1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,471 >> For whatever reason it feels great to touch it. 2 00:00:04,471 --> 00:00:10,110 >> I don't know how it really looks, but it feels like 3 00:00:10,110 --> 00:00:15,115 >> 'oh this is what I thought a nebula would be like.' 4 00:00:18,518 --> 00:00:22,322 >> I was born with Congenital cataracts, so what that 5 00:00:22,322 --> 00:00:27,794 >> means is I had an opaque film over both of my eyes 6 00:00:27,794 --> 00:00:31,665 >> when I was born. What that resulted in is very blurry 7 00:00:31,665 --> 00:00:37,170 >> vision, blurry images, I don't have any sense of detail. 8 00:00:37,170 --> 00:00:42,976 >> As a blind child, there weren't a lot of accessible materials 9 00:00:42,976 --> 00:00:49,416 >> readily available to me as a youngster who was already 10 00:00:49,416 --> 00:00:54,354 >> interested in science. It was something that we would take 11 00:00:54,354 --> 00:00:58,859 >> styrofoam balls or cups and kind of make the planets, 12 00:00:58,859 --> 00:01:04,264 >> a very rudimentary concept of what the planets look like. 13 00:01:04,264 --> 00:01:08,001 >> But when it came to looking at an image from a textbook, 14 00:01:08,001 --> 00:01:13,206 >> that was something that I didn't have access to. 15 00:01:13,206 --> 00:01:17,644 >> All of these were words and concepts I couldn't physically 16 00:01:17,644 --> 00:01:21,949 >> grasp on my own, to experience it for myself. 17 00:01:21,949 --> 00:01:26,053 >> As a blind student, I'm wondering, 'can I get just as 18 00:01:26,053 --> 00:01:28,388 >> excited as everyone else?' 19 00:01:28,388 --> 00:01:36,263 >> This book is entitled 'Touch the Universe' a NASA Braille book of astronomy. 20 00:01:36,263 --> 00:01:39,866 >> by Noreen Grice. 21 00:01:39,866 --> 00:01:45,238 >> Which took Hubble, and the images that came from Hubble, 22 00:01:45,238 --> 00:01:51,445 >> and created a source of really powerful information of 23 00:01:51,445 --> 00:01:55,415 >> what a telescope looks like? What does a nebula look like? 24 00:01:55,415 --> 00:01:59,219 >> What do, even our stars, what do they look like? 25 00:01:59,219 --> 00:02:01,588 >> But with the book it actually came to life. 26 00:02:01,588 --> 00:02:07,094 >> It created a sense, an actual understanding of what these 27 00:02:07,094 --> 00:02:09,696 >> science concepts that you're learning in school? You can 28 00:02:09,696 --> 00:02:11,798 >> actually learn this from a book as well. 29 00:02:11,798 --> 00:02:18,238 >> One of the images that was captured with Hubble is Jupiter. 30 00:02:18,238 --> 00:02:23,276 >> So on this page we have the outline of the planet itself, 31 00:02:23,276 --> 00:02:31,651 >> we also have the gas rings that are at various points of 32 00:02:31,651 --> 00:02:35,489 >> the planet itself. But we also have the Great Red Spot. 33 00:02:35,489 --> 00:02:42,662 >> And so with touch I can actually tell it's not a horizontal 34 00:02:42,662 --> 00:02:47,901 >> view, it's actually at an angle. So again, through these images 35 00:02:47,901 --> 00:02:53,440 >> from Hubble I get a better understanding of what my classmates, 36 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:57,944 >> what my friends are looking at when they go to museums and 37 00:02:57,944 --> 00:03:02,849 >> it does allow me to question and say 'well why does this 38 00:03:02,849 --> 00:03:05,485 >> planet tilt in the way that it does? 39 00:03:05,485 --> 00:03:12,159 >> There is a star within the center of it. And almost 40 00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:19,466 >> just like a number eight it's expanded out from its hemisphere, 41 00:03:19,466 --> 00:03:25,739 >> again, as a young kid, and you hear the word 'nebula' 42 00:03:25,739 --> 00:03:29,943 >> it's kind of equated to 'nebulous' and you think oh there's 43 00:03:29,943 --> 00:03:36,016 >> chaos, it's just a bunch of stars. But to see through this image 44 00:03:36,016 --> 00:03:41,588 >> that a nebula can have a certain order to it, a beautiful order 45 00:03:41,588 --> 00:03:48,662 >> to it, then this hourglass nebula shows that indeed is what it looks like. 46 00:03:48,662 --> 00:03:57,137 >> Almost like our Milky Way, it actually spirals out with almost 47 00:03:57,137 --> 00:04:04,344 >> three? Almost three legs that spiral out and it's almost like 48 00:04:04,344 --> 00:04:06,913 >> you wanna grab it and you almost spin it. 49 00:04:06,913 --> 00:04:12,085 >> And that's actually what the galaxy is doing, is spinning. 50 00:04:12,085 --> 00:04:18,158 >> So it's kinda cool. It either feels almost like a 51 00:04:18,158 --> 00:04:23,096 >> spider, with legs, but you know that it's a galaxy in space. 52 00:04:23,096 --> 00:04:29,503 >> I felt like I was back in fifth or sixth grade and reliving that experience 53 00:04:29,503 --> 00:04:33,173 >> of the launch of Hubble and actually getting a chance to say 54 00:04:33,173 --> 00:04:38,812 >> 'hey, now I have this access, now I can experience this excitement for myself. 55 00:04:38,812 --> 00:04:43,917 >> It kind of made me feel like a kid again to be able to say 56 00:04:43,917 --> 00:04:47,354 >> 'Oh this is what a star looks like, or this is what a telescope looks like, 57 00:04:47,354 --> 00:04:49,356 >> or this is what our planets look like. 58 00:04:49,356 --> 00:04:54,861 >> Because for such a long time I didn't know. 59 00:04:54,861 --> 00:00:00,000 [MUSIC]