Science Gets Fabulous, with Summer Ash and Emily Rice (Repeat)

About This Episode

Cosmic images from distant nebulas and galaxies are decorating leggings, jeggings, jewelry, and more. Explore this new trend with our hosts, astrophysicists Summer Ash and Emily Rice, who run the space-fashion-themed STARtorialist blog, and their co-host, Chuck Nice. Not only have designers taken images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray observatory and put them onto dresses, ties, and socks, but they’ve even made necklaces and other jewelry featuring design elements or the very shapes of the telescopes themselves. But how exactly does the data sent back to Earth by our celestial observing posts end up on the fashion show runway? And how accurate are those images? In this episode, Emily and Summer explain how infrared and x-ray data can be converted into scientifically valid and accurate full-color images that can be seen by the human eye. You’ll also learn about the powerful worldwide Deep Space Network that communicates with satellites from every nation – and that you can explore yourself online. Explore the difference between the observable universe that we perceive as a sphere, and the actual universe, which we think is flat. Summer and Emily also answer your Cosmic Queries, including whether the increase in space-inspired fashion is encouraging more female interest in astronomy and science, or if it’s just making it more acceptable for scientists of all genders to display their love for science and express themselves fashionably… and fabulously.

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Science Gets Fabulous, with Summer Ash and Emily Rice (Repeat).