3D Holograms Allow People To Watch Massive Stars Forming Before Their Eyes

Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Inspired by a 19th century magic trick, a team of researchers from the University of Leeds have developed 3D holograms that allow people to watch massive stars forming before their eyes.

“Our research focusses on how massive stars form” she explains, “it’s inherently an abstract and complex topic to non-experts, so we developed the 3D holograms to help explain it in an easy to understand and visually engaging way,” researchers Dr Anne Buckner and her team said.

3D hologram to demonstrate massive star evolution. Credit: Royal Astronomical Society

The team have developed a one-hour workshop which takes participants through the story of star formation (using a combination of presentation slides and holograms), and then explains how the hologram technology works.

The holograms are created using an upside-down Perspex pyramid placed on a 65-inch monitor that plays a specially formatted video.

In addition to the 65-inch monitor for events at the University of Leeds, a “travel-sized” version of the kit (with a 32-inch monitor) allows the team to take their research to schools, conferences, and public events such as festivals. Participants are given the chance to make their own smart-phone size hologram creator which they can take home with them.

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“We wanted to excite school kids about astrophysics” says Buckner. Virtual reality headsets were an obvious choice, but they were too expensive, and would be impractical for large audiences, so Buckner took inspiration from an unlikely source: 19th century magic shows.

“As a fan of magic I was aware of an illusion called ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ which has been around since the 1800s” she says. “We wondered if we could adapt something similar to this to work for astronomy, and as a result we have the ability to project 3D holograms bringing millions of years of stellar evolution to life”.

‘Pepper’s Ghost’ is an illusion technique used in the theater, museums, amusement parks, television, and concerts. It was named and popularized by the English scientist John Henry Pepper (1821–1900).

It appears that the holograms are helping people to better understand the research.

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Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff