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By NASA
Explore This Section Science Science Activation Exploring the Universe Through… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science 3 min read
Exploring the Universe Through Sight, Touch, and Sound
For the first time in history, we can explore the universe through a rich blend of senses—seeing, touching, and hearing astronomical data—in ways that deepen our understanding of space. While three-dimensional (3D) models are essential tools for scientific discovery and analysis, their potential extends far beyond the lab.
Space can often feel distant and abstract, like watching a cosmic show unfold on a screen light-years away. But thanks to remarkable advances in technology, software, and science, we can now transform telescope data into detailed 3D models of objects millions or even billions of miles away. These models aren’t based on imagination—they are built from real data, using measurements of motion, light, and structure to recreate celestial phenomena in three dimensions.
What’s more, we can bring these digital models into the physical world through 3D printing. Using innovations in additive manufacturing, data becomes something you can hold in your hands. This is particularly powerful for children, individuals who are blind or have low vision, and anyone with a passion for lifelong learning. Now, anyone can quite literally grasp a piece of the universe.
These models also provide a compelling way to explore concepts like scale. While a 3D print might be just four inches wide, the object it represents could be tens of millions of billions of times larger—some are so vast that a million Earths could fit inside them. Holding a scaled version of something so massive creates a bridge between human experience and cosmic reality.
In addition to visualizing and physically interacting with the data, we can also listen to it. Through a process called sonification, telescope data is translated into sound, making information accessible and engaging in a whole new way. Just like translating a language, sonification conveys the essence of astronomical data through audio, allowing people to “hear” the universe.
To bring these powerful experiences to communities across the country, NASA’s Universe of Learning, in collaboration with the Library of Congress, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, has created Mini Stars 3D Kits that explore key stages of stellar evolution. These kits have been distributed to Library of Congress state hubs across the United States to engage local learners through hands-on and multisensory discovery.
Each Mini Stars Kit includes:
Three 3D-printed models of objects within our own Milky Way galaxy: Pillars of Creation (M16/Eagle Nebula) – a stellar nursery where new stars are born Eta Carinae – a massive, unstable star system approaching the end of its life Crab Nebula – the aftermath of a supernova, featuring a dense neutron star at its core Audio files with data sonifications for each object—mathematical translations of telescope data into sound Descriptive text to guide users through each model’s scientific significance and sensory interpretation These kits empower people of all ages and abilities to explore the cosmos through touch and sound—turning scientific data into a deeply human experience. Experience your universe through touch and sound at: https://chandra.si.edu/tactile/ministar.html
Credits:
3D Prints Credit: NASA/CXC/ K. Arcand, A. Jubett, using software by Tactile Universe/N. Bonne & C. Krawczyk & Blender
Sonifications: Dr. Kimberly Arcand (CXC), astrophysicist Dr. Matt Russo, and musician Andrew Santaguida (both of the SYSTEM Sounds project)
3D Model: K. Arcand, R. Crawford, L. Hustak (STScI)
Photo of NASA’s Universe of Learning (UoL) 3D printed mini star kits sent to the Library of Congress state library hubs. The kits include 3D printed models of stars, sonifications, data converted into sound, and descriptive handouts available in both text and braille. Share
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Last Updated Apr 14, 2025 Editor NASA Science Editorial Team Related Terms
Science Activation 3D Resources Astrophysics Manufacturing, Materials, 3-D Printing The Universe Explore More
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6 Min Read NASA’s Webb Captures Neptune’s Auroras For First Time
At the left, an enhanced-color image of Neptune from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. At the right, that image is combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (Northumbria University), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC) Long-sought auroral glow finally emerges under Webb’s powerful gaze
For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured bright auroral activity on Neptune. Auroras occur when energetic particles, often originating from the Sun, become trapped in a planet’s magnetic field and eventually strike the upper atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions creates the signature glow.
In the past, astronomers have seen tantalizing hints of auroral activity on Neptune, for example, in the flyby of NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. However, imaging and confirming the auroras on Neptune has long evaded astronomers despite successful detections on Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Neptune was the missing piece of the puzzle when it came to detecting auroras on the giant planets of our solar system.
“Turns out, actually imaging the auroral activity on Neptune was only possible with Webb’s near-infrared sensitivity,” said lead author Henrik Melin of Northumbria University, who conducted the research while at the University of Leicester. “It was so stunning to not just see the auroras, but the detail and clarity of the signature really shocked me.”
The data was obtained in June 2023 using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph. In addition to the image of the planet, astronomers obtained a spectrum to characterize the composition and measure the temperature of the planet’s upper atmosphere (the ionosphere). For the first time, they found an extremely prominent emission line signifying the presence of the trihydrogen cation (H3+), which can be created in auroras. In the Webb images of Neptune, the glowing aurora appears as splotches represented in cyan.
Image A:
Neptune’s Auroras – Hubble and Webb
At the left, an enhanced-color image of Neptune from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. At the right, that image is combined with data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The cyan splotches, which represent auroral activity, and white clouds, are data from Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), overlayed on top of the full image of the planet from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Heidi Hammel (AURA), Henrik Melin (Northumbria University), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Stefanie Milam (NASA-GSFC) “H3+ has a been a clear signifier on all the gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus — of auroral activity, and we expected to see the same on Neptune as we investigated the planet over the years with the best ground-based facilities available,” explained Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Webb interdisciplinary scientist and leader of the Guaranteed Time Observation program for the Solar System in which the data were obtained. “Only with a machine like Webb have we finally gotten that confirmation.”
The auroral activity seen on Neptune is also noticeably different from what we are accustomed to seeing here on Earth, or even Jupiter or Saturn. Instead of being confined to the planet’s northern and southern poles, Neptune’s auroras are located at the planet’s geographic mid-latitudes — think where South America is located on Earth.
This is due to the strange nature of Neptune’s magnetic field, originally discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989 which is tilted by 47 degrees from the planet’s rotation axis. Since auroral activity is based where the magnetic fields converge into the planet’s atmosphere, Neptune’s auroras are far from its rotational poles.
The ground-breaking detection of Neptune’s auroras will help us understand how Neptune’s magnetic field interacts with particles that stream out from the Sun to the distant reaches of our solar system, a totally new window in ice giant atmospheric science.
From the Webb observations, the team also measured the temperature of the top of Neptune’s atmosphere for the first time since Voyager 2’s flyby. The results hint at why Neptune’s auroras remained hidden from astronomers for so long.
“I was astonished — Neptune’s upper atmosphere has cooled by several hundreds of degrees,” Melin said. “In fact, the temperature in 2023 was just over half of that in 1989.”
Through the years, astronomers have predicted the intensity of Neptune’s auroras based on the temperature recorded by Voyager 2. A substantially colder temperature would result in much fainter auroras. This cold temperature is likely the reason that Neptune’s auroras have remained undetected for so long. The dramatic cooling also suggests that this region of the atmosphere can change greatly even though the planet sits over 30 times farther from the Sun compared to Earth.
Equipped with these new findings, astronomers now hope to study Neptune with Webb over a full solar cycle, an 11-year period of activity driven by the Sun’s magnetic field. Results could provide insights into the origin of Neptune’s bizarre magnetic field, and even explain why it’s so tilted.
“As we look ahead and dream of future missions to Uranus and Neptune, we now know how important it will be to have instruments tuned to the wavelengths of infrared light to continue to study the auroras,” added Leigh Fletcher of Leicester University, co-author on the paper. “This observatory has finally opened the window onto this last, previously hidden ionosphere of the giant planets.”
These observations, led by Fletcher, were taken as part of Hammel’s Guaranteed Time Observation program 1249. The team’s results have been published in Nature Astronomy.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Media Contacts
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Hannah Braun- hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Science
Henrik Melin (Northumbria University)
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Last Updated Mar 25, 2025 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Astrophysics Goddard Space Flight Center Neptune Planetary Science Planets Science & Research The Solar System View the full article
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