by Martha Kiley
In What’s Hidden Inside Planets?, planetary scientist Dr. Sabine Stanley cracks the surface to reveal the beating heart of planets and what created them—from swirling cosmic dust, pebbles, and gas to the gestation of planetesimal beginnings to the ancient celestial bodies in our solar system.
The textile exhibition Fierce Planets, on display through May 3 at the New England Quilt Museum in Downtown Lowell, will feature a special presentation with Dr. Stanley March 15 at 11:00am.
Dr. Stanley cracks the surface to reveal the beating heart of planets and what created them—from the building blocks of swirling cosmic dust, pebbles, and gas to the gestation of planetesimal beginnings to the ancient celestial bodies in our solar system, and beyond.
Earth, from space, looks like a shimmering gem suspended in an inky, infinite expanse. But this serene image masks the volatile interior forces that ironically make life possible for millions of species on the surface.
Drill down thousands of miles through our built environments and soil, sand, water, and rock to the outer and inner cores, encountering intense convection, roiling metals, buried continents, and shifting tectonic plates. Discover the effects of magnetism, rotation, and seismic activity seen and sensed in the forms of auroras, hurricanes, volcanoes, and earthquakes, among other manifestations, and learn why Earth should be celebrated as the wonder it is—and protected.
Fierce Planets is a collaboration between Studio Art Quilt Associates and the Johns Hopkins Wavelengths program. The exhibition is composed of 42 works of art which masterfully explore and capture the science, beauty, and power of planetary forces and phenomena. To create their works, fiber artists from eleven countries on six continents drew inspiration from Dr. Stanley’s work in planetary science at Johns Hopkins University, the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), and NASA.
“A mesmerizing glimpse into the inner secrets of our own planet and its siblings. With wit and humor, Sabine Stanley plays planetary decoder, helping us reimagine Earth and the other planets as continually evolving under the sway of the universe’s implacable forces. I couldn’t put it down,” said Alanna Mitchell, science journalist, playwright, and author
Dr. Stanley was raised in a town built on a nickel-lined crater formed by a speeding meteor’s crash and was a pink-haired space fiction fan at a young age. She’s now one of the leading global researchers who unearth the facts about materials and forces in and around planets, exoplanets, and asteroids to better understand how they impact our lives and our Earth’s future.
