A Serious Game in Fully Immersive Virtual Reality for Teaching Astronomy Based on the Messier Catalog

Fully-immersive virtual reality (VR) can be used to display 3D data so it is possible to use different vantage points and scales to observe these data. VR provides the perception of depth that is essential to appreciate distances and positions of 3D data points. In this paper, we propose a serious game in fully immersive virtual reality related to astronomy education. It allows users to learn about the positions and types of deep sky objects that are in the Messier catalog. The present work has multiple purposes: to teach the location of Messier objects in the night sky, to learn about the main types of deep sky objects, and to raise awareness of the consequences of light pollution on the night sky as some of the Messier objects can be observed with the naked eye in dark sky locations. The usability, workload, and potential VR symptoms have been assessed with undergraduate students. The results support the conclusion that VR has a key impact on the immersion of the users in the learning activities, with a laser pointer allowing to access easily all the different functionalities. The gameplay based on visual search exploits the 3D space in VR; the hints allow users with no prior knowledge of the topic to complete the tasks. With no motion and objects located at a far distance within the environment, the VR environment does not induce any VR symptoms.