Binary Sunrise by Chipka
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Description
There’s very little I can tell you about this planet. I don’t know its name, and so I can’t tell its story. It exists in a binary star system, but I don’t know the qualities of this system. Does the nameless world circle both suns in a slow and remote orbit? Does it mark an odd figure-eight as it makes its way around one sun before the gravity of its companion pulls it away? Or does it circle one sun alone? I don’t know. Yet. But such mysteries will reveal their answers in time. I am sure of that.
***
I made this image in response to a number of stimuli. I’d taken the original picture on Easter morning of 2009, as I wandered back from Quest Internet Services with Corey. We’d spent the night there, watching endless episodes of Star Trek: Voyager on DVD and gorging ourselves on pizza, beer, soft drinks, and chips and dip. One of the joys of extremely social friends who run internet cafes is the fact that you can stay after hours, watching Star Trek episodes on DVD, and spending time on the internet. Of course, if the pizza is delivered after 1:00 am, you’re likely to be awake for quite some time. Corey and Kris and I were awake all night. But we had fun following Captain Janeway and the crew of the USS Voyager through adventures we’d seen many times. As Corey and I left Quest Internet Services, we saw the sun rising over Lake Michigan. It was a cold morning, but beautiful. We spent an hour snapping pictures before the sun moved into a higher, less interesting position.
I’d intended to post this picture long ago, but as fate would have it, other images found their way into my gallery first.
As is my habit, I tend to keep abreast of all of the odd scientific developments that don’t exactly make it into the mainstream news. Since the early 1990s, I’ve been interested in the ongoing search for Exoplanets (planets that exist outside of our own solar system.) I remember when exoplanets were more hypothetical than real. I remember when we had no images (fuzzy and indistinct though they are) of planets circling other stars. And as of May 31, 2010, 455 such planets are known to exist. We haven’t seen all of them directly, but we know they’re there, by the ways in which they make their parent stars wobble, or by minute shifts in the output of starlight, as one planet or another, passes between its parent star and an earthbound observer.
In thinking of exoplanets and looking at pictures taken two Easters ago, I found myself in the mood to do something. As I’d been thinking of—and reading about—exoplanets, I decided to make one out of Lake Michigan. All it really took was the addition of another star just above the horizon. Funny how that works. One minute, you’ve got a perfectly normal picture of a perfectly normal lake…and then, with the addition of one little sparkly thing, you’ve got another sun, and a completely new alien planet. I doubt that any of the exoplanets astronomers have discovered are anything remotely like a life-friendly terrestrial world. Most are more massive than Jupiter, and possess rather strange qualities. At least one of them has been captured in the act of evaporating as it races through a complete orbit once every 2 days. It’s very close to its parent sun, closer than Mercury to our own parent star. And it’s rather spectacular in that it’s shedding its atmosphere, leaving it in a hazy smear of dead planet gunk around its parent sun.
Astronomers have managed to capture signs of Earth-like planets as well: Earth-like meaning that they’re made of rock rather than gas. We know very little about them, but it's nice to know that they're there. And so, in honor of exoplanets (455 of them and counting) here's a hypothetical world that looks suspiciously like Lake Michigan with a bit of cosmetic surgery.
***
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you're all having a great week.
Comments (32)
icerian
I like your idea, your meditation and image. Excellent!
mbz2662
Wow Chip, a beautiful image.. and I have to look away.. the sun is actually blinding, as if I were actually standing there on Lake Michigan staring into the sun-rise. Once again, fabulous work in photo and words!
MrsRatbag
A wonderful bit of work here; and as far as other planets, I think it would be foolish to think that there weren't any. I like that bit at the end of the MIB movies where it becomes apparent that earth is just a little tiny thing in the scheme of things...
Bothellite
Your muse is well received, beam me up.
Texas3D
Woow fantastic picture
KatesFriend
And maybe very soon, science will detect Earth-size bodies. They keep promising us within a year, though I'm willing to guess it will take more like five more years for the technology to mature. This scene brings back many memories of Carl Sagan's series 'Cosmos'. I half expect the old fellow to wander out along the old forgotten pier. There he would speculate on the 'billions and billions' of possible worlds amongst the stars. Observing that middle aged yellow star (like our own Sun) are common through out the galaxy. There would be maybe a little Vangelis music in the background - 'Alpha' was my favourite. You did a very lovely job in visualizing this mysterious but still familiar world.
CoreyBlack
WAY COOL, DUDE! I've always wanted to say that! I remember this morning very well-in fact, I just thawed out from it last week. Man it was cold! Must have been about 25 with a stiff wind blowing in off the lake. Despite that, though, it was a lot of fun and something I look back on with great fondness. We also made some good pix that morning and you just reminded me that I should post some of mine. This is a great picture!
jocko500
may find your double on one of them. remember superman finding his double in his stories? anyway this is wonderful done
beachzz
Lake Michigan has a quality no other body of water has--and I remember that so well. Looking out at that vast expanse, knowing it's NOT an ocean still boggles my mind. Your addition of the star takes it to different dimension, gives it yet another look. And we earthlings need to be very careful, I think!!
alessimarco
Superb image! :)
danapommet
Majestic sunrise and reflection over those decaying pilings and now I’m off to Google exoplanets. :>) Dana
DEWoodward
Marvelous capture!!
MrsLubner
Breathtaking! I love when I am on the water to see this happen. the feeling is only fleeting but it carries me for days.
auntietk
I just finished an article in NG a couple days ago about exoplanets. They mentioned the one that had an orbit of two days. Can you imagine what a wild ride THAT would be?? Excellent image, my friend. You create new worlds with such ease ... and I enjoy them a great deal! :)
helanker
A wonderful sunrise shot and what you did to it made it look different alright. I like your story about it, as I have always been fascinated of the outer space and what could be out there. It began when I, as a little girl, played with my brother, that we were visiting strange planets with odd life forms. :)
minos_6
Interesting narrative account, but it's the image that grabs me here, for its no doubt original beauty, but also the excellent post work. The colours are striking in their contrast, and I especially like the texture of the water, and the reflections. This is a superb capture!
Sepiasiren
OMG -- a new favorite -- another provocative piece -- I can almost smell the water and feel the earth beneath my feet as I take in this view. what a lovely, lovely eye you have!
durleybeachbum
MARVELLOUS in every way. A super idea and a great pic.
Meisiekind
LOl @ Corey!!! WAY COOL DUDE!!!! I love that! And yes, I agree with him!!! Wonderful and mind blowing narrative and the image is superb! I love the super glow of the sun... yet it doesn't light all the hidden and dark secrets of the ocean... Very well seen and captured Chip!
kgb224
Stunning capture my friend.
jmb007
superbe photo!
Alex_Antonov
Very nice!
flavia49
love your narrative and the image with it. And I love those beams that aren't beams at all, but aliens in disguise just to cheat us, the humans. Superb!!
bmac62
I stared at your intriguing photo for awhile, read your text leisurely, ate lunch and then rather randomely picked up the National Geographic from December 2009. Flipping through it casually I read a story about, "The Other Tibet", and then quite by accident came upon an article lavishly illustrated and titled, "Worlds Apart", dealing with searching space for other planets and finding exoplanets. Now, what was the chance of that one hour after you mentioned the subject (I had never heard of exoplanets before)? Remarkable. And so Chip is your photo. It seems like most Chicagoans draw all sorts of inspiration from Lake Michigan. Glad you do too:)
sandra46
excellent, superb image! the contrast between the brilliance of the closer sun and the sea, and between the wavy surface of the water and the smoothness of the sky is really impressive.
myrrhluz
I have heard of exoplanets off and on, probably on NPR. I haven't read that NG article though and there are episodes of Voyager I've never seen. A world of riches awaits! I'm glad Corey has thawed out from that morning! I don't think we know such cold down here. I love your image! I can look at it and imagine traveling the stars and gazing into different heavens. Beautiful color, composition and light!
praep
Awesome image - I like the overexposed colors (I hope you know what I mean).
flora-crassella
fantastic picture!!!!!!
mermaid
really like this wonderful morning shot and the idea of allocating it to one of the foreign planets...smile
bono35
fantastic picture