Bullets That Killed John F. Kennedy Immortalized as Digital Replicas by Smithsonian

killed President John F. Kennedy will soon be accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

In partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Archives has scanned the historic bullets to produce high-definition 3-D replicas set to be uploaded to an online catalog in early 2020.

The scans capture the infamous ballistics—including two fragments from the bullet that fatally wounded Kennedy—in microscopic detail, says NIST scientist Thomas Brian Renegar in a statement.

Even viewed on a screen, he adds, “It’s like they’re right there in front of you.”

Fifty-six years after the beloved president’s passing, his killing remains shrouded in controversy: Around 60 percent of Americans still believe Kennedy’s assassination was a conspiracy, according to a 2013 Gallup poll, though this figure has shrunk somewhat in the past several decades, Harry Enten reported for Five Thirty Eight in 2017. But by the official account, gunman Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, shooting at Kennedy as he rode in a presidential motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.