NASA data, Hubble data, and computational data models were analyzed, translated, and rendered cinematically for this movie. The NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) worked with scientists behind NASA's Hubble Telescope to design and prepare just the right mix of cellestial characters, choreography, and spectacular display.
Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, this documentary film takes viewers through distant galaxies as it tells the story of the repair and upgrade of the Hubble telescope. While most of the film is shot with IMAX 3D cameras, including live-action footage from the space shuttle, nearly a quarter of the movie's run time is devoted to AVL's two dramatic voyages. Comprising nearly 10 minutes of the 43-minute film, the sequences use real Hubble, astronomical, and computational data in visualizations that make audiences feel they are on a space journey. AVL's sequences are extraordinarily luminous and richly detailed, the team says, because of their extremely high resolution: 5,616 x 4,096 pixels per frame, compared to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels for high-definition (HD) TV or standard theater screen.
The educational goals and new technologies pioneered for this film have had broad outreach success. Domain scientists are quoted as saying this is the first visualization of its kind, and seeing it in stereoscopic 3D makes exploration of a telescopic image broadly intuitive. "Hubble 3D" has had a world-wide attendance of more than 8 million, in 30 countries and 23 languages. A segment of the IMAX film was shown at the SIGGRAPH 2010 Electronic Theater. In 2010, "Hubble 3D" won the Giant Screen Cinema Association's "Best Film for Lifelong Learning" Award, along with "Best Cinematography" and "Best Film".
---------------
Virtual scientific visualizations created by the Advanced Visualization Lab, National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Copyright: "Hubble 3D" (c) 2010 Warner Bros. Courtesy of Warner Bros. and IMAX Corporation