Week 9: Space + Art

This week's topic was one I have always found immensely fascinating: space. I especially appreciated the breadth of historical information we received this week regarding space missions in Lectures 4 and 5 by Professor Vesna. The abundance of space missions has not only increased our human understanding of the world beyond us, but has also influenced artists and filmmakers alike [1]. Space missions, like Challenger and Apollo 11, have allowed movies to convey both the joys and fears of exploring space. For example, after Apollo 11, movies, like Moon, finally had a better of idea of how to depict the extraterrestrial in movies, as seen in Figure 1.


Figure 1: Scene of moon from blockbuster Moon

One particular movie that comes to mind is the recent blockbuster Interstellar starring Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey. The movie, pictured in Figure 2, was praised for its keen use of visual effects, especially of how they depicted black holes and wormholes [2]. In this case, art and space truly came together because renowned physicist Kip Thorne and a team of collaborators used extensive math and physics to depict the phenomena as closely as possible. The movie was so keen on getting it right that they even ended up publishing a paper on black holes [3]!


Figure 2: Movie poster for Interstellar

In this movie, the movie actually impacted the scientific community (instead of the other way around). Interstellar's stunning representation of black holes and worm holes were not just something of the imagination; they were constructed using the power of physics and math [4]. For example, although evidence of worm holes has not been found yet, the movie represented what they would look like via Einstein's theory of general relativity equations [5]. As a result, as pictured in Figure 3, Thorne hypothesizes that worm holes would look a lot like what the movie depicted.


Figure 3: Wormhole as seen in Interstellar

Images

1. guillaumeriaux. “Moon (2009) Best Scene - Clint Mansell - Memories (Someone We'll Never Know).” YouTube, YouTube, 20 June 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4DQ1_PCBs0.

2. “Interstellar – Review.” The Real Sasha, 1 Mar. 2015, therealsasha.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/interstellar-review/.

3. Magazine, Wired. “The Metaphysics of Interstellar.” Wired, Conde Nast, 8 June 2015, www.wired.com/2014/11/metaphysics-of-interstellar/.

Sources

1. Morrison, Blake. “The Cultural Impact.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 July 2009, www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jul/02/apollo-11-landing-cultural-impact.

2. Rogers, Adam. “WRINKLES IN SPACETIME: The Warped Astrophysics of Interstellar.” Wired, Conde Nast, 7 Jan. 2015, www.wired.com/2014/10/astrophysics-interstellar-black-hole/.

3. Times, James Maynard Tech. “'Interstellar' Team Publishes Scientific Paper On Black Holes.” Tech Times, 13 Feb. 2015, www.techtimes.com/articles/32733/20150213/interstellar-team-publishes-scientific-paper-on-black-holes.htm.

4. James, Oliver, et al. “Visualizing Interstellar's Wormhole.” American Association of Physics Teachers, American Association of Physics Teachers, 1 Jan. 1970, aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/1.4916949.

5. Wall, Mike. “The Science of 'Interstellar': Black Holes, Wormholes and Space Travel.” Space.com, Space.com, 10 Nov. 2014, www.space.com/27701-interstellar-movie-science-black-holes.html.