Week 9 | Space + Art
The previous week's lecture was centered around the nanoscale and nanoparticles which are extremely small in size. This week, we come to the other end of the spectrum at the magnitude of space and study the relationship between space and art. As Professor Vesna describes in the lecture, space is always a fascinating field for both scientists and artists. This is evident in that space is always a popular theme for movies and other artwork, such as the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises. Coincidentally, Alien: Covenant, a recent movie shown in theaters, uses the same space theme and focuses on a story set in 2104 about the crew on a colony ship.
Another form of art that represents space is the pictures of the stars themselves. The following figure is one of the most famous images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the "Pillars of Creation." Ironically, the colors were not there when the picture was captured. Like many telescopes, the HST captures data from very particular wavelengths, including those beyond the visual spectrum. Thus, even in composite images such as this, most information is of intensity, resulting in a black and white image. The colored figure seen is only possible by approximating and restoring the colors through various digital techniques.
While composite images give accurate representations of their subjects, even if the colors are only approximate, some objects (such as black holes) are so difficult to capture that we can obtain only indirect images. This grants significant artistic freedom to those depicting them. To most people knowledge, Figure 4 is what a black hole approximately looks like. However, this is an artist's representation rather than the real image. The following image of a disk of dust around a black hole shows the closest we can currently come to seeing them. Although the photo truthfully represents the black hole, the artistic representation is more attractive and accessible to the general public, making it more widespread and even showing up in textbooks.
[1] "NASA's NuSTAR Sees Rare Blurring of Black Hole Light." NASA. NASA, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-273>.
[2] Dunbar, Brian. "What Is a Black Hole?" NASA. NASA, 21 May 2015. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html>.
[3] "Pillars of Creation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 June 2017. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation>.
[4] Orwig, Jessica. "Iconic Hubble images are actually black-and-white." Business Insider. Business Insider, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 June 2017. <http://www.businessinsider.com/how-hubble-images-are-manipulted-2015-3>.
[5] "Disk around a Black Hole in Galaxy NGC 7052." NASA. www.spacetelescope.org. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9822a/>
 |
| Original Figure from Hubble Space Telescope of Pillars of Creation (Orwig) |
Another form of art that represents space is the pictures of the stars themselves. The following figure is one of the most famous images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the "Pillars of Creation." Ironically, the colors were not there when the picture was captured. Like many telescopes, the HST captures data from very particular wavelengths, including those beyond the visual spectrum. Thus, even in composite images such as this, most information is of intensity, resulting in a black and white image. The colored figure seen is only possible by approximating and restoring the colors through various digital techniques.
 |
| Pillars of Creation After Colorized (Orwig) |
While composite images give accurate representations of their subjects, even if the colors are only approximate, some objects (such as black holes) are so difficult to capture that we can obtain only indirect images. This grants significant artistic freedom to those depicting them. To most people knowledge, Figure 4 is what a black hole approximately looks like. However, this is an artist's representation rather than the real image. The following image of a disk of dust around a black hole shows the closest we can currently come to seeing them. Although the photo truthfully represents the black hole, the artistic representation is more attractive and accessible to the general public, making it more widespread and even showing up in textbooks.
 |
| An Artistic Demonstration of Black Hole (NASA, 2017) |
 |
| Original Image from Hubble Space Telescope (NASA, 2017) |
[1] "NASA's NuSTAR Sees Rare Blurring of Black Hole Light." NASA. NASA, 12 Aug. 2014. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-273>.
[2] Dunbar, Brian. "What Is a Black Hole?" NASA. NASA, 21 May 2015. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-black-hole-k4.html>.
[3] "Pillars of Creation." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 June 2017. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation>.
[4] Orwig, Jessica. "Iconic Hubble images are actually black-and-white." Business Insider. Business Insider, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 09 June 2017. <http://www.businessinsider.com/how-hubble-images-are-manipulted-2015-3>.
[5] "Disk around a Black Hole in Galaxy NGC 7052." NASA. www.spacetelescope.org. Web. 09 June 2017. <https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9822a/>
Comments
Post a Comment