Aurora Planet (1998)
This is the view from a planet in a close orbit around a magnetic flare star. These
stars have such gigantic episodes of magnetic activity that they must have huge
starspots, some of which have actually been imaged. Life on a nearby planet would be
impossible. The atmosphere is almost entirely gone, stripped away. But there is still
a residual exosphere, making this an ideal spot to go aurora-spotting — if you have
a decent space suit. Recently I created an acrylic painting based on this image (see
icon on the right).
