All these worlds...

[raymoh]

Thank you! Like I mentioned in my opening post, I'm always anxious to be as "realistic" as possible in my renders. Only the landscapes itself are purely imaginative.

[raymoh]

Now here is an edited version of "Cherenkov's Planet". 3 layers of reflective/translucency shaders, raised the brightness, less fog and added some rays to one of the suns to accentuate the high radiation of this "flare event" that occurs to this red dwarf. Needed some render time.

[Hannes]

Cool! The spikes look a bit like jade.

[Agura Nata]

Looks great!

[raymoh]

A render from my "archives", now  here on Planetside:

A stony plain covered with ice and snow on a supposed martian-sized moon of HD 220773 b, a gas giant a little more massive than Jupiter.
In about a ten year cycle most of the faint atmosphere of this moon is collapsing at apastron, due the highly eccentric orbit of its host planet. So the most of the visible snow and ice is the ,,condensed" atmosphere itself.
At periastron the atmosphere will ,,rebuild" to its normal martian-like state.
I presume that HD 220773 b has a thin ring of debris like Jupiter and we are admiring the ,,string of pearls", the exact ,,edge on"-moment of the ring. In a couple of minutes this spectacle is gone, like a solar eclipse.

[raymoh]

Also something from my archives. This render needs some scientific explanations.

2.5 trillion years in the future: This previously Red Dwarf with 16% of the solar mass has evolved in a so called Blue Dwarf. Most of the hydrogen in the entire star is consumed. By increasing the surface temperature and luminosity (to about a third of the solar luminosity) it reaches a new equilibrium that lasts another 5 billion years.
In this far future of the universe most of the more massive stars are ,,dead", changed into White or Black Dwarfs, Neutron Stars or Black holes. The luminous part of the still existing galaxies now are made of evolved Red Dwarfs. Very slowly the era of the luminous stars is going to an end... in about 100 trillion years the universe will go dark and black for human eyes (if the theories of the expanding universe are ,,true").

The render: An evolved Red Dwarf in the sky of a previously cold planet outside the habitable zone. Because the increased luminosity the planet is now in the middle of the new habitable zone, and ice of different origin aged billions of years begins to melt and forms a new atmosphere and shallow ponds, birthplaces for a second evolution.
There is no more geological activity and the entire planet is a vast plain, mountains and valleys eroded to boulders, stones, pebbles and dust in the last 2.5 trillion years. Nevertheless life will find a way.

Terragen 4 and Pixelmator

[Oshyan]

Such a seemingly simple scene, but I really love that low mist! And the balance of specular really works for me too.

- Oshyan

[raymoh]

Barnard's Star b: A redesign

An imaginary view of the surface of Barnard's Star b, the nearest exoplanet orbiting a single star.
Barnard b is probably a rocky Super-Earth, or more precisely a ,,Super-Titan" with a dense atmosphere, or maybe a Mini-Neptune. It revolves on an eccentric orbit far outside the habitable zone of its host star, a dim Red Dwarf. So the surface temperature is about -170° C. The planet receives only about 2% of the energy the earth receives from the sun, mostly at infrared wavelengths. At the distance of Barnard b, the planet is no longer tidally locked, there will be day and night.
Barnard's Star and its planet are about twice as old as the Solar system (7 to 10 billion years).


In my renders I decided to show a rocky ice-world with a dense atmosphere composed of mostly nitrogen and various gaseous hydrocarbons. The ice itself is also from different origin: mostly methane-ice but also traces of rock-hard frozen water. No signs of life as we know it.
The sky is almost always overcast. So it's mostly a deep twilight trough the day.
Very rarely, when Barnard's Star is clearly visible, the still blinding disc is less than half as big as the sun seen from earth, the dim light has a distinct yellowish tinge and
at midday it will be only about 1000 times as bright as the full moon (or about 300 Lux, if you like).

Such a moment I captured in my first render. Barnard's Star shines trough a cloud gap for a couple of minutes, revealing an alien landscape with vast snow- and ice-fields, mountains and rocks that reminds somehow of Antarctica on earth.

My second render depicts the identical scenery the same day around midday. Now the sky is overcast with dense and thick (hydrocarbon) cloud layers, absorbing most of the sunlight. For human eyes it's nearly dark; a dim, diffuse and almost monochromatic twilight.

[Dune]

I love that first render, especially with your description. Great stuff!

[raymoh]

Thank you very much. I am aware that the second render doesn't give much, but I decided to show it to demonstrate the lighting conditions. BTW: It took longer to render than the first one because of the different cloud layers

[mhaze]

I continue to be impressed by your work.

[bobbystahr]

I love that first render, especially with your description. Great stuff!

Echo Dune here..well done man!

[j meyer]

The first one is great indeed, even without the description.

[bobbystahr]

Such a seemingly simple scene, but I really love that low mist! And the balance of specular really works for me too.

- Oshyan

"seemingly simple scene"...I love alliteration...and agree with the complete comment.

[raymoh]

Thank you folks!

Here is another render (from my archive):

This is an earth-sized Carbon Planet, orbiting a star in the inner regions of our galaxy. Carbon Planets are hypothetical, but plausible and expected to exist.

Early morning over a vast, stony desert. Volcanic activity created this landscape long time ago, now eroding under the atmospheric conditions.
Soon the temperature will raise at about 70° C. The landscape is mostly covered with black, slightly reflecting graphite sand and dust. The winds have uncovered a big diamond lode, now glistening in the sun. Diamonds can be very common on Carbon Planets. There may be entire mountains made of this dense ,,carbon material", raised to the surface trough seismic activities.
Conditions for earthly life are really bad, but it would be a ,,paradise" for mining companies and petrochemical industries. All this carbon-based and carbon-enriched compounds...