If you’re shopping around for a meaningful gift to give a loved one, you’ll be excited to hear that you can now give someone the unique gift of owning a planet. This is exactly the kind of gift that anyone would love to brag about to their friends and show off to the rest of the world. This is an even more meaningful gift for someone who is a space enthusiast. For these reasons, a planet could be one of the most sentimental gifts you’ve ever given anyone.
How is this possible?
NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration program is discovering new planets in outer space every month. These exoplanets are planets beyond our solar system. While most exoplanets orbit other stars, there are also free-floating exoplanets known as rogue planets.
There are four different types of exoplanets:
- Gas giant
- Neptunian
- Super-earth
- Terrestrial
To date, NASA has discovered and identified more than 5090 exoplanets, with 8,933 more under research. Nola Labs has decided to share these planets with the rest of the world in NFT form. To this end, they’re unveiling a new NFT collection on September 28. This breathtakingly beautiful collection of XOplanets is the trademarked NFT version of NASA’s exoplanets. Each XOplanet is modeled after a discovered and confirmed planet and developed in accordance with NASA’s exoplanet metadata. These XOplanets can be purchased via credit card or Ether (ETH) currency at approximately $680 USD, with price increases after the first 24 hours.
“Besides capturing the unique beauty of the XOplanet, each piece of art has incorporated movement into the design,” says a spokesperson from Nola Labs. “You can observe spinning, circling, and turning inside spheres of stars that encircle the XOplanets. Artists have estimated the light level and color of the sky to perfectly portray what you might see if you were standing in front of a specific planet.”
As NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration program discovers more exoplanets, Nola Labs will expand its collection of XOplanets. In this way, there is potential for growth of the NFT collection as well as the value of the NFTs.
How are exoplanets discovered and identified?
The first-ever exoplanet was discovered in 1992. Since then, NASA has continued to discover more every month. NASA has used a combination of equipment and techniques to locate and study these exoplanets. We’ve heard reports of planets discovered using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, ground-based telescopes, and – most recently – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST was launched on December 25, 2021, and is currently in orbit around the Sun, one million miles from earth, collecting exoplanet metadata and visual reference.
There are currently five primary methods of discovering exoplanets:
- Transit
- Radial velocity
- Direct imaging
- Microlensing
- Astrometry
To this date, the transit method has resulted in the discovery of most of the exoplanets that we know about. Transit photometry measures the light curve of distant stars for periodic dips in brightness. These dips have been found to occur when an exoplanet passes in front of a star and dims the brightness of the star slightly. These changes in brightness occur for only a few hours at a time. However, each time an exoplanet crosses in front of a star, the dips occur at the same level and for the same amount of time. In this way, NASA has been able to discover and identify thousands of exoplanets to date.
In order to speed up discovery, NASA launched the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2018. The mission of TESS is to study the space around the 200,000 brightest stars for transiting exoplanets.
At the time of launch, a NASA spokesperson stated, “TESS will create a catalog of thousands of exoplanets using the transit photometry method. Once this list has been compiled, the TESS mission will conduct ground-based follow-up observations to confirm that the exoplanet candidates are true exoplanets and not false positives.”
In addition to communicating with ground-based telescopes for follow-up and confirmation of the data collected, TESS is collaborating with other space-based missions such as JWST.
JWST studies and maps out the qualities and trajectories of different exoplanets. Using a Near-Infrared Imager Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) and Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy (SOSS), JWST defocuses the stars, thus reducing the brightness enough to allow the study of smaller planets. JWST can also directly capture a visual representation of each exoplanet using coronagraphy.
This data provides a valuable point of reference for the creation of vivid XOplanet NFT artwork. As NASA’s ground telescopes and space-based missions identify more XOplanets, Nola Labs will have endless opportunities for NFT creative development.
What can one do with an XOplanet?
Gifting someone an XOplanet gives them access to several exclusive benefits. For starters, they get full global NFT licensing rights to their XOplanet. In other words, they can do whatever they want with this XOplanet – turn it into a wearable or use it as part of the creative marketing for a business or movie. They can also trade the XOplanet for profit.
An XOplanet holder – also known as an XOplanet Xplorer – also has access to community-exclusive information about outer space. This would be exciting for any space enthusiast. They’re also whitelisted for future NFT purchase incentives and can assume community council leadership positions. XOplanet Xplorers will also be able to purchase community-exclusive merchandise inspired by the XOplanets and space travel.
6% of the revenue generated from the sale of XOplanet NFTs will be donated to Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute. This makes your XOplanet an even more meaningful gift for someone who cares about supporting sick children and the exploration of space.
Finally, each XOplanet holder gets a 10% royalty income on a future NFT.
By buying a loved one an XOplanet, you can give them a unique and valuable gift that they’ll be talking about for years to come. After all, an XOplanet is no ordinary gift. When you buy someone an XOplanet, you’re giving them the gift of owning a heavenly slice of outer space.
The inspiration behind the XOplanets NFT collection
Nola Labs was born when a group of experts who are fascinated by outer space and interested in space travel united to build their very own world. They’ve been studying blockchain technology and NFTs for several years and have leveraged this knowledge to fill the outer space NFT market niche. The founder was enthralled by worlds beyond for 44 years before he assembled this team of visionaries.
To this date, no one has developed an NFT collection inspired by NASA’s exoplanets and associated metadata. The team at Nola Labs came together to fill this gap in the market with beautiful, timeless works of art that are animated to spin, circle and turn.
The XOplanet NFT collection is the result of the founder’s long-held interest in outer space, space travel, Ufology, aliens, and extraterrestrials, combined with a newfound interest in NFT technology. The team members are dispersed across Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Manchester-Great Britain, Rotterdam, and the Czech Republic.
Beyond being extraordinarily beautiful, an XOplanet will probably be the most unforgettable gift you ever give anyone. You can peruse the entire collection of XOplanets here.
You can also connect with the Nola Labs team on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Discord for news about updates to the NFT collection.
