Space Art

[mdub]

whoa two suns....hmmm ...fantasy..

nice pics for sure.

[CaptGoodvibes]

Space is big and our spacecraft are very slow.

Sigworthy!

[madvlad]

Colors are just awesome, very cool for sure. Subscribed!

[dirkterrell]

I'm in for this. I think CP charges an arm and a leg for framed stuff, so maybe just put your prints up and let people get stuff framed local if they want to?

Ok, I put up a small print (16x20*):

http://www.cafepress.com/dirkterrell.701576053

A large print (23x35*)

http://www.cafepress.com/dirkterrell.614430305


* These are the sizes of the paper. Because I did this one at the HD aspect ratio ( 1.78 ) and their print sizes are at other ratios, I print the entire image on the paper so that the composition remains correct. What this means is that you will have to trim the edges before framing.

[TinkerinWstuff]

subscribed

for free

[FZ1Guy]

About a year ago, we discussed the discovery of Kepler-16 here and there has been a lot of activity in the field of planets around binary stars. In a few weeks, a team that I am on is going to announce the discovery of a planet in a very cool star system. When I can talk about the details publicly, I'll post here about it. Since I've been working on a lot of art recently, I thought I'd start this thread to share some of it since there seems to be some interest in the topic.

A double sunset:



A view of the aforementioned Kepler-16:



and a view of a wide binary system with two stars of very different temperatures:



When we announce our discovery (currently planning on Oct 11), I'll post some paintings of that system.

Just found some info on a possible habitable planet. Some artwork too.

Glises 581 G

[ATL]

Subscribed for some cool info and pics!
-Chris

[RajunCajun]

As always, Dirk, amazing and inspiring art and knowledge. Thanks for sharing,,, and looking forward to the 11th.

[dirkterrell]

Ok, now I can tell you about this new planet we discovered. Right now it's called PH1 (first planet discovery by Planet Hunters) but it'll be given a Kepler designation soon. It's a planet that is a little over six times the diameter of the Earth. Right now we can only put an upper limit on its mass of about half the mass of Jupiter but that will come down as we observe it longer. If I had to bet, I'd say it's between 25-50 times the mass of the Earth, so a gas giant probably similar to Neptune.

This is an exciting discovery because it is the first one to be found in a quadruple star system. The planet orbits a pair of stars that orbit each other while the other two stars are about 25 times as far away as Pluto is from the Sun, so out there a ways. The pair of stars (one about 1.4 times more massive than the Sun and the other about 0.4 times as massive) that the planet orbits eclipse each other, which allows us to do a very precise analysis of the properties of the stars, which in turn allows you to do a very precise analysis of certain properties of the planet.

I'm writing up a blog entry for the Planet Hunters site on my part in the discovery and I'll post a link to that when it's up for those who are interested. I also did a couple of paintings showing what the system might look like. Looking over the limb of the planet:



and from just above the clouds of the gas giant:



Here are the press release images done by someone else:

[Ghosty]

Wow! YOU are a part of history, that's amazing stuff. Can't wait to read more...

[dirkterrell]

BBC article on the discovery:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19950923

[TinkerinWstuff]

Thanks for sharing Dirk!

Love the art!

[dirkterrell]

Thanks for sharing Dirk!

Love the art!

Thanks buddy.

Here's the Daily Camera's take on it:

http://www.dailycamera.com/science-e...ce=most_viewed

[dirkterrell]

And a few other sites:

http://news.yahoo.com/amateur-team-f...155255068.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49419466...science-space/

http://www.space.com/18065-alien-pla...uns-stars.html

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/16/us/space-planet-four-suns/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/...t-with-4-suns/

[Ghosty]

Thanks buddy.

Here's the Daily Camera's take on it:

http://www.dailycamera.com/science-e...ce=most_viewed

Damn dude, you da man!

The research team, which includes Dirk Terrell, a Boulder-based astrophysicist with the Southwest Research Institute, earlier this year identified and confirmed the existence of the first known planet orbiting twin suns in a distant star system that is in turn orbited by a second set of distant stars.

[TinkerinWstuff]

Now that you're famous, I hope you'll remember your humble beginnings with the class clowns here at CSC

[dirkterrell]

Yeah, this and $3 will buy me a loaf of bread at the store.

[rybo]

I'll give you the $3

Dirk, I have no other words. Simply amazing.

[dirkterrell]

Dirk, I have no other words. Simply amazing.

I too am amazed. I've been doing this sort of thing for a long time, and it still amazes me that we can point a telescope at a faint little dot of light in the sky, run the data through a properly trained brain, and deduce this sort of information about that faint little dot.

[CaptGoodvibes]

All I can say is...

Awesome walks(posts) among us! Thanks for being a great thinker Dirk!

[dirkterrell]

A video linked from the front page of the CNN site:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t2#...-animation.cnn

[Clovis]

Dirk, that's simply amazing!! I read about this on fox news last week but had no idea this was your big announcement

[dirkterrell]

Here is another piece I did on the PH1 discovery, "Sunset on a Four-star World":

[TinkerinWstuff]

love it

And -

you can call this one "The Felix Baumgartner view"