cakes
Back in my NASA Goddard days, a few of us realized that we shared an enthusiasm for baking and a lack of understanding of our own limitations. A poster party was coming up with a “Science as Food” competition, and we knew we wanted to compete with something grand. And thus, the Fermi cake-baking committee was formed.
Here is a selection of my favorite astronomy-related cakes that I helped create. (Edit: Turns out it is not a selection but rather a single cake.) You can see more at the fermicakes instagram account, which is run by another founding member of the cake-baking committee.
Gamma-ray nova
A nova is a bright flash of light that is sometimes emitted in binary systems that include a white dwarf with a star. The material from the star falls onto the white dwarf, and if enough material is accreted, the white dwarf heats up enough that runaway fusion occurs. Historically, novae are brightest in optical light, but a subset are also visible in gamma rays. A prevailing explanation at the time of this cake creation was that, for this subset of systems, the blastwave from the explosion that caused the optical light expands and interacts with the material falling onto the white dwarf, accelerating charged particles to produce gamma rays.
I’m pretty proud of how the frosting turned out.
chocolate
I really like painting with chocolate. Although, more correctly, I trace images with chocolate. If you’re confused by this explanation, see examples below.
The gamma-ray sky
When you compare the sky in gamma rays to the sky in optical light, you can see that there are some similarities in the overall shape but also many different sources.
One very interesting feature in gamma rays is known as the Fermi bubbles: Two giant lobes that are around the center of the Galaxy and extend both North and South. Similar sized bubbles have also been seen in the microwave (by WMAP and Planck) and X rays by eROSITA, possibly with a common origin, although the jury’s still out on the exact cause. At least, the jury’s out according to this non-expert.
anyway here’s the gamma-ray sky in chocolate
See this tweet for a comparison.
Friends and colleagues
Most of my chocolate paintings are in fact of people: Friends and colleagues, usually in combination with a cake for their birthdays or farewell parties. Here are a few faces I’ve made recently that I am especially proud of in some way or another.
