Astronomers exploring celestial life cycles have caught glimpses of stars in birth and in death.
The photographer manages to pinpoint and frame certain sections of Noguchi's sculptures to look like asteroids, craters, planetary surfaces, and in some cases, completely foreign bodies that seem to concoct new narratives about celestial life.
The plant forms represent the celestial tree of life that stands at the center of the world, bearing the sun and the moon aloft in its branches.
Take her ongoing project, All the Dead Stars, in which she's attempting (with the help of leading astronomers and astrophysicists) to document the locations of dead stars – a highly difficult task given that the universe is infinite, and given the nebulous boundary between a celestial object's life and death.
On some celestial bodies "alien" life forms may have developed, say through the use of a solvent other than water or the use of very different chemical elements, e.g., silicon rather than carbon.
Since Patrick Moore's death a succession of astronomers and scientists have recalled how they were inspired by childhood encounters with the (literally) larger-than-life celestial explorer and xylophonist.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, most Jewish and Christian philosophers supported natural astrology, the view that the celestial bodies affect sublunar life and existence to some extent at least.
See the Celestial Vault come to life in photos, and in Chevalier's longtime collaborator Claude Mossessian's documentary, below: .
Specifically, regenerative hydrogen fuel cells - those with solar-powered electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen - look to form the core of a closed-loop, zero emissions, planetary energy system, which will provide electricity and sustain life on celestial bases.
But the criteria is far more rigorous than eliminating "too hot" and "too cold": To support life, a celestial body must offer potential inhabitants protection from radiation, have a nice insulating atmosphere, a decent amount of gravity, be a certain distance from the star it orbits; even plate tectonics help make a planet habitable by maintaining an environment that's warm and water-rich.
With his solar measurements and celestial allusions, the real-life environmental entrepreneur David Siskind gives the drama a cosmic context, and Swanberg, who is also the cinematographer, makes luminous images to match.
