Chamber 01
The Gravity Loom
Pull one weighted shuttle and the entire luminous weave changes. Add mass, compare steep and shallow curves, then send a small sphere across the field to see how its path responds.
Flagship exhibit · North Court
Cosmic Foundry
Step into a working model of a star system. Shape gravity with woven light, reveal the fingerprints hidden inside starlight, and build an orbit with everyone in the room.
Matter, motion, making
Turn distant physics into something you can shape
Stars can feel impossibly remote. Cosmic Foundry brings their governing ideas down to hand height through thread, glass, projected light, weighted tools, and a floor that responds to the way people move together.
Your route begins with a question: how can something invisible guide an entire system? In the first chamber, tension in a field of cords makes gravity visible. In the second, prisms and filters unpack a beam into evidence about temperature and material. The final chamber asks the whole group to keep a set of orbiting bodies stable.
There is no single score and no expert route. You can observe from the edge, operate one station, or stay with an idea long enough to test it again. Hosts connect each experiment to real techniques used by astronomers, while keeping the encounter conversational and open-ended.
Start with this: Choose one “stellar material” token. Its weight, color, and texture become your clue as you move through all three chambers.
A three-part journey
Inside the foundry
Each chamber changes the scale of the question, from the pull between two objects to the choreography of a whole system.
Chamber 02
The Spectrum Forge
Feed a beam through prisms, gases, and color filters. Match bright and dark lines to your material token, and discover how astronomers identify elements without collecting a physical sample.
Chamber 03
The Orbit Floor
Become part of a many-body system. Your position changes the projected paths underfoot, so the room must negotiate where to stand, when to move, and how to restore a stable orbit.
The learning story
Three clues astronomers use to read the universe
Cosmic Foundry follows one chain of reasoning: motion reveals forces, light reveals matter, and repeated paths reveal the structure of a system.
Gravity writes in curves
Mass changes the motion around it. The loom is a physical analogy rather than a literal model of space, but its curved paths help visitors ask why moons fall around planets instead of straight toward them.
Every element leaves a light signature
When light is separated by wavelength, bright or dark spectral lines can reveal which elements emitted or absorbed it. The forge uses hydrogen, sodium, and neon reference patterns so visitors can compare evidence rather than guess from color alone.
An orbit is a continuing negotiation
Stable systems balance speed, direction, and gravitational attraction. On the Orbit Floor, one person’s movement affects everyone else’s result, echoing the complexity of systems with several interacting bodies.
Take the question onward: If scientists cannot visit a star, what else can they learn from the light and motion that reach us?
Know before you enter
Access and sensory information
The complete route is step-free and every chamber can be experienced by watching, listening, reading, or using an alternate control.
Light and sound
- The rooms are dim, with bright cyan and warm coral projections against dark surfaces.
- There are no strobe effects or rapidly flashing images.
- Sound peaks at approximately 78 dBA during the Orbit Floor sequence. Over-ear defenders are available in child and adult sizes.
- The Gravity Loom creates low bass vibration that can be felt through the floor and timber rail.
Movement, seating, and controls
- The minimum clear route is 120 cm wide, with turning spaces in every chamber.
- Backed seats are available at the entrance and between chambers. A host can bring a portable stool to any station.
- Controls sit between 75 and 105 cm from the floor. Grip-free buttons and switch access are available.
- The Orbit Floor has a seated console that produces the same system changes without crossing the projection area.
Communication and quieter visits
- Instructions are available in Bangla and English in large print. A tactile chamber map and simplified visual sequence can be borrowed at the entrance.
- Videos are captioned and key sound events also appear as animated lines and text.
- Lower-sensory sessions run Tuesdays, 10:00–11:00, and the first Friday of each month, 18:00–19:00. Capacity is reduced, audio is lowered, and the Orbit Floor remains in slow mode.
Practical visit facts
Plan 45 minutes in North Court
Entry is managed in small waves so each group has room to use the shared installations.
- Typical duration
- 45 minutes, including a 4-minute host welcome
- Recommended age
- Ages 8 and older; younger siblings may enter with their group
- Location
- North Court, Level 2, beside the Orbit Table
- Capacity
- Up to 24 visitors per entry wave
- Supervision
- Visitors under 12 should remain with an adult
- Languages
- Bangla and English labels, captions, and host introductions
- What to bring
- Nothing required; secure loose bags beneath the chamber seats
- Photography
- Non-flash photography is welcome; ask before including other visitors
Add the foundry to your route
Allow 10 minutes to travel from the ground-floor galleries. The visit planner can place nearby exhibits before or after this stop.
Continue the investigation
Three nearby ideas
Light Bazaar
Continue from spectroscopy into refraction, color mixing, and the way patterned surfaces reshape a beam.
Orbit Table
Test orbital speed and direction at tabletop scale, just steps from Cosmic Foundry’s room-sized system.
Micro Worlds
Reverse the scale of your journey and use instruments to gather evidence from matter too small to see unaided.