A new NASA project lets Instagram users experience the wonders of the universe as observed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other space telescopes. It’s an augmented reality (AR) filter called the “Instagram experience” that captures stunningly beautiful celestial bodies and puts them right next to you on camera.
This includes the remains of stars that were destroyed in massive supernova explosions and dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust where stars are actively being forged. The AR filter has been added to Instagram to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chandra, NASA’s flagship X-ray space telescope, which launched on July 23, 1999.
To use the Instagram Chandra experience, search for the account “NASAChandraXray”. Select the effects options (the tab that looks like three four-pointed stars) and select the one you want. You can then either save the effect to your camera roll and apply it to your stories, or you can select the ‘Try’ button for instant access.
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“We are excited to bring data from space to Earth in this way,” Kimberly Arcand, an imaging and emerging technology scientist at the Chandra X-ray Center, said in a statement. “Enabling people to access space data on their phones and through AR brings the incredible discoveries of Chandra literally at their fingertips.”
What celestial bodies can you bring down to Earth?
The Instagram experience was generated using 3D models created from Chandra data and observations from other telescopes. It also took some mathematical modeling to focus these cosmic muses.
Such 3D modeling of objects, usually seen as 2D projections on the celestial sphere above the Earth, has only become possible in recent years thanks to new tools and techniques. This has led to an explosion in the advancement of data-driven 3D models of distant celestial bodies.
As this technology has boomed, the opportunities offered to the public through virtual, augmented and augmented reality have also grown. This program extends these experiences beyond the solar system. It applies this innovative concept to the depths of space.
We won’t spoil all the celestial bodies you can experience with this new NASA program. You’ll want to explore for yourself. However, we will offer you a few objects to get you started.
The Vela pulsar is visible as a stunning pair of purple arcs with a faint band running through their centers. When you grab this object and drag it from its place of residence 1,000 light years away, you will actually see a neutron star that formed in the collapse of a massive star.
Although this neutron star is only about 12 miles (20 kilometers) across, it has a mass about twice that of the sun. This means that the matter it contains is so dense that a tablespoon of it brought to Earth would weigh over 1 billion tons. This is heavier than Mount Everest.
The Vela pulsar rotates so fast that it completes 11 revolutions per second. This means it moves faster than the blades of a helicopter. And as it does so, it shoots jets from the poles at about 70% the speed of light. These rays that create a long near-light range in the universe.
The birth of a neutron star like the one at the heart of the Vela pulsar is accompanied by a massive cosmic explosion called a supernova, which tears a massive star apart as the star’s core decays.
NASA’s new Instagram experience lets users explore one of the starkest examples of such a star’s death.
The Tycho supernova remnant, also known as SN 1572 or B Cassiopeiae (B Cas), is the name given to supernova remnants located between 8,000 and 10,000 light-years from Earth. First observed in 1572, this supernova was named after one of its discoverers, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. It is believed to be a Type Ia supernova, which is slightly different from the explosions that represent the birth of a neutron star.
Type Ia supernovae occur when stellar remnants, called white dwarfs, extract material from another star. This matter builds up on the white dwarf until it causes a nuclear explosion that completely destroys the stellar remnant.
The Instagram experience also includes the remains of another dead star. This is found in the form of the Helix Nebula, an expanding cloud of stellar material located about 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.
The Helix Nebula is an example of a planetary nebula (which confusingly has nothing to do with planets), an expanding envelope of gas and dust that were once the outer layers of a dying star. At the heart of this material, marked in the Chandra image as a purple blob, is an explosive stellar core
The Cat’s Eye Nebula is also a planetary nebula, but it is located 3,262 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Draco. This planetary nebula can be seen in exquisite detail, revealing twisted spirals of dust and gas and expanding shells of what was once stellar material.
It’s not all about the visuals with this NASA Instagram experience, though. The program also contains space data transformed into sound through a process called “sonification”. This was made possible as part of the Chandra Accessibility Program, which has been running for the past four years.
This isn’t the first time NASA has partnered with Instagram to create a space experience. Users of the social media platform have previously been able to explore the inner workings of NASA’s mission control, travel to low Earth orbit with the International Space Station (ISS) and traverse Mars with the Perseverance rover.
“These Chandra experiences on Instagram are another way to share this space data with the public,” Arcand said. “We hope this will help reach new audiences, especially those who like to receive information through social media.”
