Visible Radiation

The art of science and the science of art. A blog for anyone who's fascinated by art that relies on scientific ideas, and scientific beauty that can be classified as art in its own right. Run by Alex a student at University College London with a background in accidentally breaking things in physics laboratories.

This isn’t some expressionist painting of the moon. No instead NASA have colorised the moon to indicate the various minerals and chemicals that make up its pock marked surface.

Bright pinkish areas are highlands materials, such as those surrounding the oval lava-filled Crisium impact basin toward the bottom of the picture. Blue to orange shades indicate volcanic lava flows. To the left of Crisium, the dark blue Mare Tranquillitatis is richer in titanium than the green and orange maria above it. Thin mineral-rich soils associated with relatively recent impacts are represented by light blue colors; the youngest craters have prominent blue rays extending from them.

Orion by Randy Halverson

Nikkita Karsan Bhakta’s triptych of photographs, Universal Thoughts, takes an abstract paintings into space. Created by experimenting with soap bubbles, olive oil, food colouring and the odd flame they appear to something more Hubble Telescope than humble mixed media artworks.