Abstract:
The 3D visualization of astronomical nebulae is a challenging problem since
only a single 2D projection is observable from our fixed vantage point on
Earth. We attempt to generate plausible and realistic looking volumetric
visualizations via a tomographic approach that exploits the spherical or
axial symmetry prevalent in some relevant types of nebulae. Different types
of symmetry can be implemented by using different randomized distributions of
virtual cameras. Our approach is based on an iterative compressed sensing
reconstruction algorithm that we extend with support for position-dependent
volumetric regularization and linear equality constraints. We present a
distributed multi-GPU implementation that is capable of reconstructing
high-resolution datasets from arbitrary projections. Its robustness and
scalability are demonstrated for astronomical imagery from the Hubble Space
Telescope. The resulting volumetric data is visualized using direct volume
rendering. Compared to previous approaches, our method preserves a much
higher amount of detail and visual variety in the 3D visualization,
especially for objects with only approximate symmetry.