Digital planetariums as virtual museums for discovering today's science

TL;DR

This paper explores how digital planetariums can evolve from mere virtual museums to immersive educational environments that actively involve visitors in constructing knowledge through real-time scientific data, especially in cosmography.

Contribution

It proposes conceptualizing digital planetariums as immersive virtual environments that facilitate direct engagement with ongoing scientific research for public education.

Findings

Digital planetariums can serve as immersive virtual environments.

Visitors can construct knowledge based on real research data.

Potential for enhanced public understanding of cosmography.

Abstract

Our study's concern is about how to enlarge the scope of the virtual museum concept from the mediation activities as they are carried out in today's digital planetariums to training activities dedicated to the public. We assume that these educational and cultural tools must be regarded as real immersive virtual environments and therefore can provide visitors with a new technological framing directly connected with a scientific field in the making, cosmography, in its production environment. One of our goals is to make visitors construct their own knowledge based directly on ongoing research data.