With real scientific data, artist Martin Vargic has visualized hundreds of alien planets

艺术家马丁·瓦尔吉克（Martin Vargic）利用真实的科学数据，对数百颗外星球进行了可视化创作。

As shocking as it sounds today, prior to the 1990s, scientists couldn't be certain that stars beyond the sun also had planets orbiting them. Since the discovery of the first extra-solar planet, or "exoplanet," around 30 years ago, over 6,000 of these distant worlds have been revealed, with thousands more detected but not yet confirmed.

尽管今天听起来可能令人震惊，但在1990年代之前，科学家们无法确定太阳以外的恒星是否也有行星围绕它们运行。自从大约30年前发现第一颗系外行星，或者说“外星行星”以来，已经有超过6,000个这样的遥远世界被揭示出来，还有数千个被探测到但尚未得到确认。

The burgeoning exoplanet catalog has delivered a multitude of planets that really emphasize the "alien" in "alien worlds." With planets so hot they rain iron, planets with savage, glass-filled winds and planets so mishappen by their stars they roll around in their orbits like eggs, it is little wonder that exoplanets have captivated people beyond the hallowed halls of scientific academia, inspiring incredible and breathtaking works of art. One artist captivated by exoplanets is Martin Vargic, a Slovak artist and the author of the "Curious Cosmical Compendium."

越来越丰富的系外行星目录向我们展现了众多行星上真正“外星世界”上的“奇异”风采。有些行星的温度高到足以降下铁雨，有些行星则会降下玻璃雨，还有些行星因为过于靠近它们的恒星而在轨道上翻滚，宛如旋转的鸡蛋。这些奇异的现象不仅在科学界引起了巨大轰动，也激发了人们创作出许多令人惊叹的艺术作品。斯洛伐克艺术家马丁·瓦尔吉克（Martin Vargic）便是那些被系外行星魅力所吸引的艺术家之一，他不仅创作了令人着迷的艺术作品，还是《宇宙奥秘大百科》一书的作者。

"I have been interested in astronomy since I can remember and was always captivated by the idea of other planets orbiting distant stars unlike anything in the solar system," 26-year-old Vargic told Space.com. "In 2015, I created the first version of what would eventually become my exoplanet infographics. After publishing my first book dedicated to maps and map-inspired infographics, I decided to create another visual book, this time focused on the universe, astronomy and space exploration."

“从我记事起，我就对天文学充满兴趣，对于那些围绕遥远恒星旋转、与我们太阳系截然不同的行星充满了好奇，”26岁的瓦尔吉克在接受太空网采访时表示。“2015年，我着手制作了首个系外行星信息图表。在我出版了第一本专注于地图和地图风格信息图表的书籍之后，决定再创作一本视觉书籍，这次的主题聚焦于宇宙、天文学和太空探索。”

The book, which Vargic said took almost three years to complete, featured chapters such as "Scale of the Universe," "Timeline of the Universe" and, of course, an entire section focused on exoplanets. The artist organized these worlds by temperature, ascending page-by-page from Neptune-like ice worlds to blazing hot gas giants called "hot Jupiters."

瓦尔吉奇表示，完成这本书耗费了将近三年的时间。书中包含了“宇宙的尺度”、“宇宙的时间线”等章节，并且专门有一章深入探讨系外行星。这位艺术家根据温度对这些星球进行了分类，从类似海王星的冰冷世界逐渐过渡到被称为“热木星”的炽热气体巨行星。

This progression led up to "failed star" brown dwarfs, or objects that form like stars, but have masses between the most massive planet we know of and the least massive star in our books. Brown dwarfs also can't trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines what a "main sequence star" is.

这一进展揭示了所谓的“失败恒星”——褐矮星，或者说是类似恒星形成物体的存在，它们的质量介于我们所知的最大质量行星和最小质量恒星之间。褐矮星也无法在其核心发生氢到氦的核聚变反应，而这一过程正是定义“主序星”的关键特征。

Related: James Webb Space Telescope wins 'race against time' to directly observe young exoplanet

相关资料：詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜在直接观测年轻系外行星方面取得了重大进展，这一成就确实可以被形容为一场“与时间的赛跑”。

Artwork of exoplanets, such as that created by Vargic, is valuable because, unlike other celestial objects such as stars and nebulas, exoplanets are usually too dim and too distant to be visualized directly. In fact, it is partially this element of mystery that inspires Vargic.

瓦尔吉奇创作的系外行星艺术作品之所以珍贵，是因为它们与恒星、星云等其他天体不同，系外行星通常太过暗淡且遥远，难以被直接观测到。实际上，正是这种神秘感激发了瓦尔吉奇的创作灵感。

"We have no way to determine how different exoplanets really look in detail yet, and this makes them a rich space for creativity," he explained. "The vast majority of existing exoplanets on the graphic have never been portrayed graphically before, existing in the minds of people just as a series of numbers and digits describing their different orbital parameters and size, the graphic adding texture, color and shape as the real objects they are, some of them possibly harboring life."

他解释道：“我们目前还无法确切描绘出不同系外行星的具体外观，这为我们发挥创造力提供了广阔的空间。”“在图形上，绝大多数现存的系外行星以前从未被视觉化过，它们在人们心中只是一系列描述其不同轨道参数和大小的数字。通过图形，我们为它们添加了纹理、色彩和形状，仿佛它们是真实存在的物体，其中一些可能孕育着生命。”

Another aspect that fires up Vargic creatively is the huge variety and truly alien nature of exoplanets when compared to the relatively mundane and "safe" planets of the solar system.

另一个激发瓦尔吉奇创造力的方面在于，与太阳系中那些相对普通且“温和”的行星相比，系外行星展现出了巨大的多样性和真正的异域特质。

"The variety and diversity of the few thousand exoplanets we already know of is impressive. The planets in our solar system, varied as they are, represent only a minuscule part of a large, broad spectrum of planetary scale and temperature," he said. "Even very similar exoplanets could differ in striking ways. Different star systems having formed from distant nebulas of dust and gas could have different ratios of elements, and the process of formation and planetary evolution would be different depending on the size, activity, and spectrum of planets and their parent stars, making some planets richer or poorer in some chemical elements with potentially exotic consequences."

他说道：“我们已知的数千颗系外行星的多样性确实令人惊叹。虽然我们太阳系内的行星各具特色，但它们只是代表了广阔行星尺度和温度谱系中的一个微小片段。”“即便是那些看似相似的系外行星，也可能存在惊人的差异。不同的恒星系统由遥远的尘埃和气体星云形成，可能含有不同的元素比例。根据行星及其宿主恒星的大小、活跃度和光谱类型，行星的形成和演化过程也会有所差异，这可能导致某些行星在特定化学元素上更为丰富或更为稀缺，进而引发一些奇异的效应。”

The artist added that other differing characteristics, such as rotation speed, would lead to variations in exoplanets' cloud bands, atmospheric currents and equatorial bulges. Vargic has tried to reflect this variety in his work.

这位艺术家进一步指出，诸如自转速度等其他不同的特征，会导致系外行星的云带、大气环流以及赤道隆起等特征出现变化。瓦尔吉奇在他的作品中努力体现这种多样性。

"I decided to vary the color tones and the clouds structures of otherwise similar planets to represent this and make the infographic more varied and colorful," he explained.

“我决定通过调整其他相似行星的色调和云结构来体现这一点，同时也让信息图表变得更加多样化和色彩丰富，”他解释说。

Of course, with such a wide range of exoplanets out there, it is only natural for exoplanet enthusiasts to have a few favorites. And Vargic is no exception.

当然，面对如此众多的系外行星，系外行星爱好者们自然会有几个特别钟爱的。瓦尔吉奇也不例外。

"One is Kepler 277b, an ultradense, rocky planet more massive than Saturn with a crushing surface gravity of over ten times that of Earth," Vargic said. "The TRAPPIST-1 system is also fascinating because it has so many Earth-sized planets orbiting incredibly close to each other."

“其中之一是开普勒-277b，这是一颗比土星还要大的超致密岩石行星，其表面重力超过地球的十倍，”瓦尔吉奇提到。“TRAPPIST-1系统同样引人入胜，因为它拥有多颗与地球大小相近的行星，它们之间的轨道距离非常接近。”

"Also fascinating is the fact that the star TRAPPIST-1 has a potential future lifespan of over 10 trillion years long, allowing potential lifeforms to exist and develop into the future for up to a thousand times longer than on Earth," he said.

“同样令人着迷的是，TRAPPIST-1恒星的预期寿命超过10万亿年，这为潜在生命形式提供了比地球长一千倍的时间来存在和发展，”他说道。

In terms of the art he has created thus far, Vargic said that his favorite exoplanet to design has been WASP-12 B. Located 1,400 light years from Earth, this exoplanet is so close to its star that it has been distorted into an egg-like shape.

就他迄今为止创作的艺术作品而言，瓦尔吉奇表示，他最喜爱的设计之一是WASP-12b这颗系外行星。这颗行星距离地球1400光年，由于它与宿主恒星的距离非常近，以至于已经被潮汐力扭曲成了鸡蛋状的形状。

"Hot gas continuously escapes from the permanently star-facing 'day side' of WASP-12 B, which is siphoned by its hot star. It is estimated it will be completely consumed in less than 10 million years," Vargic said. "TRES-2b was also one of my favorite planets to design because it is the least reflective known planet. Perhaps Kepler-1652b — a super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone — it is a possible candidate for an 'eyeball planet' that could have one hemisphere perpetually covered by ice and the other by a liquid ocean."

瓦尔吉奇说：“WASP-12b这颗系外行星的‘白天面’，即永久面向恒星的一面，不断有热气体逸出，被其炽热的恒星所吸走。据估计，它将在不到1000万年的时间内被完全消耗殆尽。”“TRES-2b也是我特别喜欢设计的行星之一，因为它是已知反射率最低的行星。或许开普勒-1652b——一颗位于宜居带的超级地球——也是‘眼球行星’的候选者，它的一个半球永远被冰覆盖，而另一个半球则被液态水的海洋所覆盖。”

Vargic explained how his art goes way beyond planets outside the solar system, with many other celestial bodies catching his attention.

瓦尔吉奇解释说，他的艺术创作不仅限于太阳系外的行星，许多其他的天体也引起了他的兴趣。

"I have visualized and explored many other interesting cosmic objects in the chapter 'Scale of the Universe' in my book 'Curious Cosmical Compendium,' comparing the sizes of asteroids, dwarf planets and dwarf stars to giant stars, quasars, black holes, nebulas, star clusters and galaxies," Vargic said.

“在《好奇的宇宙简编》一书的‘宇宙尺度’章节中，我对许多其他有趣的宇宙天体进行了可视化和探索，比较了小行星、矮行星、矮星与巨星、类星体、黑洞、星云、星团和星系的大小，”瓦尔吉奇说。

The artist added that he also plans to create a "Scale of the Universe" poster, showing the scale of various cosmic objects at gradually increasing orders of magnitude, from satellites and asteroids to the entire observable universe.

艺术家补充道，他还有计划制作一幅“宇宙的尺度”海报，该海报将以递增的量级展示不同宇宙天体的尺寸，从卫星、小行星一直到整个可观测宇宙。

"Regarding exoplanets, for the near future, I plan to continue making more artistic visualizations of individual exoplanetary systems," Vargic concluded. "I would like to finish an even bigger version of the exoplanet poster that would include every known exoplanet, but that might take a few years to get to."

“谈到系外行星，我计划在不久的将来继续创作更多单个系外行星系统的艺术可视化作品，”瓦尔吉奇总结说。“我希望能够完成一个更全面的系外行星海报，涵盖所有已知的系外行星，但这可能需要数年的时间来实现。”

You can check out Vargic's stunning celestial artwork on his website here.

你可以访问瓦尔吉奇的网站，欣赏他那些令人叹为观止的天体艺术作品。