Around Distant Suns – Emma Johanna Puranen

Our cover art is the brilliant work ‘The Impalpable’ by Belgian artist Tinne De Vis. Her piece is part of the Ex(p)oplanet project at the Interdisciplinary Studio at SLAC > Leuven. Ex(p)oplanet is itself a bridge between art and science, bringing together astrophysicists from the CHAMELEON project, who are researching the origins and atmospheres of exoplanets, with art students to broaden horizons and address the question ‘How can art and science meet, strengthen and challenge each other, and propose new insights?’ In Tinne’s own words, the cover illustration is ‘a future box displaying wild exoplanetary elements’, in this case based on the real exoplanet Tau Ceti f, representing ‘a lightyears’ sensation at this tiny restricted moment’.”

Purchase in the UK.
International Purchase via Amazon

Around Distant Suns is an anthology of science fiction (SF) stories organised and edited by Emma Johanna Puranen, an interdisciplinary PhD student from the St Andrews Centre for Exoplanet Science. Emma paired creative writers with researchers from the Centre who are experts in astrobiology, gravitational microlensing, Miller-Urey experiments, and exoplanet atmospheres. Each pair met several times — to get to know each other, discuss the researcher’s work, and let ideas spark. Emma’s research has to do with dialogues between scientists and SF creators, particularly regarding exoplanet worldbuilding in SF — and she was keen to see how pairs made story decisions, and where they decided to be realistic, plausible, or imaginative about the science portrayed in the stories. The resulting anthology features a wide variety or stories, from Earth to light-years away, and is a love letter to the reason for studying exoplanet science in the first place: the pursuit of the unknown.

We also would like to announce the following free onlinevent accompaying the book:

Discussion 29th September 2021, Byre World: Around Distant Suns

The discussion will take place online, is free and can be booked here: Byre theatre.