Dr. Ka Chun Yu joined the Museum as part of a team tasked with creating planetarium software to visualize the known universe. He has produced movies and live presentations including Earth systems programs for the digital dome and continued to create new planetarium visualizations and other educational content. He has conducted educational research to study the use of digital planetariums for astronomy education. Ka Chun’s astronomical research is in observational star formation, looking at outflows from protostars and studying the properties of young stellar clusters. He has been involved in observing programs with the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as ground-based optical, infrared, and radio observatories around the world.
Digital Earth Academy
Digital Earth Academy was an edition of the acclaimed Digital Earth series produced especially for students. Each month, we examined a different aspect of our dynamic planet: landscapes and landforms, human impacts and achievements, and much more. With stunning visualizations, interactive polls, and real-time Q&A, students made observations, comparisons and connections and gained a new perspective of the Earth. Watch previous editions on the YouTube channel.
Featured Publications
Yu, K.C., Sahami, K., Dove, J. Learning about the scale of the solar system using digital planetarium visualizations. American Journal of Physics 85, 550 (2017). DOI: 10.1119/1.4984812
Yu, K. C., Sahami, K., Denn, G., Sahami, V., & Sessions, L. C. (2016). Immersive Planetarium Visualizations For Teaching Solar System Moon Concepts To Undergraduates. Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education (JAESE), 3 (2), 93-110. 10.19030/jaese.v3i2.9843
Yu, K. C., Sahami, K., Sahami, V., & Sessions, L. C. (2015). Using A Digital Planetarium For Teaching Seasons To Undergraduates. Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education (JAESE), 2 (1), 33-50. 10.19030/jaese.v2i1.9276
Shuping, R.Y., Vacca, W.D., Kassis, M., Yu, K.C. Spectral classification of the brightest objects in the galactic star-forming region W40. The Astronomical Journal 144: 4. DOI: 10.1088/0004-6256/144/4/116
A New Horizons New Year
The Ultima Thule Flyby