5/24/2017 The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One Can See ­ WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the­sky­is­orange­how­nasa­artists­draw­planets­no­one­can­see­1490800781 1/4 The way David Delgado sees it, the exotic seashore on a newly discovered planet around a star called Trappist-1 would dazzle any tourist, not to mention the sight of six other alien worlds hanging in its sky like Christmas balls. Mr. Delgado has never actually seen the planet. No one has. Astronomers who announced the discovery in February measured only the telltale wink of starlight as it passed in front of the cool reddish star 39 light years from Earth. But that hasn’t stopped Mr. Delgado and his colleagues at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from creating posters that extol the attractions of Trappist-1e—and other unseen worlds orbiting distant stars. On a planet called Kepler-16b, for instance, which orbits two stars, a space- suited Earthling revels in the novelty of casting two shadows, before a vista of red lands giving way to purple mountains beneath a tangerine sky. Mr. Delgado is a visual strategist at The Studio of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., one of the many artists, designers and illustrators working to produce a picture of the cosmos that in some ways doesn’t actually exist. “We are trying to present a plausible reality,” he says. This copy is for your personal, non­commercial use only. To order presentation­ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers visit http://www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the­sky­is­orange­how­nasa­artists­draw­planets­no­one­can­see­1490800781 A-HED The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One Can See As astronomers discover unseen worlds, illustrators do their best to capture a plausible reality without veering into science fiction; ‘a bit of a tug of war’ This illustration shows one possible scenario for the exoplanet called 55 Cancri e. PHOTO: NASA/JPL­CALTECH Updated March 29, 2017 11:49 a.m. ET By Robert Lee Hotz Trappist­1e https://www.wsj.com/news/types/a-hed 5/24/2017 The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One Can See ­ WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/the­sky­is­orange­how­nasa­artists­draw­planets­no­one­can­see­1490800781 2/4 Astronomers are finding thousands of worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. In the absence of direct images, the public knows these alien worlds only through lavish illustrations produced by NASA and by the observatories that discovered them, in an audacious blending of science and art. So far, astronomers know the mass, density and orbits of the seven worlds around the Trappist-1 star. They haven’t detected water or atmospheres but several might be warm enough that, in theory, liquid water could exist there. So the artists added oceans to their illustrations, which are posted on NASA websites and republished in newspapers and magazines world-.

1. 5/24/2017
The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One C
an See - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sky-is-orange-how-nasa-artists
-draw-planets-no-one-can-see-1490800781 1/4
The way David Delgado sees it, the exotic seashore on a newly
discovered planet around
a star called Trappist-1 would dazzle any tourist, not to mention
the sight of six other
alien worlds hanging in its sky like Christmas balls.
Mr. Delgado has never actually
seen the planet. No one has.
Astronomers who announced
the discovery in February
measured only the telltale wink
of starlight as it passed in front
of the cool reddish star 39 light
years from Earth. But that hasn’t
stopped Mr. Delgado and his
colleagues at the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration from creating
posters that extol the attractions
of Trappist-1e—and other
unseen worlds orbiting distant
stars.
On a planet called Kepler-16b,
for instance, which orbits two

2. stars, a space-
suited Earthling revels in the novelty of casting two shadows,
before a vista of red lands
giving way to purple mountains beneath a tangerine sky.
Mr. Delgado is a visual strategist at The Studio of NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., one of the many artists, designers and
illustrators working to produce a
picture of the cosmos that in some ways doesn’t actually exist.
“We are trying to present
a plausible reality,” he says.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To ord
er presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues,
clients or customers visit
http://www.djreprints.com.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sky-is-orange-how-nasa-artists
-draw-planets-no-one-can-see-1490800781
A-HED
The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists
Draw Planets No One Can See
As astronomers discover unseen worlds, illustrators do their
best to capture a plausible
reality without veering into science fiction; ‘a bit of a tug of
war’
This illustration shows one possible scenario for the exoplanet c
alled 55 Cancri e. PHOTO: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
Updated March 29, 2017 11:49 a.m. ET
By Robert Lee Hotz

3. Trappist-1e
https://www.wsj.com/news/types/a-hed
5/24/2017
The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One C
an See - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sky-is-orange-how-nasa-artists
-draw-planets-no-one-can-see-1490800781 2/4
Astronomers are finding
thousands of worlds outside
our solar system, known as
exoplanets. In the absence of
direct images, the public
knows these alien worlds only
through lavish illustrations
produced by NASA and by the
observatories that discovered
them, in an audacious
blending of science and art.
So far, astronomers know the
mass, density and orbits of the
seven worlds around the
Trappist-1 star. They haven’t
detected water or
atmospheres but several
might be warm enough that, in
theory, liquid water could
exist there. So the artists
added oceans to their
illustrations, which are posted

4. on NASA websites and
republished in newspapers
and magazines world-wide.
Sometimes, these visions spur
arguments about artistic
liberties and misleading first
impressions. “They are
assuming more about these
planets than we can possibly,
possibly know,” says planetary
scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton,
director of the School of Earth
and Space Exploration at
Arizona State University and
principal investigator for the
space agency’s Psyche asteroid
mission.
Other researchers worry about a public backlash if reality can’t
live up to its image.
“Ultimately there is a danger that it could backfire, when we
spend billions of dollars
building a telescope to examine those worlds more closely and
discover that each one is
a barren, crummy planet,” says astrobiologist Caleb Scharf at
Columbia University in
New York.
But when scientific understanding falls short, imagination will
fill the void. Thus, a
Trappist-1 exoplanet features seaside caverns of ice and
meandering streams under
cloudy skies, according to images released by NASA and the
European Southern
Observatory.

5. Kepler-22b—which might have a volatile liquid or gaseous
shell—is shown as a cloud-
swept swirl of turquoise-colored seas. The world cataloged as
“55 Cancri e” first
appeared in public as a planet composed of dazzling diamond
crystals because scientists
speculated it could be mostly carbon. Now, based on recent
infrared readings, it is
depicted as a world engulfed in fiery lava flows.
Astronomy relies on images to make data come to life. In their
research, modern
astronomers work with data recorded in infrared, ultraviolet,
microwave, or X-ray
wavelengths beyond the capacity of the human eye—or with
subtle differences in light
This poster imagines a trip to Trappist-1e. PHOTO: NASA/JPL-
CALTECH
An artist’s conception of Kepler-22b. PHOTO: NASA/AMES/JP
L-CALTECH
5/24/2017
The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One C
an See - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sky-is-orange-how-nasa-artists
-draw-planets-no-one-can-see-1490800781 3/4
intensity that are
too fine for the
human eye to

6. discern. A pixel
may represent a
single planet or a
galaxy of a
million stars.
While striving for
accuracy,
astronomers, too,
embellish the images of stars, nebulas and far away galaxies
that they display to the
general public, says Stanford University visual scholar
Elizabeth Kessler, author of
“Picturing The Cosmos.” Structure and colors in Hubble Space
Telescope or Spitzer
Space Telescope images, for example, may hew to scientific
observations, but cosmic
landmarks are enhanced digitally to be made brighter, bolder,
and more florid.
“There is a bit of a tug of war between the artist and the
astronomer,” says
anthropologist Lisa Messeri at the University of Virginia, who
studies how scientists
transform planets into memorable places that capture public
imagination. “It’s how
data becomes worlds and how the inanimate becomes
meaningful.”
When choosing colors for a
planetary close-up, artists and
astronomers can argue for
days over “thousands of
artistic choices,” says
visualization artist Robert

7. Hurt at the California
Institute of Technology, who
works on exoplanet
illustrations for NASA with
Caltech computer graphics
expert Tim Pyle.
Don’t make the ocean too
azure blue, lest it seem too much like Earth. Don’t ever use the
color green, which hints
at vegetation. “We try to avoid anything that might imply there
is life,” Mr. Pyle says.
In illustrations of a Trappist-1 exoplanet, astronomers wanted
the landscape dark red,
to match the light from the red dwarf star it orbits. The artists
objected. “Artistically, we
are not fond of deep red because it washes out all the colors,”
says Mr. Pyle.
Dr. Hurt studied the color temperature of the starlight. “It was
more consistent with a
low wattage lightbulb and not a red-hot burner on a stove,” he
says. The scientists
weren’t convinced. Then he compared the spectrum of starlight
to the optical responses
of the human eye. He argued that human eyes wouldn’t be able
to see the red tint
because it was too far into the infrared.
”The color is more like a salmon-orange and not a red,” he says.
Guided by that hue, Mr. Delgado’s team then made a poster that
showed tourists arriving
on the exoplanet, which is labeled the “best Hab Zone vacation
within 12 parsecs of

8. Earth.” They stylized the image to resemble a vintage travel
poster from the 1930s and
unveiled it during NASA’s public announcement of the
discovery.
Within days, NASA and the European Southern Observatory
posted 3-dimensional
virtual reality tours offering different perspectives of the
Trappist-1 worlds, based on
artists’ conceptions.
“We are one step closer to the science fiction we all grew up
on,” says Mr. Delgado. “It’s
all coming true.”
An artist’s conception of the exoplanet Trappist-1f. PHOTO: N
ASA/JPL-CALTECH/T. PYLE (IPAC)
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5/24/2017
The Sky Is Orange! How NASA Artists Draw Planets No One C
an See - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sky-is-orange-how-nasa-artists
-draw-planets-no-one-can-see-1490800781 4/4
Write to Robert
Lee Hotz at
[email protected]
wsj.com
Copyright ©2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Ri
ghts Reserved
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To ord
er presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues,
clients or customers visit
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An artist’s imagined view from the surface of a Trappist-1 plane
t. PHOTO: ESO/M. KORNMESSER
mailto:[email protected]