NASA has released a beautiful series of retrofuturistic posters branded ‘Visions of the Future,’ offering artistic representations of what the various planets in and surrounding our solar system would look like if inhabited by human life.
The poster series, created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory visual strategists, were the result of sessions between scientists, engineers and expert communicators, who each contributed to the design of the retro-tinged depictions of space exploration.
Combining a selection of our solar system’s most famous planets alongside some equally fascinating if less well-known discoveries, the series highlights NASA’s own efforts in furthering our knowledge of our galaxy, along with showcasing a rather cinematic take of what these planets and moons would look like if we stepped foot on them.
Take a look at the posters below, and learn more on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website:
NASA Visions of the Future
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The Grand Tour
NASA's Voyager mission took a "grand tour" of the solar system by navigating an alignment of the outer planets, bringing home details of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The Voyager used each of these planet's gravitational pull to catapult them to the other planets on its mission.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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51 Pegasi b
The first discovered exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b was also the first that NASA confirmed orbited a sun-like star, opening up an entirely new class of planets called Hot Jupiters which orbit closer to their stars than Mercury.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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HD 40307g
HD 40307g has eight times the mass of Earth, with a much stronger gravitational pull as a result. NASA places it between the classifications of "Super-Earth" and "mini-Neptune."
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Kepler 16b
Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars, which explains the Star Wars-esque theme of this poster.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Kepler 186f
Kepler-186f is an Earth-size planet that orbits another star in what NASA brands the "habitable zone." NASA believes that plant life may be present on this planet, as shown in this poster.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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PSO J318.5-22
PSO J318.5-22 is a rogue planet, so called because it does not orbit a parent star. The poster, which apes James Bond, highlights the "rebellious" nature of the planet.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Mars
NASA remains committed to colonizing Mars, with its current Mars Exploration Program dedicated to seeing whether it can be (or if it was) an habitable planet.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Earth
The planet you're on right now, dumb-dumb.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, with the longest rotation period of all the planets in our Solar System.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Ceres
The closest dwarf planet to the Sun, Ceres was the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft after NASA's Dawn probe orbited it in March 2015.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Jupiter
NASA's Juno missions plans to observe and monitor Jupiter's auroras from above the polar regions.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Enceladus
Discovering the moon Enceladus' contributions to the creation of Saturn's E-ring was one of NASA's biggest discoveres in its Cassini mission.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Titan
Saturn's largest moon, Titan is also notable for being similar to our own planet billions of years ago. NASA also believes that Titan could potentially be home to liquid water.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
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Europa
Jupiter's moon, Europa has the potential to host simple life and as such will be a key destination for future space exploration. NASA plans to head there in the 2020s.
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
