Smithsonian’s “Starstruck” VR exhibit opened in Washington, DC, in May, offering a 40‑minute virtual tour of the universe. Adult tickets cost $29 to $35, and group tickets for four or more are $18 each, reflecting a 15 percent discount; the exhibit will open in Denver, Orlando, Florida, and San Antonio, Texas, later this year.

Visitors wear an HTC Vive Focus 3 headset, complete onboarding that includes caption preferences and a waiver, and are guided by a virtual narrator, James Seawood, whose avatar resembles a SpaceX spacesuit. The exhibit initially uses a 2021‑vintage headset but will transition to the newer Vive Focus Vision in the DC location.

The tour begins at the Multiple Mirror Telescope at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Whipple Observatory, then proceeds to visualizations of the Big Bang, a stellar nursery such as the Pillars of Creation, and close approaches to the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe, and NASA’s Hubble, Chandra, and James Webb Space Telescopes, each with an interactive picture button and a small model for manipulation.

One segment transports visitors to the exoplanet Janssen (55 Cancri Ae), which completes an orbit in about 17 hours; the visual depicts a rocky surface with lava flows, while scientific analyses indicate the planet may be entirely molten.

The experience also shows the red supergiant Betelgeuse becoming lumpy as it fuses heavier elements, followed by a simulated supernova, and it places visitors near the event horizon of Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s central black hole, demonstrating light bending in its gravity.

The tour concludes with a depiction of the Atacama Desert in Chile, the future site of the Giant Magellan Telescope, which the exhibit renders as a completed facility with its seven mirrors aimed at the sky.