Rob Cockcroft
3D Theatre Show: Extreme Alien Worlds -
A 3D Voyage Through and Beyond our Solar System

Explore extreme environments of strange and exciting planets and moons in our Solar System - all in 3D. With a combination of short 3D movies and interactive sessions with 3D slides, you'll learn about Venus, Mars, Io, Europa and Titan. We'll also introduce extrasolar planets, the various methods used to search for them, and the discoveries made so far. How did life start on Earth, and can we find it elsewhere in the Solar System or places beyond? Shows last one hour, and includes time for a question-and-answer session.

3D films are increasingly being used in the classroom as teaching tools for students as well as for pure research purposes. The data for the movies was generated in super computers at the Swinburne University of Technologies’ Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, then shaped into animated three-dimensional form. Seeing planets you can almost touch, or having space particles whiz past your head develops an appreciation for the vastness of space and the extreme conditions on these alien worlds.

This presentation is in the 3D theatre in MDCL (Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery).

Rob Cockcroft is an astrophysics graduate student in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster University. His research focuses on star clusters orbiting the nearby Triangulum Galaxy. He is also the Coordinator of McMaster's William J. McCallion Planetarium which offers over 300 public shows per year. Rob has taken a lead role in various astronomy outreach initiatives including developing planetarium shows which take advantage of a new digital projector and which are relevant to the astronomy curriculum in grades 6, 9 and 12, and coordinating outreach activities during the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Recently, Rob has been seconded to the Origins Institute at McMaster to develop and coordinate interactive 3D presentations in McMaster's 3D Theatre