A Case Study in Astronomical 3D Printing: The MysteriousηCarinae

Abstract

3-D printing moves beyond interactive 3-D graphics and provides an excellent tool for both visual and tactile learners, since 3-D printing can now easily communicate complex geometries and full color information. Some limitations of interactive 3-D graphics are also alleviated by 3-D printable models, including issues of limited software support, portability, accessibility, and sustainability. We describe the motivations, methods, and results of our work on using 3-D printing (1) to visualize and understand the η Car Homunculus nebula and central binary system and (2) for astronomy outreach and education, specifically, with visually impaired students. One new result we present is the ability to 3-D print full-color models of η Car's colliding stellar winds. We also demonstrate how 3-D printing has helped us communicate our improved understanding of the detailed structure of η Car's Homunculus nebula and central binary colliding stellar winds, and their links to each other. Attached to this article are full-color 3-D printable files of both a red-blue Homunculus model and the η Car colliding stellar winds at orbital phase 1.045. 3-D printing could prove to be vital to how astronomer's reach out and share their work with each other, the public, and new audiences.

Touching the stars: improving NASA 3D printed data sets with blind and visually impaired audiences

“…Past strategies of communicating astronomical ideas through touch have included employing marbles, a knotted cord, and grains of sand to model proportions in the Universe [Weferling, 2006] and using cardboard and wire to make the phases of the Moon tangible [Alonso, Pantoja, Isidro, & Bartus, 2008]. More recently, scientists have found 3D prints to be an effective format for communicating the shapes of astronomical objects such as Eta Carinae [Madura, 2017] and the Moon and planets in the Solar System [Jones & Gelderman, 2018] while turning their component parts into tactile models, clarifying details of their structures.…”

“…Non-expert populations can benefit from tactile or 3D-printed models of science data, including students [Hasper et al, 2015] and populations with visual impairments Grice et al, 2015]. Additionally, 3D printing is able to address distribution concerns because it has become more commonplace in recent years, with 3D printers situated in many local U.S. libraries, schools, MakerSpaces and more [Childers et al, 2015;Grice et al, 2015;Madura, 2017].…”

“…We share an emphasis on communicating current astronomy data in a realistic manner with the recent Tactile Universe project in the United Kingdom [Bonne et al, 2018]. Data selection is part of the pipeline of turning binary code received from telescopes into forms able to be processed by the general public [Arcand et al, 2013], and it can help highlight or focus on useful features [Madura, 2017]. An example of this in 3D printing is that small pieces of the 3D data models that are not attached to any material near them would have to be deleted (removing of data) or forcibly attached (adding of data not there) in order for the model to be printed as a single object .…”

“…To combat such a deficit, efforts have been underway to transform astronomy outreach materials from a two-dimensional (2D) manifestation to a three-dimensional (3D) representation that can be manipulated digitally as well as physically Madura, 2017]. This helps to establish equity in access to and ability to represent data, since a detailed depiction of the mental representation process illustrates that despite some differences in the BVI population, there are fundamental cognitive structures that produce correct scientific comprehension from perception for all people [Jones & Broadwell, 2008, p.284].…”

Editorial: Techniques and Methods for Astrophysical Data Visualization

“…This focus issue examines visualization methods (Baines et al 2017;Fluke et al 2017;Madura 2017;Rector et al 2017); software libraries for astronomy and analysis (Berriman et al 2017;Muna 2017); software implementations from other fields (Gárate 2017;Kent 2017;Naiman et al 2017;Taylor 2017); and science results from new visualization techniques (ArgudoFernández et al 2017;Pomarède et al 2017;Vogt et al 2017 I thank all of the authors for their contributions to this PASP special focus issue, as well as Editor-in-chief Jeff Mangum, Elizabeth Ellor, Tim Bauer, and the PASP publishing team for their support in the publication of this issue. These papers have laid an important groundwork for the years to come as we enter a new era of data visualization, exploration, and scientific discovery.…”