Exoplanet Explorer 360°

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a tourist on another planet? Thanks to a collaboration between CICT’s Nathan Mayne and Cornish animation studio Engine House, you can now get pretty close…

Nathan’s fascination with the solar system started early, and his current research combines astrophysics and climate science in order to understand the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, or exoplanets. After seeing Nathan on BBC’s Stargazing Live, Engine House got in touch to offer their expertise in creating visualisations of his research, and the result is the Exoplanet Explorer 360° Planetarium Video, created in partnership with University of Exeter and We the Curious (previously @Bristol Science Centre). The film takes the viewer on a scientifically accurate, virtual reality tour of six exoplanets, meaning you can surf the giant waves of Kepler-62e, and gaze across the lava fields of 55 Cancri e.

The film is now We the Curious’s most popular science video, with more than one million views.