Imagining exoplanets as destinations: a case study of artist-scientist collaborations on NASA's iconic Exoplanet Travel Bureau posters

This is the age of exoplanets. Thousands of planets around other suns have been discovered, upending settled science. Unlike spectacular imagery of other phenomena (e.g., nebulae), exoplanets are difficult to `directly' image, and exoplanet scientific imagery is visually limited. This practice insight is a qualitative case study of how artists and scientists at NASA's Exoplanet Travel Bureau co-imagined exoplanets as destinations of the future, with the artists playing an essential role of clarifying and extending scientific thinking. Using textual/visual analysis of how the Bureau's iconic series of exoplanet posters (launched in 2015) invited the public to visit exoplanet landscapes, this practice insight reflects on a recent historical instance of how exoplanets were visually communicated to the public in innovative ways, using overlapping scientific and artistic practices.