Refine
Has Fulltext
- no (2)
Language
- English (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (2)
Keywords
- Exploratory interfaces (1)
- H II regions (1)
- Media retrieval (1)
- Multidimensional scaling (1)
- User study (1)
- X-rays: ISM (1)
- X-rays: individual (Carina) (1)
- X-rays: stars (1)
- stars: massive (1)
- stars: pre-main sequence (1)
Institute
We compare Visual Berrypicking, an interactive approach allowing users to explore large and highly faceted information spaces using similarity-based two-dimensional maps, with traditional browsing techniques. For large datasets, current projection methods used to generate maplike overviews suffer from increased computational costs and a loss of accuracy resulting in inconsistent visualizations. We propose to interactively align inexpensive small maps, showing local neighborhoods only, which ideally creates the impression of panning a large map. For evaluation, we designed a web-based prototype for movie exploration and compared it to the web interface of The Movie Database (TMDb) in an online user study. Results suggest that users are able to effectively explore large movie collections by hopping from one neighborhood to the next. Additionally, due to the projection of movie similarities, interesting links between movies can be found more easily, and thus, compared to browsing serendipitous discoveries are more likely.
The Great Nebula in Carina provides an exceptional view into the violent massive star formation and feedback that typifies giant H II regions and starburst galaxies. We have mapped the Carina star-forming complex in X-rays, using archival Chandra data and a mosaic of 20 new 60 ks pointings using the Chandra X-ray Observatory's Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, as a testbed for understanding recent and ongoing star formation and to probe Carina's regions of bright diffuse X-ray emission. This study has yielded a catalog of properties of > 14,000 X-ray point sources;> 9800 of them have multiwavelength counterparts. Using Chandra's unsurpassed X-ray spatial resolution, we have separated these point sources from the extensive, spatially-complex diffuse emission that pervades the region; X-ray properties of this diffuse emission suggest that it traces feedback from Carina's massive stars. In this introductory paper, we motivate the survey design, describe the Chandra observations, and present some simple results, providing a foundation for the 15 papers that follow in this special issue and that present detailed catalogs, methods, and science results.