Ashley Zelinskie & Jeres

Three separate 1/1 (+2 APs) archival pigment print, 32 x 32 in.
Framed in metal float frame, signed on verso
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Ashley Zelinskie & Jeres
2025

Wanderer is a generative artwork that portrays the spectroscopy data from ten distant planets, as collected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) during observations of these exoplanets transiting their host stars. The title references the Greek root of the word planet “planētēs”, meaning “wanderer”, a name given to the strange stars that moved across the sky.

Spectroscopy is a technique in astrophysics that analyzes how matter interacts with light. As an exoplanet passes in front of its star, part of the starlight filters through its atmosphere, where specific wavelengths are absorbed by molecules such as water, methane, and carbon dioxide. The resulting spectral fingerprint is a coded pattern of light in which the spectrum’s absent bands reveal the composition and chemistry of the planet. When certain elements are confirmed present, scientists mark the planet as having the potential for life – narrowing our vast search for living organisms outside our galaxy.