Gliese 486b

Near ten years ago, I visited an exhibition of work by one John Martin at Tate Britain. Visited a couple of times as I recall, with one of them noticed at reference 3. I still have the book.

Martin was active around 200 years ago, but his apocalyptic visions have now come to life on a planet called Gliese 486b, that is to say the b-th planet of the star Gliese 486. A paltry 25 light years or so away. Rather larger than the earth but with a year of just one and a half of our days and a surface temperature of around 450°C - so a bit hot for anything other than those strange organisms to be found lurking around hot vents at the bottom of some of our oceans. Image possibly from the people at reference 4.

Reference 1: A nearby transiting rocky exoplanet that is suitable for atmospheric investigation - T. Trifonov, J. A. Caballero, J. C. Morales and other - 2021. Paywalled at AAAS, but Google turns up a free pre-print. There is also the easy-read version at reference 2.

Reference 2: https://www.firstpost.com/tech/science/nearby-super-earth-gliese-486b-could-help-scientists-better-understand-alien-atmospheres-9382421.html.

Reference 3: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/11/huge-queer-and-tawdry.html.

Reference 4: https://renderarea.com/.