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Chromattix — Half Star
Published: 2011-04-02 12:15:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 19505; Favourites: 654; Downloads: 0
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Description
A half-star rating is probably the best this ball of gas could get in celestial terms, for it's not quite a properly developed star with nuclear fusion in its core, yet still not as small and dark as a planet either. It's an oddball somewhere in between, filling the gap between what's a star and what's a planet and one that I don't see often illustrated in much detail among the space art genre.It's actually a "Brown Dwarf" star, though technically giving off brown light is impossible, but the name was just to fill the dim, cool area of the star spectrum between red and black. A weak reddish-orange light shows more noticeably on the side in the dark while the brighter side in this case is being lit up by a companion star. They apparently may have Jupiter-like stripes, whiter stripes are thicker, high altitude clouds, so they mask out the feeble light coming from the heat inside while it shines through less interrupted in the shallower, darker bands. Some asteroids and moons are bound to orbit around it.
So my comment was more scientific this time, art-wise I admit it's not anything new or groundbreaking for me. But I just wanted to have fun drawing something relatively easy for me since I've been focusing on mostly tedious stuff lately. This was a nice break I created over a couple of days and arguably one of the most detailed brown dwarf renderings around, so I'm pretty happy with that
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Comments: 163
Actually, the lower limit for their mass is poorly defined because of our inability to distinguish between a large planet and a small brown dwarf. 13 Jupiter masses is the minimum for fussing of deuterium in the center so that's the most common minimum mass stated but given that brown dwarfs and planets form in very different ways you could theoretically end up with a planet with a rock/iron center surrounded by a very thick layer of hydrogen and helium that is more than 13 Jupiter masses.
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it's about Jupiter becoming a star and stuff, it's a classic sci-fi, you should totally see it
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The art is lovely and I'm quite impressed with the scientifically accurate description. It certainly sounds like you've studied astronomy/astrophysics.
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Sure have. It has been one of my longest-running interests
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Glad to hear it! Your work reminds me of the "artist's conception," or "artistic illustration" images seen on APOD, NASA, ESA, or in magazines such as Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, etc. For example: [link]
Assuming you're not already, which won't surprise me, you could probably get paid to make these beautiful, astronomical pieces.
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I sometimes get inspired by memories of the illustrations I saw in astronomy books as a kid 
That picture is actually from an artist here [link]
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Same for me. The art of Don Dixon, Don Davis, Chesley Bonestell, David A. Hardy, Ron Russell, etc in the late 70's started me on my road for Astronomy / space art.
The likes of Syd Mead, Chris Foss, John Berkey, and so on, for the other side of things such as in Sci Fi work.
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"Other kids were reading children's novels and whatnot - I was reading about stars and planets 
Yes, that sounds familar!
Also, thank you for linking me to .
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Lol, a dark comparison, but kinda true
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It's basically a wannabe star. It wants to hang with the big boys, but it doesn't have what it takes.
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Note that it is not a condamnation... In theory, if given enough mass material from X - like a big star shredding stuff out - it would possibly ignite for real and turn into a star, like how some 'corpses' of stars evolve farther the same way (Novas and all)
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How much mass would it need?
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The exact rules that say 'that will flare into a star' and 'that will NOT fly, Willbur' is not clear... from what I heard, maybe around 10-12 jupiters size, and that become a red dwarf star, smallest true star (in adult life). A lot of material, but not theorically impossible, maybe... extraordinary event would be needed.
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Found this one kinda late
Glad you love it!
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All your art is amazing, I mostly view it as places that in all probability have to exist in the infinite void of space but that humans -at least not in the near future- won't be able to see. I have always loved space and astrological studies your artwork just brings to life what most people can only imagine. I see your posts from time to time and I am always thrilled that despite your hardships you continue to put out amazing artwork. Thank you!
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I create most of these based on situations I like to think could happen
Glad you still enjoy my work
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your monster heheh man...you is very good in painting !!! pleaseee...been my master? 
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Aah, if only I had this view out of my window...
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It would get pretty quiet and dark after a while though 
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Liking the the texture of the foreground mass and the subtle nature of the mass controlling the background
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I REALLY like this. I just adore space art. I'm a total sci-fi dork as well. But this was just way to gorgeous to pass up. I made some of my own gas giants once in a picture though they were not as good as yours. <3
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You'd be surprised how difficult they are to get their features realistic. More than just a marbleized ball of clouds - there's often complex and sometimes repeating "patterns" of weather systems always changing, getting that look is where the challenge lies
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haha, yeah I know how detailed they look though I'm sure I'd truly come to appreciate it if I tried to do a serious rendering of one myself.
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Looking at the thumbnail, and before reading the description, I thought that this might have been the surface of Io with Jupiter and Europa in the background.
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Maybe if Jupiter was roasting hot 
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Nice one man, really loving the gas-giant texture - it has such a fantastic dirty colour and feel to it, while some of the reflections and colours make it feel luminous and translucent at the same time. Rather unusual for a giant.
The lightning of the scene makes me a bit confused though. I might be wrong, but considering the shadowing on the moon and the asteroids - shouldn't the giant have some darker shadow in the upper right corner? Not too sure about the lightning on the close up asteroid either. I imagine the light source being behind and slightly to the left of the spectator - shouldn't there be some shadows on the ground of the asteroid "reaching" towards the giant?
Lightning doesn't really come natural to me though, so might be all wrong.
A great piece nonetheless!
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You're right in the fact that the lighting is coming from behind and off to the left, The asteroids, brown dwarf and moon I tried to get the same lighting angle on. Though the effect was tricky since I was dealing with three different surfaces. The asteroids are darker than that small moon and reflect less light. The gassy atmosphere of the brown dwarf I tried something new with shading-wise too, trying to get that "diffusing around the edges" look that Jupiter shows in photo's where its lit nearly front-on like here. So yeah a lot of it was pretty experimental
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Superlatives never do justice to your amazing work, Matthew ~ but I had to comment on this one, as it is so very evocative! 
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Thanks a lot. Glad you always enjoy my work
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No point aliens being here. Looks like a dead area
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It's been a while since I've commented (though I WILL get better about that and most likely go back and swarm your inbox with comments on other pieces that I have neglected commenting on in the last few months), but hi. 
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Upon my late research when I made this I think I read about the same thing (well they said it was 300 degrees but it was probably because they are crazy people who still use Fahrenheit 
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[link]
It was actually something that I did an abstract on a few weeks ago for Astronomy. I thought it was so cool that water's boiling point was about the same as that star's temperature (which must've been the only reason I could actually remember this considering how my memory doesn't normally stay for two weeks). As for Fahrenheit versus Celsius, I only prefer Celsius in science because it's much easier to convert to Kelvin, but I otherwise couldn't care less about the unit (though I must point out that "Fahrenheit 451" sounds better than "Celsius 451" in my opinion). It's once you get into the other crazy numbers of the standard system like 2850 feet in a mile and 12 inches and a foot and an inch usually being divided into maybe 16 equal parts... Yeah, metric makes much more sense. As an American, I personally wouldn't mind using the same units as the rest of the world. XD
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Oh yeah, that was it. I recognize the artwork...unless it was used elsewhere 
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