.
YouTube Video of Application
Link to video: https://youtu.be/PUNXtTE5EzQ