Smithsonian Journey into deep space

Smithsonian Journey into deep space takes audiences on a journey to the far reaches of the Universe, right from the heart of Brussels at Tour & Taxis. Developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), a research centre founded in 1890, the immersive experience draws on decades of astronomical research to explore stars, galaxies, exoplanets and black holes. The exhibition features observations made by some of the world’s leading space observatories, including the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Through scientific data and discoveries, visitors can gain a deeper understanding of the life cycle of stars, the formation of galaxies, worlds beyond our solar system and some of the most extreme phenomena in the cosmos. Set within a 3D environment, the experience takes visitors among representations of thousands of galaxies, across the Milky Way and towards the Sun, where they can observe its activity up close. Along the way, they encounter exoplanets with extreme conditions, a star nearing the end of its life and the edge of a supermassive black hole. By bringing these distant worlds and phenomena into an immersive setting, the experience offers a tangible sense of the vast scale and extraordinary diversity of the Universe, while making some of the most complex astronomical phenomena easier to understand from an Earth-based perspective.