The astronomer-artist has visualized hundreds of exoplanets: some of them may contain life. Photo

Using real scientific data, artist Martin Vargic has visualized hundreds of exoplanets, some of which may contain life. The Slovakian artist emphasized that since "there is no way to determine what different exoplanets actually look like in detail, this makes them a rich space for creativity."

Until the 1990s, scientists could not be sure that stars beyond the Sun also had planets orbiting them. Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planet, or "exoplanet," about 30 years ago, more than 6,000 of these distant worlds have been discovered, with thousands more discovered but not yet confirmed, Space.com writes.

According to scientists, an exoplanet is any planet outside the solar system. Most often, this word refers to planets orbiting their own star, Nauka.ua reports.

The catalog of exoplanets, which is updated every time, contains many planets that are really impressive. The list includes such hot planets with iron rain or planets with fierce winds filled with glass. It is not surprising that exoplanets fascinate people outside the scientific academy.

"I have been interested in astronomy since I can remember. And I've always been fascinated by the idea that other planets orbit distant stars unlike anything else in the solar system," said Slovak artist and author of the Curious Space Compendium Martin Vargic.

The 26-year-old artist created the first version of the exoplanet infographic back in 2015. "After publishing my first book on maps and infographics, I decided to create another visual book, this time focusing on the universe, astronomy, and space exploration," Martin added.

Vargic's book has a whole section dedicated to exoplanets. The artist has organized the distant worlds by temperature, going from icy, Neptune-like worlds to blazing hot gas giants called "hot Jupiters" on page after page.

"The vast majority of existing exoplanets have never been depicted graphically before. They exist in people's minds simply as a series of numbers and figures describing their various orbital parameters and sizes. Graphics add texture, color, and shape. They become like real things, some of them possibly containing life," suggested Martin Vargic.

The artist added that in the near future he plans to continue to make even larger artistic visualizations of individual exoplanet systems. "I would like to finish an even bigger version of the poster that would include all known exoplanets, but it might take a few years," Vargic said.

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