Supernova

This winter, there was a call for art at MIT representing astronomy and astrophysics concepts. Who doesn't look up at night (or even the day time) and wonder? Supernovae (and black holes) are definitely abstract, conceptual, and interesting. The astrophysics department at MIT made something incredible and unique happen....I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Dr. Castro who is a leading expert in the supernova field. I really wanted information about color in supernovae, but the conversation lead astray with my questioning if the effects of a supernova could be detected before the visual, light years later. He said that there can be gravitational effects on the time/space grid in the universe and detectors are being worked on for this! Indeed particles from supernovae may be able to be detected before we can "see" the supernova in a telescope light years away. Interesting....

About color: would only look like variations of bright white light in our visual range. Other frequencies detect other colors. (And in general, blue is used in scientific diagrams to symbolize activity....This is interesting because in art, we always think of red as an active color).

Anyhow, the image is what I came up with for a painting. The idea is something like this:
Represents Life and Death Cycle of Stars. Blue iron core is exploding and collapsing but shown as a blooming flower. Hydrogen clouds may go on to become new stars. Gravitational waves altering the space time grid. From the death of a star, new star life and elements that sustain life "bloom." I tried to paint the supernova as if it were collapsing (death) but at the same time blooming (life). It is called "Bloom: Supernova and Shockwave Expansion."

This is a link to a flickr feed of other images (and mine) in the show...really interesting.