GeminiFocus May 2014 | Page 25

Figure 8. times younger and is orbited by hundreds of thousands of times more dust, suggesting catastrophic collisions in an evolving young planetary system. While working on this art I felt I was aboard a time machine, transporting myself into the past to witness two planets crashing into each other, spewing chucks of rock. Two Earth-sized bodies collide near HD 23514. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA; artwork by Lynette Cook. http://www.gemini.edu/ node/259 Topping that, an “Outer Limits” mystery: the case of the TYC 8241 2652 system. Several years ago it had all the cha racteristics of solar system formation. Today, however, the warm dust thought to originate from collisions of rocky planets is nearly all gone. What happened to it? For this news article I developed two images that show the “before” and “after” views. These were provided via the Observatory’s website as stills and also as an animation. [http://www.gemini.edu/node/11836] Figure 9. The dusty TYC 8241 2652 system as it might have appeared several years ago when it was emitting large amounts of excess infrared radiation. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA artwork by Lynette Cook. Communication is Key It is said that “too many cooks spoil the broth.” This usually means that the more people in the mix when it comes to input and decisionmaking, the more complicated the process becomes (also the more diluted and tasteless the results). To my delight, however, those with whom I’ve worked on press release artwork have been stellar (no pun intended). Able to narrow in on the most important elements of the science and what needs to be shown — and also able to communicate the finer details of size, color, texture, object relationships, and more — I’ve felt that these collaborations have gone exceedingly well, without the huge bumps in the road and frustrating impasses that can occur when individuals gather to move toward a common goal. While good communication is necessary with Peter and the astronomers, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, this process moves in secrecy. One mustn’t spill the beans about a release before its time. When someone outside our group asks what I am working on, I bite my tongue and reply with an April 2014 answer that ranges from “Oh, nothing much” to “Just a ‘star thing.’” Recipe for Success One process that can help reach the goal of creating successful art is to treasure hunt for existing photos and other imagery that might have a bearing on the new art. A prime example is using Voyager photos of Jupiter as a resource to depict exoplanets of several Jupiter masses. This said, no photo GeminiFocus Figure 10. Most of the surrounding dust has disappeared — based on observations by the Gemini Observatory and other groundand space-based observatories. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA; artwork by Lynette Cook. 23