Unseen Astronomy

TL;DR

The paper discusses the growing interest and potential of multimodal approaches in astronomy, highlighting recent projects and community efforts to expand beyond traditional visual methods.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of multi-modal science in astronomy, emphasizing recent developments, community building, and its transformative potential.

Findings

Increased interest in multimodal astronomy at major conferences.

Development of novel projects exploring non-visual display methods.

Community efforts to integrate multi-modality in astronomical research.

Abstract

The 2025 UK National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) in Durham played host to a session titled "Unseen Astronomy", involving a variety of astronomy researchers in diverse fields. This unique meeting focussed on a number of novel projects exploring alternatives to purely visual means of display in Astronomy, encompassing spheres of education, communication and research, and straddling both accessible and general use applications. The successful inclusion of such a session at a major conference reflects the explosion of interest in multimodal astronomy in recent years, and hints at its transformative potential. Here, I aim to outline and motivate the topic of multi-modal science and consider its exciting potential. I will discuss this in the context of our own work in the area, the community building being undertaken to bring together researchers considering multi-modality, and efforts to impact astronomy at large.