Lewis Andrews

The ‘Core Collapse’ drawings visualise the final moments of the more massive stars in the cosmos during a type II supernova. During the final moments, a star with many times the mass of our sun is crushed by its gravity, resulting in a supernova explosion. During this process, new elements fused within the heart of the star are thrown out into space.

 

The ‘White Dwarf’ drawings touch upon the deaths of sun-like main sequence stars. The final years of these stars see them undergo a transformation to a ‘red giant’ phase and then expel their outer layers into space. The remaining object is known as a white dwarf and is the leftover core of the former star.

 

Both drawings arose out of time Lewis spent on the ‘Starlight’ virtual arts–science residency held by Mayes Creative and an accompanying talk with the Royal Astronomical Society outreach officer Lucinda Offer during the residency about the life cycles of stars.