The first Christmas Planet ornaments are available for sale. More (with better pictures) will follow. $15.00, plus actual shipping, payable by check (PayPal to come soon). E-mail Dave Dooling for details. Each is handmade and wrapped in ribbon and its own transparent package. The worlds are somewhat fanciful, based in part on our solar system and what we think may be true of others.

Note that ornaments ship may vary as each is unique and different ribbons may be used. The Class M and Gliese ornaments are 3-inch cubes. The ringed planets are 3 inches high and 4-1/2 inches wide. The ornaments are made of a type of expandable polystyrene and other common plastics and acrylic paints, so there is no breakage hazard as with glass ornaments. The only sharp part is a thumbtack holding the planet in position in the box, so keep out of the hands of kids 4 and under.

ddRinged planets: These are among the most beautiful in our solar system and, therefore, probably so in the universe. Rings are not solid, but made from countless particles - from the size of dust to houses - of dust and ice that orbit exactly over the equator (forget polar ring systems - they'd disintegrate in a few decades, even if they could form). This one resembles Uranus and Neptune, the two ice giants in the outer part of our solar system.
ddClass M planets: Of course, what we really want to find are worlds that are a lot like ours with friendly species that are fluent in whatever language we speak, are about the same height, etc. So, I offer a number of Class M worlds that resemble Earth.
ddRinged planets: The colors we see in spacecraft images are largely due to computer enhancement so we can visualize them better. But for planets around distant stars ... ? This one looks a bit like Saturn and Jupiter, the gast giants past the asteroid belt.
ddGliese 581g: Gliese 581 is a red dwarf star about 30 percent the size of our Sun and about 1 percent as bright. Second, because the star is small and faint, the Goldilocks Zone is so close that in addition to exposure to flares the planet is tidally locked, like our Moon. One side always faces the main body - in the case the star -- and one side away. One side is in perpetual daylight, and one in perpetual night.

I render Gliese 581g wth two hemispheres, an ice-covered nightside and a bulls-eye dayside. The subsolar point is bare rock because it is too directly exposed to sunlight and flare radiation. This bare rock gives way to green-covered land, indicating life. (But who says "chlorophyll" on other worlds will be green?) Next comes the Ring Ocean, extending to the permanent dusk/dawn zone, and then everlasting ice.

©2011 Dave Dooling. The Christmas Planet™ as an ornament is a trademark of Dave Dooling.