Kimberly Kowal Arcand, a native Rhode Islander, is helping the world understand what exists beyond the Earth’s orbit. She works with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, creating exhibits of the images it captures.
The Chandra telescope is one of several Great Observatories launched into space by NASA since the early ’90s. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 100 times fainter than those seen by any previous X-ray telescope. On Earth the majority of those X-rays would be absorbed by the atmosphere, making them undetectable.
The Rhode Island Tech Collective, an association aimed at promoting a knowledge-based economy in the state, recently recognized Arcand with a Tech10 Award. Each year the awards are given to 10 Rhode Islanders who work to promote science and technology education.
PBN: Tell us about the work you do.
ARCAND: I’m the visualization lead for one of NASA’s Great Observatories, the Chandra X-ray telescope. It’s a program NASA launched in the «constant ****SSLq»90s. The Great Observatories are satellite telescopes. The best known is probably the Hubble. Chandra was launched in 1999. It takes images in X-ray light. They have to be translated. I make them look like images the average person can understand.
I like to say I tell stories about cosmic objects. I translate them into exhibits and books.
PBN: You mean exhibits in museums? PBN: Where do you do this? PBN: How big is Chandra? PBN: Have you ever seen it, physically? PBN: How did you get into this kind of work? PBN: How did you get involved with astronomy? PBN: What makes your work significant? PBN: Since the earliest days of the space program, there have been critics who charge the costs don’t produce enough public benefit. PBN: Have you received any feedback showing kids are more excited about science and math because of your work?
ARCAND: They might be in museums, but they also end up in less-traditional public places – in parks, libraries, zoos. We don’t have anything physical in Rhode Island right now. We’ve had one in a prison. We’ve had them in art museums, on nature trails, in parks. In Rhode Island we had one at the observatory in Ninigret Park. We had one at Brown University and at various public libraries. I also do a lot of work for websites. An exhibit could be in a physical space, or digital space.
Recently we created the very first model of an exploding star. It’s a representation that’s big enough to hold in your hand. Right now it’s in the Smithsonian, but it’s not on exhibit yet.
ARCAND: I work at home. The telescope itself is one-third of the way to the moon, and NASA is in Washington, D.C.
ARCAND: It’s about the size of a school bus. At the time it was the heaviest payload the Space Shuttle ever launched.
ARCAND: When I came on the project in 1998 it was in a clean room, so I’ve never actually seen it. It’s really big, so it will probably stay in orbit for a very long time.
ARCAND: I did my undergraduate work in … parasitology. I studied infectious diseases at the University of Rhode Island, things like Lyme disease that are spread by fleas and ticks. I realized at that time that I was also passionate about computer science. I liked what technology could do for science.
When I was about to graduate from URI, I got a fellowship to create digital images about Lyme disease. It was on a website and a CD-ROM for kids, telling them about Lyme disease and how to avoid getting it. I was doing something that combined computers and technology and science, and I wanted to continue doing that. The director at Chandra liked what I was doing, so she hired me. I was then about 22. I’ve been there ever since.
I also took some courses on computer science at Harvard, and I took a break to have my children, a boy and a girl. And I went to Brown and got a master’s in public humanities.
First I was in the office of data, working on a project that looked at how people respond to science. Then Megan Watske and I wrote a book, “Your Ticket to the Universe: A Guide to Exploring the Cosmos.” It was published last year by Smithsonian Books.
Since then we’ve been asked to write a couple of other books. We’re working on one for the University of Alaska about how to make images of the universe. The other is an introduction to the science of light, for Black Dog Leventhal. They’re both expected to be published next year.
ARCAND: I had an undergrad background in science. A lot of processes apply to both biology and astronomy. Beyond that, when I was a little girl I wanted to be an astronaut really bad. This job gets me close to the cosmos, without the long-distance commute.
ARCAND: This is our universe, the place where we all live. We should learn about it. It’s part of our environment. We’re on the earth, the earth goes around the sun, the sun is part of the Milky Way, and there’s more beyond that. The data NASA produces is also paid for by us, the public. We should all learn from it.
ARCAND: If you look at NASA, you’ll see the expense is relatively small. Compared to the defense budget, it’s less than half a penny on the dollar. And we get two really important things from that. First, there’s the exploration of space. As a species we’re naturally curious about the world around us. Space is the next frontier. We’re not isolated – we have an environment around our planet. Second, there are practical applications for the technology that’s developed, everything from memory-foam mattresses to medical equipment. We capitalize on the research.
Space exploration for me is a very worthy endeavor. If we don’t have something to look to beyond our planet, what’s the point? For me, it’s like having a personal seat in a cathedral. You can look up at the architecture and ask yourself, “How is this built?”
ARCAND: It’s not just for kids, it’s for all ages. And we’ve received some very positive feedback from evaluation forms. Kids have said it makes them want to become scientists. My own kids are telling me they want to be scientists. Even if it doesn’t happen, I’m thrilled they’re thinking about it right now. •
