“Frontiers Talk: Communicating the Story of Exoplanet Exploration and Science at NASA” by Tripathi

Conference:

SIGGRAPH 2023

Type(s):

• Diversity
• Frontiers

Title:

Frontiers Talk: Communicating the Story of Exoplanet Exploration and Science at NASA

Presenter(s)/Author(s):

• Anjali Tripathi

Abstract:

Today, the number of known planets stands above 5,000, with knowledge that there are hundreds of billions more in the Milky Way Galaxy, alone. This stunning discovery of exoplanets (planets beyond our Solar System) has transformed our understanding of what it means to be a planet and our place in the cosmos. In this talk, I will tell the expanding story of exoplanet exploration and focus on the essential role of art in communicating this story. I will share how NASA incorporates illustration and design, from the earliest stages of a mission concept through to visualizations of scientific results. I will offer examples from real exoplanets and their science fiction counterparts, as well as NASA missions past, present, and future, including the successor to the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be instrumental in the search for life beyond Earth.