I wonder, what elegant lyrics might the 16th century ‘Silver Poets’ - Wyatt, Howard, Raleigh and Sidney - have written, or Van Gogh painted, in response to these spectacular new images. On July 12, 2022, the first set of photographs from this telescope were shared with the world. The most recent development has been the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope. He had made improvements to Lipperhey’s original version the new device could enlarge objects 20-times more. Months later, Galileo Galilei began to use the telescope for work for which he would come to be known as the “father of observational astronomy”. In 16, Hans Lipperhey and Thomas Harriot turned the first telescopes skyward. With technological advancements in each age, the views alter and improve as does our experience - at the macro and micro level. They pose as radiant organic sculptures, / … // … Coral-shaped aortas rotate 360° / in perfect Brownian motion // … // … illness radiating inner beauty - // hidden architecture, looped, / dancing in secret helixes.” High-definition X-ray image of an aorta “Onion-pink aorta transforms / crimson-red - tertiary twigs // split, as installation art revolves / on its axis.
The beauty we see on the galactic scale is replicated at the microscopic level, within the subatomic particles.Īn extract from the poem Aorta Art, inspired by my visit:
Human organs’ fractal structures and patterns appeared as stunning art - auricles, ventricles, veins, arteries, aorta’s tree-like bonsai architecture and their miniature magic. Much later, at the Bangalore-based Teleradiology Centre’s laboratory, I had access to spectacular X-ray digital plates on high-definition large monitors. He is said to have composed it after he viewed the cosmos anew through the recently invented Galilean telescope, an experience that changed his perspective of the skies forever.Ĭarl Sagan’s fascinating 1970 and ‘80s grainy documentaries on space and the human body first altered my own views of the outer and inner cosmoses. I recall being taught the metaphysical poet John Donne’s iconic poem, The Sun Rising, in my university undergraduate class: “Busy old fool, unruly sun, / Why dost thou thus, / Through windows, and through curtains call on us? / Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run? / Saucy pedantic wretch, …” The poem presents an ironic twist, a recalibration of the old solar-system order: “Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere / This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.”ĭuring the teaching of this poem, all the literary tropes were discussed and enunciated at great length, but one essential detail was missed out - the reason Donne wrote the poem in the first place. When one breaches the known boundaries, the wonder and poetry begin to emerge. Science is factual - grounded and anchored in axioms. Beyond the spectral bandwidth of the rainbow, beyond ultraviolet and infrared frequencies - the visual magic of the cosmos resides.