3D PRINTING THE X-RAY UNIVERSE

Despite our limited abilities to travel to distant objects in outer space, astronomers, computer scientists, and others are developing techniques that nudge astronomy visualization forward from two-dimensional images to images that include time, and also, the third dimension in space. 3D modeling objects in our Universe offers a unique tool to understand scientific data. And while interacting with 3D data on a computer screen can be powerful, the ability to create a physical manifestation of the model - through 3D printing - can take things even farther.

How to Hold a Dead
Star in Your Hand

The Story of Cassiopeia A

The Tale of
Supernova 1987 A

Print a 3D Nova:
V745 Sco

3D Printing
Tycho's Supernova

Make a Pulsar:
Crab Nebula in 3D

Build Your
Own Chandra

DG Tau: Energetic Jets
from a Developing Star

Print Your Own
Supernova: SN1006

Print a Nova:
U Scorpii

Print Your Own
IC 443

Make a Homunculus
Nebula: Eta Carinae

Make a Pulsar:
Vela in 3D

Make the Helix
Nebula in 3D

Published: May 2016

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophisics
60 Garden Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

Curator/Manager: Kimberly Arcand
Illustration/Art Direction: Kristin DiVona
Web Developer: Khajag Mgrdichian

Developed by the Chandra X-ray Center, at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, in Cambridge, MA, with funding by NASA under contract NAS8-03060 | Privacy | Accessibility
Additional support from NASA's Universe of Learning (UoL). UoL materials are based upon work supported by NASA under award number NNX16AC65A to the Space
Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University.