The Messier Catalog began with Charles Messier, an 18th-century French astronomer and comet hunter. He recorded faint, stationary objects to avoid confusing them with comets. That practical list eventually became one of astronomy’s most celebrated collections of deep-sky wonders.
The Cosmic XR experience uses depth, curved spatial layouts, parallax, and animation to move beyond a conventional 2D image gallery. Selecting an object opens a large, high-resolution image within the surrounding physical environment. Carefully designed masking and dynamic haze help each astronomical image blend naturally into the passthrough background.
The entire collection can be explored with subtle left and right thumb microgestures, minimizing the need to reach toward floating interfaces or perform large hand movements. Microgestures are supported on Meta Quest 2, Quest 3, Quest 3S, and Quest Pro.
Seeing the Pinwheel Galaxy or Orion Nebula fill an entire living room is breathtaking and humbling, an experience uniquely enabled by spatial computing.
Explore the Messier Collection: https://www.meta.com/experiences/messier-collection/1516586876956923/
Cosmic XR on Meta Quest: https://www.meta.com/experiences/cosmic-xr-space-in-your-room/9293405654102503/
Learn more about Cosmic XR: https://cosmicxr.brdystudios.com/ #CosmicXR #MessierCatalog #MixedReality #MetaQuest #SpatialComputing #Astronomy #SpaceExploration