| Acrylics on Panel | ||
 "Sun Flares" 46" x 30" |
The most violent events on the surface of the Sun are sudden eruptions called solar flares. Flares typically last a few minutes and can release energies equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs. During a flare the material in the flare may be heated to temp- eratures of 10 million Kelvin; matter at these temperatures emits copious amounts of UV and X-Ray, as well as visible light. In addition, flares tend to eject matter, primarily in the form of protons and electrons, into space at velocities that approach 1000 km/ second. These bursts produce solar wind that influences much of the rest of the Solar System, including the Earth. | |
 "Eagle Nebula, M16" 28" x 48" |
Pillars of creation in a star-forming
region in the nearby "Eagle Nebula" M16, a mere 7,000
light-years away in the constellation Serpens. These eerie, dark
pillarlike structures (largest of the three in painting) are
actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that
are incubators for new stars. The pillars are in some ways akin to buttes in the desert, where basalt and other dense rock have protected a region from erosion, while the surrounding landscape has been worn away over millennia. In this celestial case, it is especially dense clouds of molecular hydrogen gas (two atoms of hydrogeen in each molecule) and dust that have survived longer than their surroundings in the face of a flood of UV light from hot, massive new- born stars. This process is called photoevaporation. This ultraviolet light is also responsible for illuminating the convoluted surfaces of the columns and the ghostly streamers of gas boiling away from their surfaces, producing the dramitic visual effects that highlight the three-dimensional nature of the clouds. This tallest pillar (in painting) is about a light-year long from base to tip. |
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