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Here you will find the latest information and news about Ilumbra and 3D volumetric models. Please check back often for updates or 'Subscribe' to join our mailing list.

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Ilumbra Log: 07.10.25

News
Fibrilium 3D models at Luxembourg Science Center
It's the third installation of Fibrilium 3D models from ilumbra in third country! This time it is at the Luxembourg Science Center in Differdange. A model of a quasar and of the Cat's Eye Nebula are on display during the month of October, 2025, and in particular on the Astronomy Days from October 11-12. Visit the Luxembourg Science Center to see how Fibrilium sculptures can enhance your astronomy exhibition, too.

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 06.10.25

News
New Milestone: First international Fibrilium installation
The first Fibrilium 3D exhibits have been installed abroad. In August 2025 we installed models of the Milky Way and the Orion Nebula at the MuCi science center and planetarium in Asunción, Paraguay. The vitrines were designed by ilumbra and built locally at MuCi and an associated carpentry. It was a wonderful experience to work with the MuCi team on the incorporation of the models in the vitrines and their installation in the planetarium building. They have big plans, a completely new science center with a large LED-planetarium at a prime location in Asunción to be finished in 3 years.

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 08.07.25

Models
Trifid Nebula: New 3D Model
The Trifid Nebula, a wonderful star-forming region in the constellation of Sagittarius, is ilumbra's newest volumetric 3D model for planetariums and other immersive media. It was commissioned by NSF NOIRLab. Logo-free broadcast-quality versions of the video shown here are available at NOIRLab. The Trifid Nebula was one of the objects featuring prominently in NSF NOIRLab's first images from the new Vera Rubin Telescope. For planetariums it is also available for interactive visualization from our products page.

by: WS & NK
Ilumbra Log: 09.12.24

News
Fibrilium at Luxembourg Space Week
Our newest Fibrilium 3D-exhibit took part in the "Interstell´Art" exhibition that was part of the Luxembourg Space Week 2024, which was held from December 2 to 5 at the European Convention Center Luxembourg (ECCL). The "Interstell´Art" exhibition took place at the Artskoco gallery in Luxembourg. The exhibit was shown at the ECCL on Tuesday and Wednesday, and from Thursday to Friday at the Artskoco gallery, together with several other artists with their takes on the topic of space.

We specially developed an artistic exhibit that would allow a Fibrilium-galaxy be exhibited in a bright environment, instead of being located in a dark room. The artwork is called "The universe within". While the idea of a black hole being a gateway to a parallel universe is physically not correct, art allows us to play with the idea. In this exhibit, we can look inside the "black hole" and see another universe on the inside.

Our virtual models are for on-screen visualization, but the new material exhibits, trademarked "Fibrilium" can be watched from up close and walking around them offers a unique opportunity to engage with the spatial forms and structures of galaxies and nebulae in ways that were previously impossible. In contrast to this special artwork, other Fibrilium models can be set up in darkened exhibition room and viewed freely from any angle. See also our news items from June 7, 2022, and August 8, 2024.

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 08.08.24

News
IPS 2024 in Berlin
The IPS 2024 conference in Berlin was an unexpected success for ilumbra. There was a lot of interest in our virtual volumetric and material Fibrilium models. Many of our customers featured our visualizations in their sponsor presentations. Leading representatives of the astronomical visualization community said in their presentation that interactive volumetric 3D models are a clear trend in the digital fulldome planetarium. We agree, with a smile.

In the "black box" on the right side of our stand you can see our presentation of two small "Fibrilium" models of a spiral galaxy and a starforming region (not seen on the picture). Fibrilium is our new type of material 3D exhibits that allows visitors to experience nebulae and galaxies close-up, similar to a model of a ship or other objects that are exhibited in a museum.

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 10.07.24

News
.ONE in The Planetarian
Our new .ONE Optimized Nesting Environment features in the June 2024 issue of The Planetarian. The title of the publication is "ONE — OPTIMIZED NESTING ENVIRONMENT: A NEW STANDARD FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION VOLUMETRIC 3D-MODELS". In this article we introduce our new filesystem that will help integrating complex volumetric landscapes in digital planetariums more easily. It allows to build and deploy extended cosmic nebulae and galaxies with high resolution regions from a single file. The file includes all the textures and information that is necessary to place the model in the virtual universe. Come visit us at the ilumbra exhibition stand at the IPS-conference in Berlin from July 22-26, 2024 to discuss with us how your planetarium can benefit from .ONE models and other ilumbra products.

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 24.11.23

News
Spark: The Universe in Us
That's the title of the new planetarium show from the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences and our volumetric 3D model of the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is part of it. The model not only uses our nesting technique for high spatial resolution, in addition it is segmented, which allows the different parts of the nebula to be highlighted independently. In the recent June 2023 edition of the IPS journal The Planetarian we discussed the segmentation technique for volumetric models as applied to the case of the Cat's Eye Nebula.

The new show contains many more amazing visualizations, many of them straight from scientific simulations and generated by the Academy's Visualization Studio. Check out the trailer at the CalAcademy Website.

Image: Frame from the trailer that shows our Cat's Eye model from the inside (Credit: Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences)

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 19.11.23

News
ilumbra produces press release video for Max-Planck-Institute for Radioastronomy
"A Smoking Gun for Supermassive Binaries in Active Galactic Nuclei" is the title of the research paper in The Astrophysical Journal led by Silke Britzen of the Max-Planck-Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany. For the press release on the paper we simulated the relativistic behavior of the precessing jets that move nearly at the speed of light. This strongly brightens the jet that is directed towards Earth and renders invisible the counterjet. At the same time we also reproduced the general shape of radio lightcurve. For more details see the press release of the MPIfR. that also includes a link to our video.

Image: A schematic disk-jet model visualizes a jet wobbling due to a supermassive binary black hole at the center of the blazar OJ 287. Image Copyright: ilumbra - AstroPhysical MediaStudio

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 25.09.23

News
On the cover of The Planetarian
On the cover of "The Planetarian", the journal of the International Planetarium Society: it's our new volumetric 3D model of the Cat's Eye Nebula. That was a pleasant surprise. On page 8 of the current edition (Sept. 2023) is our article "DISASSEMBLE VOLUMETRIC MODELS FOR DIDACTIC PURPOSES? SURE, WHY NOT?" in which we describe our new technique of separating different parts of a nebula or galaxy to help increase the didactic impact during live and recorded presentations in the planetarium. #planetarium #planetarian #astronomy #3D

by: W.S.
Ilumbra Log: 10.06.23

Models
NGC 6543, an eye catching planetary nebula
Finally! The volumetric Cat's Eye Nebula is here. ilumbra presents the new model of the planetary nebula NGC 6543 (the easiest NGC number to remember !). It is the scientifically most accurate model available. Check the preview video on in the products section of this website. For more information on the Cat's Eye model please contact us at contact@ilumbra.com.

Enhance your popular science or research PPT-presentations with our PPT-compatible presentation app in iluvia. It allows you to interact in 3D with the Cat's Eye, or any of our volumetric models, anywhere in your presentations.

by: W.S.

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