Chara
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astrochara.bsky.social
Chara
@astrochara.bsky.social
230 followers 130 following 180 posts
Astronomy student, planetary science and exoplanet enthusiast, amateur artist.
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astrochara.bsky.social
Yesterday, two preprint about #Quaoar dropped on arXiv. One is about its second moon discovered by stellar occultation. The other constrains the orbit of the known moon Weywot. But I was drawn to its findings on Quaoar. (More in alt text)

#art #astronomy #space #SolarSystem #planet #dwarfplanet
This artwork depicts Quaoar, a Solar System dwarf planet. It is depicted as a brownish, tholin-covered, triaxial-shaped world, with darkened poles due to higher concentrations of dark-coloured tholins, reminiscent of Charon. The planet features a number of easily-visible impact craters that produced white-ish ejecta, marking its surface. Quaoar has two known rings; the inner one is faintly visible in this image.
November 12, 2025 at 8:11 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
A study on drawing a hot Jupiter's nightside.

The dayside is overexposed. The nightside is pinkish from the combination of blackbody radiation and absorption from Na/K/H2O, similar to brown dwarfs.

#art #astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #HotJupiter
This image depicts a hot Jupiter's crescent, being illuminated by a host star located off-screen to the bottom left. The dayside, being overexposed, is pure white, and the atmosphere shows up as a white glow surrounding the dayside. The nightside is dull pinkish, with cooler clouds showing up as darker regions. The two large hemispherical storms appear on the image as well.
October 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
Two fictional warm neptunians. I would've made this an art of real exoplanets, but frankly I don't actually *know* that many exoplanets...

The right one "Skanbou" is closer in / hotter. The left one "Kellun" is further out / cooler.

#astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #art
This artwork depicts a foreshortened image of two planets: hazy, featureless-looking neptunians with different colours. The right one is closer to the star and hotter, and has yellowish/greenish haze over subtle cloud deck of potassium chloride. The left one is further from the star and cooler, and features brownish haze.
October 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
Today's arXiv day brought us a really cool paper that analyzed the two stars of 55 Cancri. It detected the known planets around A, and found TWO new planets around the B.
arxiv.org/abs/2510.11523

Here's my quick art of Harriot, one of the planets around A.

#astronomy #space #exoplanet #planet #art
A depiction of the extrasolar planet 55 Cancri A f, or Harriot. It is depicted as a beige-coloured hazy giant planet with some bright high-altitude clouds. A fictional irregularly-shaped moon transits in front of it.
October 14, 2025 at 10:39 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
I really have not been posting art for a long time, so I figured I should draw and post something. Here's a human girl.

#art
The image is a sketch of a human girl. Their hair is done into a short twin tail. They wear a jacket over a casual T-shirt, and a miniskirt. They wore a belt over their jacket.
October 4, 2025 at 7:36 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Mars's Inner Core?

#art #gijinka #astronomy #space #SolarSystem #planet #Mars
This artwork shows the personified Mars. A section of the planet is removed, showing the internal structure of Mars, consisting of core, mantle, and crust. The inner core may exist, and is depicted as an iron question mark, indicating the need to reconcile its detection with other known features like the basal magma ocean.
September 4, 2025 at 5:40 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
A depiction of the Ice Giant and its satellites, from my group (Curious community)'s proposal for the default starting system for Kitten Space Agency.

#art #astronomy #space #planet #KittenSpaceAgency
This artwork depicts the Ice Giant, a ringed planet with blue and yellow colours, and its five moons. Clockwise from top right, their placeholder names are the Pan-like moon, the Enceladus-like moon, the Miranda-like moon, the Titania-like moon, and the Titan-like moon.
August 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
My take on LHS 1140 b. A water-rich planet orbiting in the outer habitable zone around its M-dwarf star, JWST observation found that it may have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Here is my depiction of this planet as a fully frozen-over ocean planet.

#art #astronomy #space #planet #exoplanet #LHS1140b
This artwork depicts an extrasolar planet LHS 1140 b. It is depicted as a pale blueish orb with thin, wispy clouds above a fully frozen surface. The pale blue colour comes from its atmosphere.
August 21, 2025 at 8:16 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Long time no drawing... Here's #Caelus, the seventh main planet of the Solar System, whom I drew ages ago and only coloured just now. A new moon around them, S/2025 U 1, has just been announced.

#art #personification #gijinka #astronomy #space #SolarSystem #planet #Uranus
A gijinka of Caelus. They wear a brighter white polar hood + collar capelet, darker sky blue gloves, and a long skirt.
August 20, 2025 at 8:03 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Ross 128 b

Detected by radial velocity, its *minimum* mass is around 1.4 Earths, but the true mass depends on the orientation of its orbit relative to us. It was found to have a curiously eccentric orbit. This is my take on this planet.

#astronomy #space #art #planet #exoplanet #Ross128
The image depicts the exoplanet Ross 128 b, here imagined as a sub-Neptunian in a face-on orbit, resulting in the observed mass being far smaller than its actual mass.
July 21, 2025 at 3:09 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
K2-18 b

A temperate mini-Neptune orbiting the M-dwarf K2-18, this planet was subjected to multiple claims of it possessing a water ocean beneath hydrogen atmosphere. The current knowledge of this planet does not favour this interpretation.

#astronomy #space #art #planet #exoplanet #K2-18b
The image depicts a fictional depiction of the exoplanet K2-18 b. The planet appears yellowish due to illumination from the star; without it, the planet would appear pale from water clouds, with blueish tint from methane, and possibly brownish tint from haze. Some white high-altitude cloud streaks away from the substellar point towards the terminator. Though it appears bright in visible light, methane absorption makes it appear dark in near infrared which most of the light from its star is emitted as, resulting in this planet having low Bond albedo.
July 20, 2025 at 2:36 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
Theia: The Plot Device

Theia is commonly depicted as a generic airless planet with lava pools on its cratered surface...essentially the popular, outdated depiction of how Earth was when it was young. Here's my take on this hypothetical planet.

#astronomy #space #art #SolarSystem #planet #Theia
The image depicts the hypothetical planet Theia, which was invoked to have collided with Earth to form the Moon when the Solar System was young. The planet is depicted as a temperate world with volcanic islands and even huge magma plume uplifts under the thick, hazy atmosphere. Also in the image is a fictional depiction of the collisional history of the inner planets; the top of this diagram shows the surviving planets: Mercury, Venus, a fictional planet, Earth, Theia, Mars, and another fictional planet. The two fictional planets would later be ejected.
July 20, 2025 at 6:30 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Jikara begrudgingly accompanying brother out of the house they have been staying at. A scene from Mars in @triplchii.bsky.social's #Let'sTravelToTheStars.

#art #fanart #scifi #Mars
A representative scene from Mars. In the foreground are Jikara (left) begrudgingly following the brother (right, by a pole). The scenery is that of a partially terraformed Mars, with the brown surface covered by hardy plants, small blobs of genetically engineered yaretas, and piles of melting snow leftover from snowier months. A house is seen on the left side of the background, with many more white poles marking the road connecting it to an industrial zone in the distance, working on terraforming the planet. The sky is overcast.
July 1, 2025 at 7:18 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Alika and 0pal watching the local launch loop from several hundred kilometres away. A scene from Earth in @triplchii.bsky.social's #Let'sTravelToTheStars.

#art #fanart #scifi
A representative scene from Earth. In the foreground are Alika (right) and 0pal (left), watching the launch loop which shows up as a large white structure in the background. A city, as well as a rainstorm over a forest, show up on the horizon.
June 30, 2025 at 5:49 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
An orrery of the inner Solar System in 2657 CE, from @triplchii.bsky.social's「Let's Travel to the Stars」setting.

#fanart #astronomy #space #art #SolarSystem #planets
A diagram of the inner Solar System. At the centre is the Sun, surrounded by Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Vesta, and Ceres. Each is accompanied by some structures like habitats. Venus is being cooled by a sunshade, and underneath its clouds it now features cold temperatures and constant carbon dioxide rain feeding a growing ocean. Exotic lifeforms inhabit its landmasses, proof of genetic engineering expertise of their creators. Earth experienced great climate shifts in the past, the effects of which are still felt today. Most spectacularly, the planet now features red flora occupying grass and shrub niches in most parts of the planet, while the few surviving forests form green patches, usually near the poles. Mars is currently being terraformed; it now features an ocean in the north, hardy plants covering vast swathes of the surface, and a snowy climate.
June 28, 2025 at 12:36 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
After working on worldbuilding this system with friends, I would like to present: Epsilon Indi A b. Quite a similar planet to 14 Herculis c, but apparently has methane detection (which doesn't mean the latter doesn't have it).

#astronomy #space #art #planet #exoplanet #EpsilonIndi
This artwork depicts the extrasolar planet Epsilon Indi A b as a massive gas giant. The haze is thin, exposing the white and blue bands caused by clouds of water and methane absorption respectively. The planet is tinted orangish by the light of its K5V type host star Epsilon Indi A. A shadow of a hypothetical moon can be seen at the bottom right of the planet; careful consideration reveals this moon is misaligned from the planet's equator. This was caused by the dynamical instability which sent the planet into its current orbit.
June 25, 2025 at 11:25 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
A thread to put my art on Ægir (Epsilon Eridani b), part of my project to build this planetary system.

#astronomy #space #art #exoplanet #EpsilonEridani
This artwork depicts Epsilon Eridani b, or Ægir, as a Jupiter-like planet. It also features three fictional major satellites based on the Galilean moons, scaled correctly relative to the planet.
June 16, 2025 at 2:19 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
A depiction of Ægir (Epsilon Eridani b) with a fictional moon in the foreground.

#astronomy #space #art #exoplanet #EpsilonEridani
This art depicts the extrasolar planet Epsilon Eridani b, as well as a fictional icy moon in the foreground.
June 14, 2025 at 11:13 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
The recent news of #JWST imaging of 14 Herculis c prompted me to draw my own depiction of the planet. A superjovian planet with water clouds kept warm by internal heat, it has thin haze due to low radiation, making it white-blue due to methane.

#astronomy #space #art #exoplanet #14Herculis
The image shows a white giant planet with blue-coloured bands. The planet is very slightly tinted orangish by both the thin haze, as well as the parent star's light, but is still overall blueish-white.
June 13, 2025 at 4:22 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
History of Venus

Young Venus probably received too much sunlight for water to ever condense on its surface; instead the water stayed in the atmosphere, gradually lost, until Venus desiccated and became the dry, hot world we know today.

#astronomy #space #art #SolarSystem #planet #Venus
The picture depicts the history of Venus as I understand it. The planet initially started out with a magma ocean, not unlike Earth. When this magma ocean cooled, water began to be outgassed. Unlike Earth however, this water failed to condense out of the atmosphere; instead it remained in the air, making the atmosphere water-rich. Atmospheric water vapour absorbs red light, causing the planet to turn blue, and suppresses cloud formation on dayside. Over time, water was lost, one way or another. This eventually dried Venus up, resulting in the planet we know of today: one with carbon dioxide and nitrogen rich atmosphere maintaining a hot, dry surface, and shrouded by clouds of water and sulfuric acid. The image features a brief "poem" which writes "Where rain ever fell, Tell tales never told, Bold unchanging lands".
June 9, 2025 at 11:04 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Siderian Terra: The Breakthrough

Perhaps one of the most important moments in the history of Terra, one over a billion years in the making.

See more information in Alt Text!

#astronomy #space #art #SolarSystem #planet #Earth #gijinka
The image depicts Earth during the Siderian Period, during the event known as Great Oxidation Event. Oxygen produced by cyanobacteria finally began to accumulate in the planet's atmosphere during this time, and the planet enters a glaciation event. Although widely believed to be one, there is little evidence of a global glaciation ("snowball Earth") during this time; evidence suggests something more comparable to the modern day Quaternary glaciation. The atmospheric oxygen reacted with iron dissolved in the ocean, producing swathes of rusty red seas. The oxidized iron sank to the ocean floor, producing banded iron formation.
June 8, 2025 at 11:54 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
Hadean Terra: Earth when it was young.

Very little rock remained to tell the story of what the Hadean Eon was like; what we know is mostly based on theories and meteorites.

See more information in Alt Text!

#astronomy #space #art #SolarSystem #planet #Earth #gijinka
The Hadean Eon is the first eon in the history of Earth, spanning from around 4.5 to 4.0 billion years ago. This image depicts my current understanding of its evolution during the early stages of the Hadean Eon. Towards the beginning of this eon, a Mars-sized protoplanet known as Theia impacted the proto-Earth, producing Earth and the Moon. This event likely melted the planet and creating a magma ocean. During the magma ocean stage, Earth probably had a thick, Venus-like atmosphere of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen, and clouds of silicate and salt may have formed. The atmosphere is probably thick enough to scatter the majority of sunlight back to space, producing its pale appearance. The magma ocean took a few million years to solidify. Once this stage ended, water may have begun outgassing, and eventually rained down, forming a global ocean of liquid water. The hot ocean stage featured a liquid water ocean under a thick carbon dioxide-nitrogen atmosphere not unlike Venus's, which enabled water to stay as liquid under surface temperature of 500 Kelvin. Higher up in the atmosphere, a layer of water clouds covered the entire planet, not unlike what is today seen on Venus. Interactions with liquid water gradually transformed carbon dioxide into carbonates, removing it from the atmosphere. After between 10 to 100 million years, most carbon dioxide had been removed. With much of the carbon dioxide removed, the planet's surface temperature would have dropped to temperate levels, and glaciation is also possible. The Earth's crust and mantle were likely weak during this time, and such it may be that very little landmasses, if any, existed during this early time. Terra (personification character) noted that due to the planet's geological activities, very little evidence remained from this eon. Much of what we understand about this time comes from theoretical modelings and comparison with other bodies in the Solar System.
June 6, 2025 at 10:45 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
I tried drawing an L-type brown dwarf. Here depicting it as a banded object, while the polar regions are dominated by vortices similar to Jupiter.

#astronomy #space #art #browndwarf #extrasolar
June 1, 2025 at 4:44 AM
astrochara.bsky.social
A depiction of the fictional Tau Ceti system I built with some friends. In the foreground is the so-called "Tau Ceti g", a warm super-Earth/mini-Neptune, and possibly the only real planet out of the four candidates we know of today.

#art #astronomy #space #exoplanet #TauCeti
The image contains an olive-colour planet in the foreground, and an orangish planet in the background. The image also contains stylized diagram of this fictional Tau Ceti system showing seven planets in the system.
May 19, 2025 at 10:53 PM
astrochara.bsky.social
The Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, Terra, Luna, and Mars.

#astronomy #space #personification #gijinka #SolarSystem #planet #planets
The image shows the personified inner planets standing together, looking in the same direction.
April 25, 2025 at 8:34 PM