Hairu - discovered 2011

Exoplanet Paintings.

Thousands of years ago, ancient civilizations looked towards the heavens, intrigued and inspired by the mysteries and points of light. The ancient Greeks named them planets, translated to ‘wanderers.” These communities worshipped various gods and often linked their gods with these “wandering stars” and named them as such.

Today there are 4424 known exoplanets (a planet beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun which is also referred to as the ‘extrasolar planet”). Exoplanets are made up of elements similar to those of the planets in our solar system, but the different combination of those elements create unique orbs. For example, some planets may be dominated by water or ice, while others are dominated by iron or carbon and it goes on from there.

Exoplanets come in different sizes from massive to rocky planets similar to the size of Earth. There are four categories; Gas Giants, Terrestrial, Neptune-link and Super-Earth.

Exoplanet discoveries started in the early 1990’s as new technology came to be.

This collection of Orbs are the exoplanets as I imagine them to look like.