Visions of other worlds far from planet earth

Visitors to the Natural History Museum can take a journey through time and space in a new photographic exhibition that features stunning and unique color images of planets from across our solar system.

The 77 composite images in the exhibition "Other worlds: Visions of our solar system" represent a joining together of art and science.

Michael Dixon, director of the Natural History Museum, said that the artist, curator and writer of the exhibition, Michael Benson, processed data from NASA and European Space Agency(ESA) missions to assemble the photographs for display.

"This is the same data that our scientists use to help explore the 4.5 billion year history of our solar system and we pair that review of scientific data coming back from spacecraft with the kind of material that we can analyse to look at the geology of planets in the form of meteorites." said Dixon.

Benson said most of the images had been created as photographic mosaic composites.

Typically, spacecraft do not send RGB color shots to earth. Usually it is RGB frames shot through different filters. Landscape photography is not the goal of these missions, according to Benson.

By using a mosaic technique on the original photographic images, Benson is able to get wide-field views, including a massive image covering a quarter of the globe of a Saharan dust storm flying westward across the Atlantic towards the United States at the same time as an enormous storm builds out at sea off the west coast of Mexico.

Images away from planet earth include the world's first colorized photo of Pluto; Saturn's sixth largest moon Enceladus spraying water into space from its southern polar region; and the oddly twin-lobed Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko venting gas and dust, captured by Esa's Rosetta probe flyby in July last year, the most recent of the photos in the exhibition.

The oldest photos in the exhibition go back to the 1960s, covering nearly all the history of man's space exploration.

Benson can spend much time hunting for suitable material for images. "I have a lot of fun just panning for gold in the archives, looking for the extraordinary moments," he said.

He added, "Sometimes I really feel a sense of authorship because get to find the moments when an extraordinary thing is happening; for instance, Ganymede (a moon) in front of Jupiter. Or there are some images of the moons of Saturn I am very proud of having processed. Some of the images took a lot of work."

Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of the exhibition is the involvement of the renowned avant-garde musical artist Brian Eno.

Eno is a British musician whose work in the 1970s pre-dated several later important musical trends. He has also has been the producer on several albums for U2 and for David Bowie, the recently deceased rock star, with whom he maintained a long-standing friendship.

Eno's involvement in the exhibition came through a personal approach through a mutual contact, said Benson, who added, "I have been a fan of Brian's work since I was a kid. I have been listening to Brian's music from the 1970s until now."

Eno composed the music that can be heard in the gallery as visitors wander around.

Benson said, "That was a true collaboration in the sense that he came in here, and he had something that he had been contemplating using. He came in here and he was remixing the track in here. He is very interested in space."

SCIENTIFIC NARRATIVE COMPLEMENTS IMAGES

Museum researchers have partnered with Benson to bring additional science background to the images.

An audio commentary complements the visuals with insights into the work of leading Museum scientists such as Dr Jo Michalski who is investigating the geological processes that shaped Mars to better understand the early life of our own planet.

Michalski said that it had been a natural collaboration between himself and Benson.

He said, "I use satellite images to look at the surface of planets and the atmospheres and understand how the planets evolved. It has been a natural collaboration between the two of us because the images that we use happen to be beautiful."

He added, "If we stay on earth and study just this, we are a bit limited because earth is active and recycles its crust. If we go beyond earth we can go to older planets that teach us about the beginning of our solar system.

"It's important for understanding the origin of planets and the origin of life. There is a very rational reason to explore. We hope that the perspective changing experience helps people understand the delicate balance we feel here."

The exhibition runs until May 15 at the Natural History Museum in London's Kensington district. Endit