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Description
These are just the first three. We call them "stellamedusa".
Many more will come in the next days and will patiently travel the imense distance to the blue star.
During their very long journey the eggs inside will mature and, as they near the star, their bodies will explode with the heat. This will disperse their eggs in all directions. Most of these eggs will burn in the intense heat, some will directly hit the star or will be captured in an orbit around it, but a few will eventually escape and arrive to some other planet, in this or in another system, where the sequence will begin once more.

A fascinating element to this cycle is that the radiation from the star will alter the DNA of some of the eggs, creating a countless number of mutations. Some will fail, others will prevail.

In the meantime, the remains of the dead stellamedusa will forever orbit the star, creating an ethereal cloud-like shape around it, an eternal reminder of this fascinating cycle of life and death.

This was the first real example we found of actual panspermia in our voyages across the galaxy.

In the meantime, we are also witness to another cycle: the debris around the star are either the remains of old planets that for some reason were desintegrated, or the start of future planets that will eventually be formed. Or both simultaneously. Again, it's hard to say where the cycle starts or where it ends.

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This image has two companions, with two different women, here:

Those of you who follow my work know that I like to add a human element to my images. There are several reasons for that, some practical, some conceptual. In practical terms, a human is a great and easy way to provide a sense of scale. For the more "fantastic" images, it also brings a sense of familiarity to the viewer, allowing an easier "acceptance" of what otherwise could be a too strange environment. It also provides a gateway, by giving the viewer a perspective ("what would I see if I were that person?"). From a compositional perspective, the place where the human is looking at is a natural guide to the eyes of the viewer. Conceptually, it helps to tell a story (or build it completely).

In this particular image, I couldn't decide whether or not to place a human element. My original concept was without one. Then I felt it needed one and I added a human and several buildings. Then I didn't like it and removed it. And back again. And again. Always changing this and that in the meantime.

In the end, I gave up and decided instead to post both images. Let's see which one you prefer.

Of course, I had to change some compositional elements between the two images. The presence of the human is a strong natural focus, especially on that place (the exact horizontal 1/3) that needs a compositional counterpart, preferably in a diagonal, so I raised the position of the entity, the "stellamedusa", on the right. In the image without the human I couldn't have the entity as high also especially because it created a too obvious parallel compositional focus with the sun.

The absence of the human also brought the need to redistribute the visual "weight" of the elements, so I brought the central entity more to the left and the left entity more to the right (in fact, the left entity now almost exactly occupies the 1/3 position left free when I removed the human).

As always, this image was rendered in Vue in a 3D virtual world that I created, without photo-manipulation.

Description
These are just the first three. We call them "stellamedusa".
Many more will come in the next days and will patiently travel the imense distance to the blue star.
During their very long journey the eggs inside will mature and, as they near the star, their bodies will explode with the heat. This will disperse their eggs in all directions. Most of these eggs will burn in the intense heat, some will directly hit the star or will be captured in an orbit around it, but a few will eventually escape and arrive to some other planet, in this or in another system, where the sequence will begin once more.

A fascinating element to this cycle is that the radiation from the star will alter the DNA of some of the eggs, creating a countless number of mutations. Some will fail, others will prevail.

In the meantime, the remains of the dead stellamedusa will forever orbit the star, creating an ethereal cloud-like shape around it, an eternal reminder of this fascinating cycle of life and death.

This was the first real example we found of actual panspermia in our voyages across the galaxy.

In the meantime, we are also witness to another cycle: the debris around the star are either the remains of old planets that for some reason were desintegrated, or the start of future planets that will eventually be formed. Or both simultaneously. Again, it's hard to say where the cycle starts or where it ends.

--------------------------

This image has two companions, with two different women, here:

Those of you who follow my work know that I like to add a human element to my images. There are several reasons for that, some practical, some conceptual. In practical terms, a human is a great and easy way to provide a sense of scale. For the more "fantastic" images, it also brings a sense of familiarity to the viewer, allowing an easier "acceptance" of what otherwise could be a too strange environment. It also provides a gateway, by giving the viewer a perspective ("what would I see if I were that person?"). From a compositional perspective, the place where the human is looking at is a natural guide to the eyes of the viewer. Conceptually, it helps to tell a story (or build it completely).

In this particular image, I couldn't decide whether or not to place a human element. My original concept was without one. Then I felt it needed one and I added a human and several buildings. Then I didn't like it and removed it. And back again. And again. Always changing this and that in the meantime.

In the end, I gave up and decided instead to post both images. Let's see which one you prefer.

Of course, I had to change some compositional elements between the two images. The presence of the human is a strong natural focus, especially on that place (the exact horizontal 1/3) that needs a compositional counterpart, preferably in a diagonal, so I raised the position of the entity, the "stellamedusa", on the right. In the image without the human I couldn't have the entity as high also especially because it created a too obvious parallel compositional focus with the sun.

The absence of the human also brought the need to redistribute the visual "weight" of the elements, so I brought the central entity more to the left and the left entity more to the right (in fact, the left entity now almost exactly occupies the 1/3 position left free when I removed the human).

As always, this image was rendered in Vue in a 3D virtual world that I created, without photo-manipulation.