Saturday 7 November 2009

Photography and science



Today a lot of people have a camera and take photos - black and white, sepia or full of coulors. In our albums we have photos with family, friends, animals, buildings and so on... Some people became profesionalists and their pictures are a pieces of art.

But we have also a lot of photos in science.


Astronomy is one of the oldest scientific studies. It uses special physical methods to discovers new objects and studies "old". Astronomy is connected with physic, biology, chemistry and metheorology. Also the computers systems and graphics take part in this science. Informations from telescopes (e.g. from the best known Hubble's Telescope) go first to the computers, there are checked and then some of theme published.


"2009 has been declared by the UN to be the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009). The focus is on enhancing the public’s understanding and engagement with astronomy."


Without observatory we can't see everything on the sky. But in my opinion we should better know our universe. To make this easier (and to take part in IYA2009) I want to present you few interesting photos with short comments.


One of my favourites pictures is a photo of solar eclipse.

During these eclipse Earth (or some parts of Earth) is in the Moon’s shadow. In this few minutes we cannot see the sun, only the bright corona - a white halo of solar gases.







In the other hand, when we observe lunar eclipse, Moon is in the Eath’s shadow and we see it red.







Sun is only one in our solar system, but we see it almost every day. Comets are rare, although on the sky is plenty of theme. Then why

we can’t observe comets each night? True is that... we

observe, but by telescopes in observatories. Each year astronoms discovers about a hundred of new comets! They are made of rock, metal and ice, and most often have two tails: ion and dust tail. In the picture of Comet West we can see both.









The next of astronomical photos schows galaxies. Galaxy is a large group of stars, dust and gases. Our Galaxy was named Milky Way by Romans. Milky Way is a typical spiral galaxy, bright with the light of new stars.








The next class are elliptical galaxies, the most common in

universe, which cannot “produce” new stars. They contain younger stars in centre and the outer parts are occupied by old and “dark”.








The third category are irregular galaxies,normally small and difficult to detect. Old and new stars are mixed with gases and dust. The best known irragular galaxis are the Small and Large Magellenic Clouds, that are our nearst neighbours.



















On the end - supernova. Johannes Kepler in 1604 saw the last supernova before the invention of the telescope. The next was photographed in Februar 1987, during observation of Large Magellanic Cloud. This supernova quickly terned coulor and cooled. But what is more interesting in March it brightened again and this burst reached towards the end of May, when it was as luminous as billions of suns!


What do you think about astronomic pictures? Do you know some else interesting science photos?

Based on L. Hewitt, P. Hewitt, J. Suchocki "Conceptual Physical Science"

www.pauerhome.com/eclipse99/corona018.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Lunar-eclipse-09-11-2003.jpeg

http://www.pd.astro.it/urania/schede/images/comete.gif

http://physicsquest.homestead.com/files/west2.jpg

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2009/06/the_last_100_years_1929_hubble/MilkyWayFalling.jpg

http://john.moisttowelettemuseum.com/astroglass/sombrero.jpg

http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/fuse_mc/LMC_3col_sm.jpg

http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/fuse_mc/SMC_3col_lg.jpg

http://www.wallpapergate.com/data/media/352/Supernova_004.JPG

28 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my opinion photos in science can also be very artistic. It's amazing that thanks to technology we are able to see things which are far away from us, such as other planets. These photos are valuable not only for scientists but also for other people who normally would never see such pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I agree with Monica. Photos in science can show us parts of the universe which we can’t see with naked eyes.
    Besides, it is an excellent hobby and thanks to this we can commemorate fleeting moments:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree with opinions above :)
    Thanks to technology we can watch things, which we' ve never been able to see, what is more - probably people, who aren't specielly interested in astronomy, like me, could never find out about some things connected with it. For example, I didn't know about two tails of comets, but now I can read and even see it. Thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I of course agree that photography is really useful in science. Especially in astronomy becouse ordinary people don't have instruments which could give them chance to see the beauty of outer space. But not only astronomy profits from photography, I think all sciences are more interesting when they use that device.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I like to take photos. My mum called me: Japan becouse I take a lot of photos. I would to will become professionalist and I could to take photos of stars, another planet. In the future I will go around the world and I will take photos. I agree with opion that photography is pice of art.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here you are, Anna:)
    I made this "presentation" about photography in atronomy, because I like to take photos too. And I'm a bit interesting in stars - some parts of their life are connected with chemistry, that I study (first I wanted to write something about molecules, but I think it can be interesting only for me...).

    ReplyDelete
  8. The photos which Marta placed on the blog are really amazing. I found it very interesting to take photos of stars and sky in the night because you have possibility to observe unforgettably beautiful occurrences. In my opinion also interesting are the northern lights.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The place is wonderful! But anybody know that those photos were made not colorful, but black&white - made in under-red light. Next there is a process of painting photos, made by NASA. And one thing - there are no irregular galaxies - spiral, eclipse, oval and semi-spiral, but no irregular! These said physics student :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. First of all, beautiful photos. It's great how modern technology enable us to see such distant places as other galaxies and stars.
    Moreover, I think that photography has usage not only in presenting what we can't observe with the eye in the sky, but also can show miraculously beautiful and unknown aspects of life here on Earth - such as marine world in great depths of ocean where the pressure is too high for divers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That what is tme most fascinating in this photos is that we can see places inacessible for "normal" people. It's unreliable that somewhere there are another planets maby such wonderfull as The Earth. However, I prefer other pictures. In my opinion, photos which show us beatiful landscape and views are more interesting then those one. So, I don't enjoy them as others...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Those pictures holds me in opinion, that we can find beauty anywhere - no matter if it's a galaxy far, far away or something we're passing by every day.

    I like photography, but only from viewer's perspective. I don't really like taking photos by myself. I always fear that I'll screw with the lighting or chop someone's head off ;)

    Here are some amazing pictures taken by the Hubble Telescope several moths ago:

    http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2009/09/hubble-telescopes-latest-image.html?mi_atom=The%20Frame

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think this photos are greats!! Show our amazing universe. We can admire galaxy, stars and others and we thank for this science :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I also didn't know that the sky could be so fascinating, those photos have opened my eyes and who knows... maybe now I would be looking up more often in the night.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes, this photos are breathtaking! It's true Earth and landscapes from America, Asia, Australia or Antarctica are amazing and special. But I see a little however significant difference - the cosmic photos inspire to think about history or eternity...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nice photos, but it's hard to belive that somwhere in the universe is place which is more beautiful the our Earth. But there is sth i don't like in them. NASA makes thousnads of photos everyday and they publish only a small part of them. It's exactly the sam as Japanese on tour to the Europe:)

    ReplyDelete
  17. This photos are extremely beautyfull and fascinting. The most extraordinary in them is that they show places and phenomens which are so difficult to imagine. Outer space is so distant and infinite that seams it is an annother unreal world which appear to us only as black firnament sprinkled by stars. This pohotos show us small part of this extremly beauty world.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Astronomic pictures are amazing.In my opinion the best picture is a photo of solar eclipse. A few years ego a saw solar eclipse on my own eyes! It was astonishing fact.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This astronomical pictures are all fantastic. For me the most beautiful is picture of supernova, i think it has amazing and beautiful colours. Besides that pictures i also like to watch photos of aurora:)

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'm not really interested in photograhy, but that picture of solar eclipse is to my taste. Photos that I can see here were made with creative imagination and caught the moment, impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  21. There are two types of astronomic pictures: taken in space and taken from Eatrh. And both kinds are breathtaking! Last week I saw the picture of the Moon taken by my friend and I was really astonished - I didn't knew that it's possible to zoom the Moon like that ;)

    ReplyDelete
  22. When I watch photos like this I always admire people who invited cameras which can makes such photos. It's beautiful and I think it's amazing that I can see photos of phenomenons which I will never see on my own eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  23. These photos are really beautiful and make me feel small person on a very small planet :) Photos of the Universe are a great way to show people who aren't scientists to see the world and with photos it's easier to explain how everything works. What's more such photos make me feel happy that people know more and more about the world.

    ReplyDelete
  24. It is good to see well taken picture, especially when the subject are distant planets. It's amusing that the same device may be used to take photos of your mirror and put them automatic on facebook, can also be used to take pictures of other galactic and put them to NASA database.

    ReplyDelete
  25. For me these photos are uncanny. I can watch them permanently. I admire people who can do something amazing for science with the help camera.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Photographs of Space are amazing because we can look back even a couple thousands years - this is how much time light takes to travel to Earth.

    The most beautiful pictures for me are astronomical photos showing galaxies, they have some kind of magic.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I suppose that the beauty hidden in astrophotography is its uniqueness. All the phenomena captured by camera or telescope can't be seen by naked eye.
    Those pictures are also very difficult to take. Many expensive accessories are used, like tripods with built-in motor which gently moves camera so photographed object stays exactly in the same place in frame during very long exposures.
    Some people make several pictures and connect it into one to make a bright and sharp image of photographed object.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Thanks for people who have such an interesting hobby. we can see what we normally can't see and what is really worth seeing. The pictures are great . why doesn't the sky look so nice everyday?

    ReplyDelete