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The research for the sun to paint 55 Cancri and e

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Firstly the aim of the research is to paint star be called 55 Cancri and exoplanet e. However, there are no photographic images of the planet e because it is an exoplanet of 55 Cancri which never produces the light itself also being located at 40.12 light years from the earth. It is impossible to see or take a photo with the technology at the time, we have to imagine to visualise it. Then, to make a beautiful and accurate painting of 55 Cancri e as possible, I start to paint the sun, 55 Cancri, and e in order. As a reason, 55 Cancri is almost same temperature and size. I aim to have a concrete image of the 55 Casolarsoler system via researching and painting the sun.

 

​THE SUN EXHIBITION

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I visited THE SUN exhibition at the science museum to know the sun more. The images are my notes about the sun wrote at the exhibition

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Those are the photograph of the sun's surface. The color is reddish orange, and generally, the detail is being covered by corona which is white smoke-like light. Black dots are called Sun Spot that appear the point about 2,000 cooler than the reset of the sun's surface.

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And those images are the principle of the sun's construction and the photos from each different wavelength of the light. The sun we can see from our eyes are the most right on top. We are watching the sun from only one wavelength usually, so it is impossible to define the actual colour and form of the sun.

Shape and colour

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This image from NASA is the anatomical chart of the sun. Sun is not a solid object. "The sun is a big ball of gas and plasma. Most of the gas — 91 percent — is hydrogen. It is converted into energy in the sun's core. The energy moves outward through the interior layers, into the sun's atmosphere, and is released into the solar system as heat and light."(2017, Sharp, T https://www.space.com/17170-what-is-the-sun-made-of.html) 

Sun is always circulating centering core. Not only the sun, but all stars are composed mainly of a core. Stars are born in the crowd of gas which is called nebula, these are shaped up by nuclear fusion and the power of gravity pulling down toward the centre of the star.

The sun looks very big from the earth, but actually, this is one of the middle sizes of stars in the universe, also the temperature is lower. The color of the sun is defined between yellow and orange depends on temperature. However, the actual colour of the star is impossible to find because we can see them from only a wavelength of light. 

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And an interesting about the sun is that everything emitted from the sun draws the orbit of the round because of gravity.

​Drawings of the Sun

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From the information above and the photo images of the sun from NASA, I draw those drawing to capture the image, and I chose one image to make an oil painting. The most colorful one because this is well representing the varied wavelength of the light. To paint the sun, I aim to the expression which isn't limited by the common sense of the sun at the earth. I want to express not The Sun, but one of the stars in the universe which is unmeasurable to a small life living on a planet by using the colors that are not in conventional and composition.

The text below is the quotation about the shape of stars and planets. It was quite important in order to imagine the formation of the sun.

 

The shape of small objects (like people and houses and mountains and small asteroids) are determined by their mechanical properties. You can take a rock and cut it into a particular shape and it will pretty much stay that way.

The larger the object, though, the stronger its gravitational field. Imagine that you want to build a really tall building. You have to make sure it has a really strong foundation, or the foundation will be crushed by the weight of the building and the building will fall. If there was anything really big sticking up on a planet or a star, gravity would pull it down.

If a planet was like a cube, the corners of the cube would be higher than the rest of the planet. Since planets and stars are so big, you cannot build a "foundation" strong enough to hold up those corners! Anything you built it out of would be too weak to hold them up. Gravity would eventually pull them down.

Even solid rock will flow like a liquid, although very slowly, if it is pulled by a very strong gravitational force for a very long time. Corners on a cubical planet or star would eventually just squish down.

Since gravity pulls toward the center of the planet or star, everything gets pulled down into a sphere. However, planets and stars are not really perfect spheres. They spin, so they bulge out a little around the equator. (http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/56-our-solar-system/planets-and-dwarf-planets/general-questions/231-why-are-stars-and-planets-round-beginner)

​The Mood Board of The Sun

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I made a mood board before paint on canvas. The idea came from the game-making. My collaborators must make it before starting the design of something not true. I found the mood board makes imaginary works much easier.

 I collected the image of the sun's surface, texture, the view from another wavelength of the light, and so on, and put them together on an board.

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