The talented astronomical
artists at the Space Telescope Science Institute have been pouring the
gorgeousness of Hubble pictures into our eyes and brains for years. They
recently embarked on a new venture: Taking those same images and, using
complementary data to get more information about the objects, creating stunning 3-D
animations. Mind you, these are not
“real,” but visualizations based on actual data that approximate the view you’d
have if you could fly around the Universe at multiple times the speed of
light.
Here’s
one they made of
one of my all-time favorite celestial sites, Sharpless 2-106, the birthplace of a massive
star:
Note: I added the notes and
the music.
I’ve written about SH 2-106 a few
times because it’s a fascinating object as well as one of the most beautiful
images Hubble has produced. While this animation isn’t exactly real, it does
give you a sense that you’re seeing a huge star that’s carved out tremendous
cavities in the surrounding gas.
That’s difficult to see in the usual two-dimensional static images, so while these visualizations are in some ways flights of fancy, I think they provide a useful tool to better understand astronomical objects.
That’s difficult to see in the usual two-dimensional static images, so while these visualizations are in some ways flights of fancy, I think they provide a useful tool to better understand astronomical objects.
There are several more
videos like this at hubblesite.org, so I urge you to
go take a look. They’re quite lovely.
Phil Plait writes
Slate’s Bad Astronomy blog and is an astronomer, public speaker,
science evangelizer, and author of Death from the Skies! Follow him on Twitter.
