''Gaia'' is a 2018 inflatable installation artwork by Luke Jerram. It is a spherical replica of the Earth, with a diameter of , and named after the Greek primordial goddess

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenog ...

personification Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their b ...

of the Earth. Several copies tour the world for temporary exhibitions, often accompanied by music, with copies in the collections of several public museums. The sculpture is based on a helium balloon made by Cameron Balloons, covered with 50 panels of 120 dpi printed imagery of the Earth's surface from multiple satellite images stitched together, at a scale of about 1:1,800,000, or to . The sphere is lit internally when installed in a dark place, to create a glowing floating orb. When viewed from a distance of , ''Gaia'' is the same size as the Earth seen from the Moon. ''Gaia'' was first shown the

Bluedot Festival Bluedot is a music, science and culture event held annually in July since 2016 at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England, combining music, live science experiments, expert talks and immersive artworks. The event is endorsed by the Unive ...

at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire in 2018. An example was shown at the COP26 meeting in Glasgow in 2021. The work has been compared to '' The Blue Marble'', the 1972 photograph of the Earth by astronauts from

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

. Its physical impact is said to create a form of overview effect in some observers. The work follows Jerram's 2016 '' Museum of the Moon'', a similar spherical replica of the Moon, at a scale of about 1:500,000, or to .

References

''Gaia''
website
Science Museum

Moon artist Luke Jerram unveils giant Earth sculpture
BBC News, 20 July 2018 {{Luke Jerram artworks 2018 works Installation art works Installation art works by Luke Jerram