Tiago Photography

"A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, El Salvador, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Lake Titicaca, and the Amazon. Also visible is the Earth's ionosphere (thin yellow line), a satellite (55sec) and the stars of our galaxy."

Labels: Blue Marble, Earth, International Space Station, Iss, Satellite, Space, Universe, Video, Youtube

When reading Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time the other day, I was astonished to discover that that a bubble nebula exists in the constellation Cassiopeia.

Source
The bubble has formed due to extreme stellar winds and radiation from a nearby star which is 10 times more massive than our sun. This means that the bubble itself is six light years across, that is one big bubble!
I was excited by this discovery, as I have been working with soap bubbles in my art work for about a year now. I'm interested in the universality of roundness from the micro to the macro, so of course, bubbles fascinated me for this reason.
This is a photogram I made from blowing soap bubbles on to photo-sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light for 4 seconds. The result looks astonishingly like a far-away galaxy.

I have made lots of posts on soap bubbles in art and science, here is a directory of bubble-related entries:
"Bubbles" / "A Child's World" by Sir John Everett Millais
How To Make A Photogram With Soap Bubbles
Artist: Kim Pimmell / / Soap Bubbles & Ferrofluid
Artist: Jane Thomas // Soap Bubble Experimentation
Artist: Richard Heeks // Soap Bubble Planet Photographs
Nature.com // Hurricanes On A Soap Bubble
Do Bubbles Freeze? // Emmanuel Coupe
Living Inside Your Own Bubble
BBC: Bubbles In Space
Melanie K's Bubble Planet
Artist : Pery Burge // Inksplosions & Bubbles
Soap Bubble Popping In Slow Motion
Artist: Tomas Saraceno // Bubble Sculptures
Artist: Simon Thomas // Studies Of The Soap Bubble
Bubble-Smith Sterling Johnson

Labels: Art, Bubble, Bubble Directory, Bubbles, Emmanuel Coupe, Jane Thomas, Kim Pimmel, Melanie K, Ngc 7635, Photogram, Richard Heeks, Science, Soap, The Bubble Nebula, Tomas Saraceno, Universe

The NASA Voyager probes which were sent out in 1977, are now more than 14 billion kilometres from Earth, and are approaching the Sun's influence.
The Voyagers are still sending back data, and computer modelling based on this information suggests that there is some interesting bubble-like activity happening at the edge of our Solar System.
"Computer modelling based on the Voyager insights suggests the edge of our Solar System is a froth of activity, like "an agitated jacuzzi", said Eugene Parker from the University of Chicago, US. Magnetic field lines carried in the "wind" of material coming off our star are breaking and reconnecting. This process is sculpting the wind into discrete bubbles that are many tens of millions of kilometres wide."Read more.
In my research, I have been researching the universality of roundness and studying the characteristics and behaviour of soap bubbles. Consequently, the idea of bubble-like activity happening in Space, is very exciting!

Labels: Art, Bbc, Bubbles, Magnetism, Nasa, Space, The Shape Of Our Universe, The Sun, Universality Of Roundness, Universe

The NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered the "blackest planet ever found", TrES-2b reflects just 1% of light. Scientists do not know why TrES-2b reflects so little light, but have observed the planet emitting a faint red light similar to glowing embers.
What I personally find most interesting, is that the astronomer David Kipping has compared TrES-2b's reflection of light to black acrylic paint.
Find out more at PopSci and the Centre For Astro-Physics Press Release.

Labels: Black, Black Planet, Exploration, Nasa, Planet, Space, Tres-2B, Universe

Omid Kashan's "Timeline Of The Universe" has been featured on Information Is Beautiful which is a website run by David McCandless. David McCandless is a data journalist and information designer who is passionate about visualizing information.
It is easy to see why Omid Kashan's design appeals to David McCandless, as creating a "timeline for the universe" is an ambitious task, yet executed beautifully. The finished design is sleek, the circular design helps to simplify the information, whilst the colour palette evokes a night sky.
The concept of visualizing data is an interesting one, data in its raw format can be terribly boring. For example, Omid Kashan used a Wikipedia page to construct his timeline. However, the Information Is Beautiful website shows that data doesn't have to look dull. The algorithms constructed by data can be processed in a creative way, making new patterns and designs that would be hard to devise from imagination alone.
This type of data presentation is already being used successfully as a type of interactive exhibit at The Wellcome Collection. In July 2011, I visited The Wellcome Collection and was able to see my biometric identity in the shape of a star!

Labels: Algorithms, Data, David Mccandless, Graphic Design, Information Is Beautiful, Omid Kashan, Patterns, The Wellcome Collection, Timeline, Universe, Visualization