Dozens of subatomic particles from natural radioactivity crosses our bodies every second. The cloud chamber reveals the tracks of these particles in a vapor of supersaturated alcohol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar, galactic and extra-galactic cosmic-rays interact with the Earth's atmosphere at high altitude and produce showers of secondary particles, which propagate down to the ground like in a pool. The muon telescope detects heavy electrons from these particle showers revealing the existence of cosmic-rays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual Reality for Teaching

We believe that VR is an exceptional immersive tool for teaching in complement to traditional lectures as well as for outreach. VR provides feelings and sensations to the users helping them retaining information. As a first step, we are developping a virtual environment for teaching astronomy. With VR the users can have a journey through the solar system in a few minutes at no costs. VR makes accessible what would be otherwise unreachable.
 
 

A Virtual Environment for Teaching Astronomy

We are developping a comprehensive virtual environment in which the users can navigate in space and time either freely or in guided modes for outreach or lectures. The environnement includes music as well as audio and visual comments to reinforce the user experience. Our virtual environment is a mix of real images from space and ground telescopes when data are available (e.g., topography maps of the Earth and the Moon, maps of all the planets in the solar system, sky maps at various frequencies) and of simulations (e.g., the Sun, our Galaxy). VR has many advantages compared to planetariums: (i) Cost: only several hundred dollars per setup; (ii) Space: can be used in any classroom and even in small spaces; and (iii) Provide a real 3-dimensional view of the universe with no blocking.

Trailer of our Virtual Reality Astrophysics Environment.

"Fly Me to the Moon!"

Did you dream to be an astronaut and travel to the Moon on an Apollo mission? Our virtual environment permits travels in space and time. You can navigate through the solar system and be anywhere you want at anytime. You can recreate the journey to the Moon with the Apollo 8 mission crew and watch an Earthrise from the Moon orbit in the Apollo command module. You can walk on the Moon with Commander Neil Amstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin when the Eagle landed on our satellite at 8:17 UTC on July 20, 1969, and observed the Earth from the Moon ground. You can also be Apollo 11 command module pilot, Michael Collins, and observe the ground from Moon orbit. And why not to prepare the futur journeys--and maybe your next vaccations--to the Moon or to Mars?

Watch the Light from the Universe at All Frequencies

Observe the light from the Universe as you were floating in space somewhere in the Solar System. This is a unique experience that few astronomers have seen. Switch between radio wavelenghts, microwaves, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-rays, and to gamma-rays. All skymaps are data collected from ground or space-based observatories. Look toward the galactic center and observe the dark clouds that obstruct our view of the croweded galactic plane. Overlay the hydrogen map to see that those dark clouds are very bright and, therefore, made of hydrogen. Switch to the infrared map to see deeper through the dark clouds. With X-rays look at objects in the galactic plane. Using the gamma-ray sky map, observe the most energetic objects in the universe such as stellar-mass or supermassive black holes in the Milky Way or in very distant galaxy when the Universe was still young. Finally, watch the first image of the Universe with the Cosmic Microwave Background map.

The Earth and the Moon

Observe the details of the Earth and the Moon thank to the topography maps. In addition, the map of the Earth by night with city lights is implemented as well as the Earth atmosphere and the Earth albedo.

Space Telescopes and Inter-Planetary Probes

Do you want to watch the space telescopes and inter-planetary probes used to collect the astonishing sky and planet maps of our virtual environment? We implemented the detailed models of the NASA spacecraft as well as their orbits around the Earth, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Chandra observatory, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the International Space Station. We also implemented the detailed models and orbit of the Mars probes. You can freely move around the space instruments to look at their details and even at the concentrict mirrors of the Chandra observatory.

The first detection of a gravitational-wave signal together a short Gamma-Ray Burst during the merger of two neutron stars opened a new window on the cosmos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first detection of a gravitational-wave (GW) signal together with a short Gamma-Ray Burst (sGRB) during the merger of two neutron stars propelled us in the new era of time-domain multi-messenger astrophysics. More GWs/sGRBs joint detections will reveal the physics of the most violent phenomena in the univers: the birth of black holes. BurstCube is a low-cost gamma-ray instrument on board a CubeSat designed for detecting sGRBs related to GW events. BurstCube is currently in development and will launch in the early 2020's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first detection of a gravitational-wave signal together a short Gamma-Ray Burst during the merger of two neutron stars opened a new window on the cosmos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good understanding of our environment helps us improving our quality of life. We are building large networks of low-cost sensors for collecting, analyzing and more importantly interpreting the evolution of the physical parameters of our environment. Informing the citizens is also the role of physicists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multi-wavelength imaging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radio telescope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Automated Optical Telescope.