The Orange Planet

This artist impression of a somewhat mysterious orange planet is a follow-up to the visualisation of the planet Night Watch, found elsewhere in my webshop. That celestial body orbits, at 910 million light years from Earth, the star Starry Night.

Both names were chosen by the Dutch public in 2019, following a call by the International Astronomical Union. They refer to the paintings of Rembrandt and Van Gogh, of course.

I visualised Night Watch as a red-white-and-blue, Jupiter-like gas giant. That the planet is a gas giant seems very likely; the red-white-blue is a wild guess, but for now we won't know anyway.

But the Netherlands have another national colour: orange. And in the system of Starry Night there are most likely even more planets. That idea led to this image of one of Night Watch's neighbouring planets. To stay in the theme, I have named him/her The Girl With The Pearl Earring.

A fascinating and geologically active planet it certainly is. We see a planetary system of spiralling shapes with darker and lighter shades of orange. Are they seas and land masses? Scholars have not yet decided. In any case, in the "seas" we see objects that look like bubbles bubbling up. And on the night side of the planet, those areas also seem to be somewhat luminous.

The Girl With A Pearl Earring has an atmosphere and we also see cloud formations. That the atmosphere can be breathed in by humans without problems seems out of the question. Anyone who wants to explore the orange planet will need a decent spacesuit. And, of course, a spaceship that enables one to cross those 910 light years in a reasonable amount of time