The Beneficial Beauty of Astronomical Images
A satisfying and important part of our publicity work with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory
is that we produce beautiful and widely disseminated images. Unlike many other
fields of science, astronomy results can generate outstanding press coverage
just based on the beauty of their images alone, not the importance of the
science.
Previously I have written about Chandra observations of the remains of supernova explosions, which provide some of our most attractive images, and I’ve reviewed two books by my colleagues Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke – Your Ticket to the Universe and Coloring the Universe – featuring spectacular images from Chandra and other observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope(HST). It’s clear that these images are beautiful without having to think about what makes them beautiful.
Our longtime image processor Joe DePasquale worked on many of the images described above. He recently moved away from the Chandra X-ray Center to work at Space Telescope Science Institut…
Previously I have written about Chandra observations of the remains of supernova explosions, which provide some of our most attractive images, and I’ve reviewed two books by my colleagues Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke – Your Ticket to the Universe and Coloring the Universe – featuring spectacular images from Chandra and other observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope(HST). It’s clear that these images are beautiful without having to think about what makes them beautiful.
Our longtime image processor Joe DePasquale worked on many of the images described above. He recently moved away from the Chandra X-ray Center to work at Space Telescope Science Institut…

