February 2, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT: Lisa De Nike
(443)-287-9960
Lde@jhu.edu
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the case of an image created by astrophysicist Miguel Angel Aragon of The Johns Hopkins University, the adage holds true.
His vibrant computer illustration, which won the National Science Foundation’s 2011 Science and Engineering’s Visualization Challenge in the “Informational Posters and Graphics” category, brings to vivid life many dynamic aspects of the universe, spanning 240 million light years.
“Galaxies associate to form vast, complex structures, but they are really just the tip of the iceberg,” says Miguel Angel Aragon, an associate research scientist in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University. “Underneath the galaxies, there is a complex network of invisible dark matter. Our poster shows the structure and dynamics of the universe in a unifying way. It summarizes in one image most of my research over the past few years.”
Aragon’s winning image will grace the cover of the February 3 issue of the journal Science. You can also view it online here: http://zoom.it/Boj2
The image is based on research and tools developed by Aragon, while the graphic design and artistic concept were worked out by colleagues Julieta Aguilera and Mark Subbarao from Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. Called “The Cosmic Web,” the arresting and engaging design explores luminous galaxies and traces the invisible dark matter that forms an enormous network of voids, walls, filaments and clusters, according to Aragon, who receives support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
The National Science Foundation and the journal Science (which is published by the AAAS) created the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge nine years ago to encourage scientists and researchers to use images to communicate their work to the general public in five categories: photography, illustrations, informational posters and graphics, interactive games and videos.
Winning entries appear in a special section in Science and Science Online and on the NSF website, and one of the winning entries (in this case, Aragon’s) appears on the cover of the journal. In addition, each winner receives a one-year print and on-line subscription to the journal.
The February 3 issue of Science will include all of the winning entries in a special news feature, which will also be available to the public without registration, at www.sciencemag.org/special/vis2011 and at the NSF’s website at http://nsf.gov.news.scivis/. In addition, a slideshow narrated by some of the winners will be available at http://www.aaas.org
###
Johns Hopkins University news releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.jhu.edu/news_info/news/ Information on automatic E-mail delivery of science and medical news releases is available at the same address.
