Eight Bands of Light. One Complete Story of How NASA Sees the Universe.
The Challenge
Ask an astronomer what infrared light reveals about the universe, and they can tell you. Ask what ultraviolet reveals, or X-rays, or gamma rays, and they can tell you that too. What none of NASA’s existing materials could tell a classroom, a museum visitor, or a curious adult was how those answers fit together: that a telescope tuned to radio waves and one tuned to gamma rays are reading the same universe in different languages. NASA’s own scientists kept making the same request while working with V! Studios to produce other educational animations: build the series that connects all the bands into one story.
The Approach
V! Studios brought together subject matter experts from nearly every NASA center to build an eight-part 3D animated series: an introduction, plus one show for each band of the spectrum: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma waves. Each episode isolates a single band, explains what it reveals about the cosmos, and ties it to the missions built to detect it. Together, the eight shows do what no single resource had done before: assemble into one complete story of how NASA studies the universe, band by band.
Every episode passed full NASA scientific and editorial review before release, giving the series the rigor of a published paper and the accessibility of a family film. A companion book, downloadable through NASA Wavelength, carried that story into classrooms.
The result: A series a teacher can screen band by band, or a working scientist can point to as the clearest single explanation of their own instrument’s slice of the spectrum.
Reach
A 3D Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum was released on Science.NASA.gov, SolarSystem.NASA.gov, MissionScience.NASA.gov, and NASA Wavelength, then spread well beyond NASA’s own platforms. TED-Ed built a full lesson plan around it. SchoolTube and MyTeacherPages hosted it with a companion guide for teachers. Egypt’s Nabadat Foundation adopted the series for Tahrir Academy, its YouTube-based project bringing science education to students through social media. Because the series streams and downloads in any browser, it reached classrooms and living rooms alike, with no DVD player, museum visit, or app purchase required.
The Results
The series has kept working long after release:
Recognition
A 3D Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum has earned 25 industry honors across four leading award programs: the Telly Awards, the Communicator Awards, the International Davey Awards, and the TIVA-DC Peer Awards.
|
Segment |
Honors |
|---|---|
|
The Series |
Silver International Davey Award, Film & Video: Education · Gold TIVA-DC Peer Award, Motion Graphics 2D/3D · Gold TIVA-DC Peer Award, Education/Training (also a finalist for TIVA-DC’s ‘Best of DC’ Grand Award) |
|
Introduction |
Silver Telly Award, Information (the program’s highest honor) · Bronze Telly Award, Education · Bronze Telly Award, Use of Animation · Gold Communicator Award, Education |
|
Radio Waves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Gold Communicator Award, Use of Visual Effects · Silver Communicator Award, Education |
|
Microwaves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Use of Animation |
|
Infrared Waves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Copywriting |
|
Visible Light Waves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Use of Animation |
|
Ultraviolet Waves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Use of Animation |
|
X-Rays |
Silver Communicator Award, Use of Visual Effects |
|
Gamma Waves |
Bronze Telly Award, Education · Silver Communicator Award, Use of Animation |