Virtual Museum for Meteorites : accessibility from new platforms and devices

Abstract

The Virtual Museum for Meteorites (Figure 1) was created in 2011 as a web tool for students, educators and researchers [1, 2]. One of the aims of this online resource is to promote the interest in meteorites. Thus, the role of meteorites in education and outreach is fundamental, as these are very valuable tools to promote the public's interest in Astronomy and Planetary Sciences. Meteorite exhibitions reveal the fascination of students, educators and even researchers for these extraterrestrial rocks and how these can explain many key questions related to the origin and evolution of our Solar System. This virtual museum takes advantage of HTML and related technologies to overcome local boundaries and offer its contents for a global audience. However, as new devices and platforms are available, it is more challenging to create web contents that can reach the widest audience possible. In particular, the recent limitations imposed by some devices and web browsers to previous multimedia formats (such as SWF files) have resulted in a deep modification of the technology employed by the Virtual Museum for Meteorites. A description of the recent developments performed in the framework of this virtual museum is given in this work.