“Do not dream of flowers on GJ 3998 d”

© Copyright 2026 by Erik Goetze

Exciting to see Artemis II rocketing to the moon! It’s a long road from the moon to humans visiting exoplanets, and this is 35th in my “Exoplanet” series which explores facets of planets identified outside the solar system.

I don’t use AI tools to make my art. And AI tools do not have permission to train on or assimilate my art.

#art #abstractart #abstract #exoplanet #astronomy #painters #painting

GJ 3998 (also known as Gliese 3998) is a red dwarf star located 59.3 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. GJ 3998 d is a super-Earth exoplanet with a mass about six times that of Earth, orbiting in the optimistic habitable zone of its star. GJ 3998 d's year is 41.78 days.

Our galaxy has 200 billion red-dwarf stars, and they can shine for trillions of years, so the chance of life developing on at least one red-dwarf star’s exoplanets seems decent.

In this artwork I explored one of the side-effects of being on a planet in a red-dwarf system. The star’s nuclear fusion burns slower than other star types, producing less light. If plants grew in this environment, they’d probably be black to better absorb red-dwarf energy, and flowers perhaps nonexistent.
Visitors to this kind of planet may need to adapt by using technology or bioengineering that provides enhanced spectral range covering infrared and/or ultraviolet. What would art of that exoplanet look like if that’s the only way you can see the landscape?