3D Printing a Star Cluster: How the Blind Can Feel Hubble Space Pictures
Star cluster NGC 602 surrounded by gas and dust.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team
This iconic image of star cluster NGC 609 depicts several bright, newborn stars wrapped in a resplendent bubble of gas and dust. But how do you communicate the beauty and wonder of these cosmic glamor shots to the blind? Easy: Print them in 3D.
A team of astronomers and computer engineers from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., is trying to translate 2D images from Hubble into tactile models that can be fabricated on a 3D printer. Yesterday, at a press conference hosted by the American Astronomical Society, astronomer Carol Christian explained how the team turned the photo of NGC 609 into a printout that can be "seen" by the blind
."We're making these for the visually impaired, who could not appreciate Hubble images by looking at them, but now they'll begin to explore them through touch," he said.
In these 3D printouts, made of plastic and roughly the size of a sheet of paper, different features—stars, gas, and dust, for example—are represented not by color but by different textures, such as circles, lines and dots. The varying heights of the features correspond to varying levels of brightness.
With the collaboration of the National Federation of the Blind, the scientists tested different designs with more than 100 volunteers from ages 8 to 81 and refined the design based on their feedback. "We found we were able to create mental models for these people," Christian says. "They would say, ‘I can see it, I can see it,' and then they would describe what they were seeing in their head."
At the moment, these printouts represent 3D interpretation of a flat image. But further down the line the team would like to create a 3D spherical model of NGC 609. "That's turning out to be quite a challenge," says Christian—because Hubble doesn't see in 3D, creating full 3D models will require some scientific and artistic interpretation.
The team hopes that being able to experience Hubble data in a new way will provoke new insights and spur new questions. The 3D printouts may also be helpful for sighted people who like to learn with their hands, Christian said.
