Goldilocks planets captured in glass

Rebecca Hill, contributor

Engraving on 18 sheets of Mirogard glass, each representing 250 light years (2011) (Image: Angela Palmer: Life Lines at Waterhouse & Dodd, 24 May to 15 June 2012)

?Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.? You?d be forgiven for thinking conversation at Angela Palmer?s Life Lines exhibition in London gallery Waterhouse & Dodd had turned to Goldilocks?s hunt for the perfect porridge temperature. But you?d be wrong: we?re talking about planets.

NASA?s Kepler telescope, launched just over three years ago, is searching for planets outside our solar system. More specifically, it?s looking for ones that could sustain life - those with a perfect temperature for liquid water.

When physicist Chris Lintott of the University of Oxford told Palmer about Kepler?s mission, she thought it was ?all rather thrilling?. The pair developed an idea of creating a ?virtual cube of space? to represent the search for Goldilocks planets.

The idea played into Palmer?s passion for mapping. She uses stacked sheets of glass to create sculptures that appear to float inside their cases. By drawing or engraving details taken from magnetic resonance imaging and computerised tomography of her subjects - which have included a cow and author Robert Harris - she allows us to see their inner architecture.

To map the 2321 potential planets Kepler has discovered orbiting 1790 different stars, of which more than 40 have Earth-like qualities, would require a slightly different approach. ?The figures were ferociously complicated for me to extrapolate and turn into this piece,? Palmer explains.

Looking at the reams of data she was given, which are displayed, ceiling to floor, on one of the gallery walls, I appreciated the scale of the challenge. That?s where physicist Alexy Karenowska of the University of Oxford comes in. Karenowska was so inspired by the project that she had to get involved, helping Palmer map the numbers onto 18 sheets of glass, representing data as circles etched into their surfaces.

?We took the data and plotted the stars? positions so each engraved circle represents a star with at least one orbiting planetary candidate,? she says. ?The circles that are filled in are stars orbited by Goldilocks planets.?

Each slice of glass represents a chunk of time and space amounting to 250 light years, with a light year being equivalent to a distance of 9460 billion kilometres. The slice closest to the viewer shows the furthest stars Kepler has observed - 4300 light years away.

To convey the sheer scale of Kepler?s reach so simply, in only 18 panes of glass, is phenomenal. The fact that Palmer chose to mark the presence of the planets most like our own merely by filling in their circles further expresses the enormity of the galaxy, and our tiny part in it.

As Karenowska says, the work is beautifully simple, and yet extraordinarily complicated. What, on first glance, looks like a breathtaking sculpture made of sheets of dotted glass represents not only an incredible mission into space, but also the potential for life outside our planet.

Searching for Goldilocks is part of the Life Lines exhibition, which will be on display at Waterhouse & Dodd, London, until 15 June.

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