One thing I have not paid (so far) the right amount of attention is all artwork produced by NASA, and with that I mean not only the beautiful posters done in occasion of space missions – which are truly beautiful – but also others, more recent, like the amazing exoplanet series.
This media gallery is to inspire you to go and check them too – all image credits obviously to NASA (except when differently written on the poster itself). Enjoy!
Incidentally, in case you want to create your own planet, NASA assists in this effort too. Just go to the Extreme Planet Makeover. There you can choose a series of variables, such as distance from the star – as I have already explained here, you’d better choose the Goldilocks zone if you want to make it habitable – planet size and age and star type.
The bigger the star, the farther away your planet needs to be to having any hope at keeping water on its surface. Also star colour affects the way an hypothetical vegetation will look like.
And guess what? Once you’re done with that you can download it too, to see what it looks like in practice. Not sure you can go and spend your holidays there anytime soon. But that’s the best you get for now.