High-Level Project Summary
“Starry Night” is an educational game based on a real-world physics model, and NASA opened data to make variable stars in the game look like in reality. That gives the player a better gaming experience in a more immersive environment. This game's purpose is to show the players how dynamic the night sky is. At each stage, we add knowledge for players to learn and develop their memory through several dynamics MiniGames. We believe this game has great potential to act as an educational tool or interface by showing how dynamic night sky is and understanding more about star variability.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
- A visualizing game that allows the player to earn various types of variable stars
- Explore the concept of Cepheid stars, Dwarf novae, Supernovae, Ellipsoidal Star, and Eclipsing Binary System
- Teaches the player about stellar variability through minigames
- Stars earned appear in their actual position in the night sky
If you are in a place with a clear sky during the nighttime, you will be able to see thousands of stars. While stargazing, the stars above you seem static, but the reality is far different. The night sky is very dynamic. One of the main reasons for such a Dynamic night sky is variable stars. They are constantly changing and twinkling; we just slowly see these changes with the naked eye in one night.
We developed a game to teach the user about these variable stars. Some of the types that exist, how they occur, and how astronomers use them to help understand more about our universe are some of the knowledge our game seeks to pass to the player through minigames.
How to play the game?
The game starts with an empty dark screen to simulate the night sky barred of any stars. On the initial Desktop, the player will have the option to see a projection of the actual patch of the night sky. We are working with the switch view option.
After, when the player starts adding the stars in the sky, he can speed up time to observe the changes in the luminosity of the variable stars that are usually too slow to be noticed by the naked eye with the speed slider on the bottom of the screen.
When the player is ready to start adding stars, he can click on the dashboard button that will open the “choose the type of star menu.”
In this menu, the player chooses which type of star he wants to put in the sky. Depending on the type he chooses, there will be a different minigame. We have three minigames: A quiz, a simulator, and calculate the distance game. The minigames are related to the type of star the player chooses.
MiniGames
Quiz
The quiz starts with a short information text, so the player gets the knowledge to answer the questions after. The information is different depending on the star the player is trying to get. There are three questions per quiz, but they are pulled from a bank of questions we created, so the question will differ even when the player plays the examination again. quiz
The star will only appear on the initial screen if all three questions were answered correctly. The quiz will teach general information.
Distance Game
This game will only happen when the player chooses to add a Cepheid star or a Supernova type 1A. In the minigame, the objective is to try to calibrate a telescope for a photo of the star/galaxy. For the user to calibrate the telescope and have a clear image, he needs to find the star's distance. We give them the formula to input the numbers and the light curve from the star they are trying to see. The player will need to interpret the graph and extract the numbers he needs from that. The closer the distance that was given by the formula is to the answer, the image gets less blurred.
This game will provide knowledge about using a standard candle to see the distance in the universe.
Simulator
This game will be used in all types of stars. In this game, the player will be given a random light curve from the star he is working with. There will be sliders corresponding to the variables that can change the light curve for each star. For Cepheid, stars will be the period; Eclipsing Binary systems will be an orbit, size, mass, and perspective, for example. The goal of the game is to reproduce precisely the light curve given.
This game will provide knowledge about the light curve and how they can differ. It also shows how different one variable star can be from another.
EndGame
In the end, the initial screen that was empty will be full of different types of stars that the player collected. The type of stars is in their actual position in the night sky. The player can see this by clicking switch view again. The player will also be able to hover their cursor over the star to see the information about it.
Flow Chart
This is the general flow chart from our game:
Motivation
We aim to use the playfulness and fun aspect of the 3D game to learn more about changes in the sky and how these variations are essential in our life. We first look back at how space pioneer scientists studied the variable stars. Today, with advanced technology and more information observed and collected by NASA satellites and telescopes, we have better capabilities to understand our universe more. The exciting fact is that we always discover more and more kinds of variable stars every day. Our intention in creating this game is to allow people to understand how dynamic our sky is and the importance of that.
Background
Since Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered the cepheid stars in 1908, they are one way to measure the universe's distances; Leavitt's discovery provided astronomers with the first "standard candle" to measure the distance to faraway galaxies. After this, other twinkling stars were discovered, like the Binary Eclipsing System, in 1995. They were even more accurate in measuring the distance to different Galaxies.
Variable stars are a crucial part of our way of studying the universe. Hubble Law was thought to be based on the knowledge of Cepheid. In 2011, the Nobel Physics Prize was awarded for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.
Project code
Space Agency Data
How did we use the space agency data?
In our project, we used telescope images as a heavy reference for our game. We also used the GCVS - General Catalog of Variable Stars (June 2022 Version) to find the stars we were going to base our game into.
The data inspired us to do a realistic simulator and the positioning of the stars we used.
Hackathon Journey
How would you describe your Space Apps experience?
It is an enjoyable and exciting experience because our Space Apps allow us to understand the night sky more and better in a simple way. Thanks to the dynamic night sky, we can better understand our universe. Our project makes knowledge about variable stars more accessible.
What did you learn?
We have learned much about the variable stars thanks to the various materials from NASA. We especially learned the importance of these variables in calculating distances in the universe. Finally, we acquired a solid knowledge of teamwork and respect for deadlines.
What inspired your team to choose this challenge?
This project very inspired us because it is about stars in the sky. All of us are fascinated by the stars in the night sky. So we thought this project was perfect to use our creativity, learn more about stars and share this knowledge with as many people as possible.
What was your approach to developing this project?
We decide to build a game that can teach through facts, observation, and practice. The game teaches the player all about stellar variability in a fun way. Each group member was responsible for a different part of the game according to their skills and talents. But also we could work in pairs on various aspects. Frequent communication was crucial to success. Each member was informed of each step taken, which allowed the project to move forward quickly and efficiently.
How did your team resolve setbacks and challenges?
We always supported each other and helped each other in the difficult situations of the project. We worked in a caring and friendly environment.
Is there anyone you'd like to thank and why?
We want to thank the NASA experts for their support and advice and our friend Yoel for his help.
References
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Tags
#cepheid #supernovae #binarysystem #start #astronomy #simulator