Point Process Santa for Christmas

Remember how we started commissioning coloring pages to help explain science concepts? We’re up to four (4!!!) whole pages now!

This month’s concept is called “Point Process.” A point process is a random collection of points falling in some space. In most applications, each point represents the time and/or location of an event. For example stars, galaxies, and other objects fill the sky. A point process can help us identify how those points clump together. Check out this awesome artwork from Real Good Volunteer KALEIDOSOULS!

See how the stars don't seem evenly distributed? With point processes, often we're trying to understand if there's an even distribution of things over space. Take these clumps, are they real effects we should study, or are they just due to randomness? It sounds really complex but it's just data in a space and where these objects (Space Objects!) are in Space. Understanding these distributions might help us understand other forces in our universe like dark matter.

So print out a page and color in Santa’s Christmas night view!