'Hubble' a spectacular tour

HUBBLE: Imaging Space and Time. By David H. DeVorkin and Robert Smith. National Geographic Society Books. 224 pages. $50.

The first space observatory designed to be maintained and refurbished in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope, has proven to be not only a marvel of science but a means for firing the popular imagination on the cosmos.

This impressively illustrated, thoughtfully presented large-format volume showcases more than 200 of the most spectacular images captured by the Hubble since its launch (and later repair) to the eve of the final shuttle mission to install new high-powered instruments this year.

From "near" space to the extremities of the known universe, authors David H. DeVorkin and Robert Smith usher us on an eye-popping but cogent tour of the solar system's dynamics, continuing expansion of the universe, birth pangs and death throes of stars, formation of planetary nebulae, awesome splendor of galactic clusters, mysterious force known as "dark energy" and Hubble Ultra Deep Field, called "the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever achieved."

But they also take pains to explain why familiar images for popular consumption seen in magazines, press releases and posters, unlike those used by astronomers, undergo considerable "processing." This includes alteration by such graphics programs as Photoshop in order to produce a more striking panorama. Many of these shots represent a degree of artistry to make the picture more comprehensible and aesthetic. They often are composites of numerous images taken over time — "mediated views of the universe," the authors term it with offhand candor — and combined with photographs taken by other land-based telescopes. Which naturally has sparked questions of authenticity.

"Hubble images should not be compared to our visual experience of the world," DeVorkin writes. "The instruments of the HST do not imitate the human eye. Instead, they vastly expand upon it."

Fair enough. Yet it does drain a portion of the pleasure from viewing them. If the work of science is that of moving from the tangible to the abstract, the approach to rendering these images is the reverse, from abstract streams of numeric data to tangible, false-color wonders.

As the authors add, "It is easy to be seduced by images, believing they bring one closer to concrete, perceivable originals, but, in truth, they reflect instead an abstraction made visible."

And what visions.