Out of this world

ASTEROIDS and missing planets. Young artist Melissa Tan's works might seem to shoot for the stars at first, being so conceptually located in space science, but her execution of it is surprisingly down-to-earth, with her use of basic materials.

"I like geography and science very much even though I studied art ... I like how poetic those subjects can be," says the 26-year-old who majored in painting at LaSalle College of the Arts.

Asteroids can be "lost" when astronomers fail to trace them. Sometimes a newly discovered object in space can also be an old object. She was intrigued by the idea that something as large as an asteroid can go missing without a trace. "Asteroids are considered minor planets that collide and break off - so some can be big."