We tattle to theSpitzer Space Telescope‘s visualization team about the challenge and rewards of depict the military mission ’s reams of non - ocular data point into something that catches the public optic .
In a shared office on the southerly edge of Caltech ’s campus , Robert Hurt and Tim Pyle are make nontextual matter out of science . Armed with the diligence criterion – Photoshop , Illustrator , After Effects – it ’s their task to break down the Spitzer Space Telescope ’s complex scientific data into visualization that are accessible and meaningful to the average spectator . But their artistic challenge is unique : Human eyes have never seen the objects they are creating .
Spitzer ’s infrared instruments generate reams of data to Earth as the orbit observatory gathers light from far range of the universe , luminance that is invisible to the naked eye . Imaging instruments capture some visual data that specialised package can cobblestone together into composite image , but often Spitzer ’s most interesting discoveries arrive from regions of space too remote or obscure for the imagers to enamour . In those cases , all they have is the ghostly data ; numbers and line graphs denoting wavelength of lighting far outside the visual spectrum . Only a trained spectroscopist could look at that data and see the turgid tale it tells .
That ’s where Hurt and Pyle amount in . Dr. Hurt is the Spitzer Science Center ’s visualization scientist . Along with energizer and pictorial artist Tim Pyle , it ’s his job to change over the cascade number and cardiogram - same short letter graphs that are the core of Spitzer science into icon and animation that make horse sense to those of us who ca n’t see the leftover of a supernovae or a wandering junk ring in the data . Those illustrations and animation end up everywhere from wardrobe releases to educational materials to the History Channel .
“ We take data point and endeavor to make it visually interesting , ” Hurt state of their body of work , which includes turning invisible light into colors that we can see , while employing a restrained brand of artistic license that must constantly balance hard science with esthetic appeal . “ You have to make these things interesting enough so someone will read your story . If your trope is flat and dull , no one is going to read the text . ”
Doing so can be easier say than done . For instance , Spitzer’srecent breakthrough of buckyballs in place – rare 60 - mote carbon molecules that had never before been seen alfresco of Earth – provided them with an opportunity to attempt a stunning illustration : complex atomic structures backlit by a beautiful planetal nebula . But by a less romantic description , the task was to visually try individual particle floating liberal in space some 6,000 light year off .
“ A lot of the stuff we ’ve never seen , and that opens up creative choices , ” Hurt say . “ The difference between us and a Hollywood blockbuster is that we have to keep it tied to the science as close as potential . ”
To do so , the duad plays to each other ’s strengths . spite , a trained stargazer with a Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA , work closely with the chief researchers at Spitzer to define the scientific constraint for a given illustration . Pyle then begins making the artistic decisions that will get them from in the raw information to visualization .
In the typeface of the buckyballs illustration , the constraints were somewhat straightforward ; they needed to show that the molecules are in space , that they have a unique and interesting molecular structure , and that they are consort with a faraway planetary nebula . But beyond that , the science did n’t contribute very many cues as to how a optic depiction should number together . After all , a buckminsterfullerene is very tiny , and the macrocosm is very big .
“ What seem cool and what ’s real do n’t always line up , ” Hurt articulate , “ but generally we can find a compromise . ” For the buckyballs , Pyle turned out a dim-witted but mesmerizing rendering of the buckyballs magnified in the foreground to relay the idea that they are tiny ( in this caseful , microscopic ) relative to the vast expanse of space behind , which is slightly out of stress to drive home the sense of perspective . The cloud of gas and dust behind the buckyballs is n’t in reality the same nebula where the buckyballs were find , but rather a Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby nebula . Spitzer ’s composite image of the actual cosmic backdrop but did n’t bring the frosty , dazzling canvas that the data described .
When images alone ca n’t fascinate the full significance of the data , Hurt and Pyle turn to life to breathe further life into their work . Buckyballs , for representative , have a unique spherical structure of atomic bond that create a hexagon - pentagon social organization ( like that of a soccer ball ) with molecule residing at the vertices . That structure is whippy rather than rigid , so the mote jiggle like Jell - atomic number 8 as they move about .
Hurt and Pyle did a few animate test renders of these molecular quiver just to see what they wait like in motion . Not only did the other researcher at the Jet Propulsion research lab like what they saw , but they realized that to their noesis no one had done a really good buckminsterfullerene spiritedness before . These are the kinds of tale Hurt and Pyle say easily . Readers could pore over donnish composition about the strong-arm properties of buckyballs , but a 16 - second animation describes their movement more easily and arguably more thoroughly .
Hurt and Pyle do n’t so much mind where their workplace ends up as long as it ’s doing its job . Even if it ’s in an ad for a tooth doctor ’s berth tacked up in the D.C. subway , their work distills distil Spitzer ’s complex data into something we civilian can apprise , stoke our interest in space science along the way .
“ We ’re just very concerned in using imaging to bring scientific data point to life , ” Hurt says . “ It ’s a great educational vocation . ”
For a look at some of NASA ’s best-loved concept illustrations , see PopSci ’s galleryhere .
Popular Science is your wormhole to the future . Reporting on what ’s fresh and what ’s next in science and technology , we have the futurity now .
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