science

Jon Lomberg

Jon Lomberg is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jon Lomberg rather than just read about it. In short: Jon Lomberg (born 1948) is an American space artist and science journalist. He was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator for more than twenty years on many projects from 1972 through 1996.

Key takeaways

Jon Lomberg belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jon Lomberg to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jon Lomberg from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jon Lomberg (born 1948) is an American space artist and science journalist. He was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator for more than twenty years on many projects from 1972 through 1996. In 1998, the International Astronomical Union officially named an asteroid (6446 Lomberg) in recognition of his achievements in science communication. He was NASA's Design Director for the Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft; the cover he designed is expected to last at least a billion years.

Biography Jon Lomberg grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During a visit to Toronto, Ontario, after college, he was invited by science fiction author Judith Merril to display his artwork at a conference she organised for the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Lomberg moved to Toronto later that year and, after assisting Merril in a radio documentary for the CBC Radio One program Ideas, went on to create many documentaries on topics such as NASA's Viking program and Halley's Comet for the program. In 1972, Lomberg showed some of his paintings to astronomer Carl Sagan, who then asked him to illustrate his book The Cosmic Connection (1973). This was the beginning of their quarter century of collaboration on many projects, including the Cosmos series (for which Lomberg created the talent pool and as chief artist won a Primetime Emmy Award), the Cosmos book, Broca's Brain, NASA's interstellar Voyager Golden Record, the original cover art for Sagan's 1985 novel Contact, and the opening sequence from Earth through the Solar System and its galaxy and beyond for the 1997 Contact film. At Sagan's request, Lomberg designed the original sailing ship logo for the Planetary Society in 1981.

The Smithsonian Institution commissioned Lomberg in the early 1990s to paint "A Portrait of the Milky Way", a scientifically accurate artistic representation of the Milky Way galaxy as seen by a hypothetical observer from a vantage point 10 degrees above the galactic plane and 60,000 light years from the galactic center. The 6 ft (1.8 m) by 8 ft (2.4 m) painting, which was described in a peer reviewed academic paper in 1994 as "the best representation of our galaxy to date" and "a first map like those of explorers long ago", was displayed in the National Air and Space Museum from 1992 through 2002 and remains part of its permanent collection of aviation and space art. Lomberg also designed the Galaxy Garden, a three-dimensional walk-through Milky Way scale model which is part of the Paleaku Peace Gardens Sanctuary in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Lomberg co-designed the MarsDial aboard the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and was the project director and editor-in-chief for the Visions of Mars CD-ROM and mini-DVD aboard the spacecraft Phoenix, which landed on Mars in May 2008. He was also on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant planning teams with Frank Drake, Ben Finney, Ward Goodenough, Louis Narens, Frederick Newmeyer, Woodruff Sullivan and others. Jon Lomberg is a founding member of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, a member of the Planetary Society advisory council, and designs exhibits and gives presentations for the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center in Hilo, Hawaii for the Mauna Kea Observatory and Gemini North. He lives in Hawaii with his wife and two children.

Bibliography The books Jon Lomberg has co-authored and/or illustrated include:

1978: Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Ann Druyan, Timothy Ferris, Jon Lomberg, Linda Salzman Sagan. Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record. New York City: Random House. ISBN 0-394-41047-5. 1979: Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. New York City: Random House. ISBN 0-394-50169-1. 1997: Donald Goldsmith, Worlds Unnumbered: The Search For Extrasolar Planets. Herndon, Virginia: University Science Books. ISBN 0-935702-97-0. 1997: Donald Goldsmith, Einstein's Greatest Blunder? The Cosmological Constant and Other Fudge Factors in the Physics of the Universe. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-24242-4. 2001: Donald Goldsmith and Tobias Owen, The Search for Life in the Universe. Herndon, Virginia: University Science Books. ISBN 978-1-891389-16-0. 2004: David W. Thomson and James Bourassa, Secrets of the Aether: Unified Force Theory, Dark Matter and Consciousness. Alma, Illinois: The Aenor Trust. ISBN 0-9724251-2-8.

Awards and honors The awards and honors which have been bestowed upon Jon Lomberg include:

1979: American Institute of Graphic Arts Certificate of Excellence for the cover of Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. 1981: Primetime Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Creative Technical Crafts for the TV series Cosmos. 1983: Graphic Design USA magazine DESI Award for nuclear winter artwork in PARADE magazine. 1984: Vermont World Peace Film Festival Prize for Best Video Documentary for the videotape of the multi-media show Nuclear Winter with Carl Sagan. 1987: Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Armstrong Award for Documentary for the Ideas program Halley's Comet. 1996: American Association for the Advancement of Science Best Children's Science Book Award for the "Life In The Universe" curriculum for grades 4-9, in the Life Science category. 1998: International Astronomical Union officially renamed Asteroid Lomberg, formerly asteroid 6446 1990QL. 2002: Astronomical Society of the Pacific Klumpke-Roberts Award.

References

External links Official Jon Lomberg website Official website of the Galaxy Garden at the Paleaku Astronomy Center in Captain Cook, Hawaii. Jon Lomberg at IMDb Two views of A Portrait of the Milky Way on the Kepler Mission website. Transcripts of two Robyn Williams shows with Jon Lomberg for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Voyager - A message from Earth - 19 November 2005 at the Sydney Observatory Jon Lomberg, In Conversation - 5 January 2006

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jon Lomberg

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jon Lomberg claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jon Lomberg before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jon Lomberg ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jon Lomberg

In research: Jon Lomberg appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jon Lomberg in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jon Lomberg is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 20th-century American science writers, 21st-century American science writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jon Lomberg outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jon Lomberg in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jon Lomberg means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jon Lomberg out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jon Lomberg in simple terms?

Jon Lomberg (born 1948) is an American space artist and science journalist. He was Carl Sagan's principal artistic collaborator for more than twenty years on many projects from 1972 through 1996.

Why does Jon Lomberg matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jon Lomberg?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jon Lomberg.