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1. #Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 how to
2. #Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 professional
3. #Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 tv

NASA Blueshift: How can one use this beach ball to teach about the universe?īritt: The teaching ball is a relative product, it depends on where you are as to how it should be viewed. But it is all relative, like Einstein said. It is true that we are at the center of everything we can survey, top of the heap, like Yertle the Turtle.

That means using the shortest of the microwaves we detect – these are captured by our “W” band microwave receivers (there are 5 bands on WMAP). How does that translate to the beach ball? Are we meant to be inside the beach ball at the center looking out?īritt: We decided we wanted to show as detailed an image of the Comic Microwave Background (CMB) as possible. NASA Blueshift: How is the universe represented on the beach ball? Human perspective has historically been that we’re in the center of everything looking outwards – though of course that’s not quite right, even if that’s the perspective we have by nature of where we’re making our observations from. Once the idea was hatched I went to work figuring out how it could be done. We have distributed close to 12,000 of the WMAP Universe teaching balls. This little thought of his has been an extremely successful visualization tool for classroom and publicity use. Chuck looks at the science, engineering, money, political and educational aspects. Being an outstandingly successful PI means you are looking at all aspects of mission success, not just the science. Chuck is the mission head honcho and a very savvy manger and scientist. The WMAP beach ball was the brain child of our Principle Investigator, Chuck Bennett.

#Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 how to

So, how to show this to people in a non-scientific way, that allows them to “wrap the heads” around the idea?

We are wrapped up in this giant baby picture from the beginning of time. It was released 379,000 years after the beginning of our universe and is all around us, and can be seen in every direction. NASA Blueshift: What gave you the idea to try to represent the universe on a beach ball? Did the idea just come to you one day, or did you see that item in a promotional catalog and think, “A-ha!”?īritt: The Cosmic Microwave Background image is made from microwave light that is almost as old as the universe.

#Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 tv

Additionally, this beach ball can be seen in Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment on the hit TV show about NASA nerds much like us, The Big Bang Theory! We spoke to him about why and how in this exclusive interview. He took WMAP’s famous image of the early microwave universe and put it on a beach ball. How do you choose something that has meaning? What if you want to go beyond a toy that someone will give to their kids or throw away in their hotel room – but that will actually have value? And furthermore, can you take something that seems like a giveaway toy, and turn it into a teaching tool?īritt Griswold, who works on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), did just that. I’ve also been on the other end of these convention giveaways. You know what we mean – pens, USB drives, stress balls… once I even got some NASA hand sanitizer (true story!).

#Nasa picture of the day august 24 2010 professional

Part of the fun of going to professional meetings is getting swag.