Engaging the Public with Supernova and Supernova Remnant Research Using Virtual Reality

On April 21, 2018, residents of Wako came to RIKEN for the Open Day. Over one hundred people visited the exhibit of the Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory (ABBL) and interacted with real scientific data using virtual reality (VR). With the help of the entire ABBL and several students from Rikkyo U, people as young as 2 and as old as 80 got to explore a supernova remnant in 3-D, as if it was in the room with them. (A supernova remnant results from the explosion of a star; ABBL does numerical simulations to understand the explosion mechanism.) In this report, Gilles Ferrand (ABBL/iTHEMS) and Don Warren (iTHEMS) explain what makes VR exciting to explore your data and communicate your research, and how to make your own VR booth at next year's Open Day — or any other event! We are happy to discuss this exhibit, and answer any questions you have, at a coffee meeting, wine meeting, or another occasion.