NASA will debut a new book for blind readers at a media event and reception Jan. 15. The agency will unveil "Touch the Invisible Sky," which gives blind readers the ability to experience cosmic images from the agency's space-based observatories and other telescopes on the ground.

The event begins at 10 a.m. EST at the National Federation of the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore. Media will have the opportunity to ask the authors questions and view science experiments related to NASA's Great Observatories.

"Touch the Invisible Sky" is accessible to both blind and sighted readers. The book presents celestial objects as they appear through visible-light telescopes and in different spectral regions that are invisible to the naked eye.

It uses a combination of Braille and traditional text. A variety of tactile textures and symbols were chosen to represent different physical features and characteristics of the images.