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Solar System

The Solar System. What space artist's collection would be complete without a selection of illustrations and animations of the bodies that accompany us as we journey around the Sun? Since the 1960s, space probes have enormously improved our understanding of our humble corner of the galaxy, and like other artists I have used these resources to help visualise the Sun, planets, asteroids, comets and moons with which we share our home. Of course, invaluable as these mission are, these is still much that they haven't yet been able to show us. What’s it like to float within the rings of Saturn? Or witness cryogenic volcanoes on Triton and Enceladus? What will the Solar System look like in the future – and how was it in the past? These are questions to which only an artist can suggest answers.

Total 86 works in this gallery.

10 Cool Solar System Sights (2020)

Solar System, Charon, Pluto, Io, Jupiter, Europa, Sun, comet, Mercury, scarp, Triton, Neptune, Uranus, rings, Mars, volcano, surface

10 Cool Solar System Sights (2020)

This short film is a compilation of ten cool things to witness in the Solar System. 1. A flight over the surface of Pluto, with Charon, its largest moon, hugging the horizon. 2. Surveying the mysterious, pinkish landscape of Neptune's moon Triton, with its nitrogen geysers. 3. A view from within the ...Read more.

Comet Nucleus (2020)

Comet Nucleus (2020)

Ever imagined what a comet was like under all that gas and dust? Perhaps it would look something like this. I based this image on photographs of the nuclei of comets taken by space probes, such as Rosetta. ...Read more.

Formation of Ring Systems (2020)

planet, rings, formation, birth, Saturn, Uranus, Neptuine

Formation of Ring Systems (2020)

This short film examines the chief process thought to lead to the formation of planetary ring systems. ...Read more.

Lunar Mining (2020)

Moon, Earth, lunar, mining, habitation, base, surface, colony

Lunar Mining (2020)

This artwork depicts a mining operation on the Moon. I created it in Blender. This is a still from an animation. ...Read more.

Stanford Torus – Version 1 (2020)

Earth, Moon, Stanford Torus, hardware, space station, space habitat

Stanford Torus – Version 1 (2020)

Artwork of a Stanford Torus. This is a design for a space station proposed by NASA in 1975 at Stanford University. It consists of a torus with a radius of 1800km and a cross-sectional radius of 130m for the habitable section. The ring is connected to a central hub via a series of six spokes, which a ...Read more.

Jupiter’s Cloud Tops (2019)

Jupiter, Galilean, clouds, cloudscape, sky, atmosphere

Jupiter’s Cloud Tops (2019)

Artwork of the cloud tops of Jupiter, the Solar System's largest planet. The view is towards the Sun, with the four large Galilean moons to either side of it. From left to right they are Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. ...Read more.

New Horizons at Arrokoth (2019)

Kuiper belt, binary, Arrokoth, New Horizons, Sun, spacecraft

New Horizons at Arrokoth (2019)

Artwork of the binary Kuiper-belt object Arrokoth (formerly MU69 or Ultima Thule). This astronomical body is the most distant object visited by human spacecraft, with the flyby of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft taking place on 1 January 2019. It is a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) and was found to be a c ...Read more.

Planet Nine (2019)

solar system, planet, nine, gas giant, planet

Planet Nine (2019)

Planet Nine is a hypothesized massive planet, first proposed in 2014, that is speculated to orbit far out in the Solar System. It has not been detected formally. Instead, astronomers have inferred its presence from perceived perturbations of the orbits of some Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). The pla ...Read more.

Early Earth (2018)

Earth, primordial, volcanism, formation, Moon

Early Earth (2018)

We're going back several billion years here. The planet Earth had already started to form, when it was hit by a gigantic protoplanet roughly three times the mass of present-day Mars. As a result, debris was blown into Earth orbit. Some of the debris started to rain back down on the planet, but much ...Read more.

Space Animation Showreel (2018)

Sun, planet, animation, asteroid, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, ice giant, gas giant, terrestrial planet, supernova, collision, black hole, Titan, Triton, geyser

Space Animation Showreel (2018)

This short video offers a brief glimpse at around 15 of my astronomy animations, most of which can be found in their entirety elsewhere on my YouTube channel. ...Read more.

The Big Splash (2018)

Moon, Earth, Theia, formation, birth, animation, impact, collision

The Big Splash (2018)

This short film charts the story of the Earth's single natural satellite - the Moon. The most widely accepted theory is that, shortly after it formed, the proto-Earth was struck at an oblique angle by another protoplanet, roughly the size of Mars. Astronomers call this interloper Theia. Debris from ...Read more.

A Video Tour of Saturn (2017)

A Video Tour of Saturn (2017)

This is a short film, offering a glimpse at some of the properties of the gas giant planet Saturn, and some of its major satellites. It's essentially a video compilation of some of my earlier animations and stills, with a script added to give it all some context. This is all simulated imagery, not p ...Read more.

Mars and Phobos From Orbit (2017)

Mars and Phobos From Orbit (2017)

Artwork showing Mars and one of its moon (Phobos) from the window of a space vehicle, some time in the future. Maybe, in the future, tourists will be able to enjoy views like this in space. ...Read more.

Flight Over Titan's Lakes (2016)

Titan, Saturn, landscape, planet, animation, spacecraft, surface

Flight Over Titan's Lakes (2016)

This computer animation gives us a glimpse of one of the Solar System's largest natural satellites - Titan, the biggest moon of Saturn. Titan, which is 50% bigger than our own Moon, was the subject of the Huygens probe in 2005, glimpsed at the end of this clip. It is the only known moon with a subs ...Read more.

Geyser on Europa (2016)

Europa, Jupiter, geyser, planet, landscape

Geyser on Europa (2016)

Ice geyser on Europa. Europa is the smallest of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, and the second closet to the planet. Its surface is icy and relatively smooth. Impacting meteorites cause melting of the surface, allowing the water to smooth out before re-freezing. There is some evidence of large-s ...Read more.

Juno at Jupiter (2016)

Juno, Jupiter, planet, gas giant, spacecraft, animation, astronomical art

Juno at Jupiter (2016)

Animation of NASA's Juno spacecraft arriving at Jupiter and examining the planet from a polar orbit. Juno was launched in 2011 on a five-year flight to Jupiter. Unlike previous Jupiter missions, it uses solar panels (three arrays seen here). Previous Jupiter missions were powered by generators fuell ...Read more.

NASA’s TESS Spacecraft (2016)

TESS, spacecraft, hardware, Earth, exoplanet

NASA’s TESS Spacecraft (2016)

This is an artwork of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS was launched by NASA in April 2018, the successor to Kepler. It has a two-year mission, during which it will be hunting for extrasolar planets transiting their stars. It is expected to find around 20,000 planets. At the tim ...Read more.

Space Travel Poster – Amalthea (2016)

Amalthea, space travel poster, landscape, planet, satellite, surface, Jupiter

Space Travel Poster – Amalthea (2016)

This illustration is one of a series that I have been working on, borrowing heavily from the art-deco-style travel posters from the middle of the twentieth century. This one regards the Jovian satellite Amalthea, which orbits extremely close to its planet. The view of Jupiter from there would be ...Read more.

Space Travel Poster – Mars (2016)

Mars, space travel poster, landscape, planet, satellite, surface

Space Travel Poster – Mars (2016)

This illustration is one of a series that I have been working on, borrowing heavily from the art-deco-style travel posters from the middle of the twentieth century. This one advises that you take a trip to the Red Planet. ...Read more.

Space Travel Poster – Miranda (2016)

Miranda, space travel poster, landscape, planet, satellite, ring, Uranus

Space Travel Poster – Miranda (2016)

This illustration is one of a series that I have been working on, borrowing heavily from the art-deco-style travel posters from the middle of the twentieth century. This one features Miranda, a major moon of Uranus, and advertises the trip there – to climb Verona Rupes, the tallest cliff in the ...Read more.

Space Travel Poster – Triton (2016)

Triton, space travel poster, landscape, planet, satellite, Neptune

Space Travel Poster – Triton (2016)

This illustration is one of a series that I have been working on, borrowing heavily from the art-deco-style travel posters from the middle of the twentieth century. This one features Triton, the largest moon of Neptune, and advertises the trip there – to snowboard! ...Read more.

Ice Geysers on Triton (2015)

planet, gas giant, Neptune, Triton, landscape, geyser, satellite, ice giant

Ice Geysers on Triton (2015)

This is a computer animation of cryovolcanism of Triton, the largest moon of Neptune. These icy geysers were observed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft - or rather, the spacecraft photographed the long stains that these features left on the landscape. It is thought that solar heating vaporises nitrogen be ...Read more.

New Horizons Probe (2015)

Pluto, Charon, dwarf planet, mission, NASA, probe, spacecraft, New Horizons

New Horizons Probe (2015)

The New Horizons mission launched from Earth on 19 January 2006 and will arrive at Pluto in July 2015. It will spend 15 months studying this dwarf planet. Pluto (bottom), some 6 billion kilometres from the Sun, has never before been visited by a spacecraft from Earth. It is a small rocky, icy world ...Read more.

Pluto Flyover (2015)

Pluto, Charon, surface, landscape, animation, dwarf planet

Pluto Flyover (2015)

An animation featuring a flight over the surface of Pluto. I have used colours based on HST imagery - yellows, dark browns/blacks, greys and whites. Snow may or may not exist on Pluto, and in any case may not look like in this depiction, but it's fun to speculate. Some scientists think Pluto will ha ...Read more.

Pluto Resonance (2015)

Pluto, Charon, dwarf planet, Nature, moon, satellites, Nix, Kerberos, Hydra, Styx

Pluto Resonance (2015)

The dwarf planet Pluto is host to at least five known moons - Charon, Nix, Kerberos, Styx and Hydra. Research has shown than three of these satellites - Styx, Nix and Hydra - are tied together by a three-body resonance, reminiscent of that which links the Galilean moons of Io, Europa and Ganymede. ...Read more.

Pluto Seen From Charon (2015)

Pluto, Charon, dwarf planet, landscape, moon, satellite

Pluto Seen From Charon (2015)

An artist's impression of the dwarf planet Pluto as it might appear from the surface of its biggest natural satellite, Charon. The New Horizons probe has revealed that Pluto is a ruddy red colour. In this depiction, Pluto's phase is new – i.e. the Sun is directly behind it. Therefore Pluto is only ...Read more.

Space Travel Poster – Titan (2015)

Titan, space travel poster, landscape, planet, satellite, ring, Saturn, surface

Space Travel Poster – Titan (2015)

This illustration is one of a series that I have been working on, borrowing heavily from the art-deco-style travel posters from the middle of the twentieth century. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and the only known natural satellite with a substantial atmosphere. Lakes of hydrocarbons have ...Read more.

Philae Lander (2014)

Rosetta, probe, comet, nucleus, Philae, animation, 67P, Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Philae Lander (2014)

This is an animation of the Philae probe on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe is expected to land on the comet nucleus in November 2014, after being dispatched from the Rosetta mothership in orbit around the comet. The comet is only moderately active at present, and will not ...Read more.

Solar Corona (2014)

Solar Corona (2014)

This picture shows an impression of the Sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona. The corona is very hot, millions of degrees compared to thousands of degrees for the solar surface. But it is very tenuous and can only be seen when the Sun's bright disc is hidden, as during a solar eclipse. Note the st ...Read more.

Solar Interior (2014)

Solar Interior (2014)

This is what you'd find inside the Sun and other stars like it. The centre is the core, where the Sun produces energy from nuclear reactions. Next is the radiative zone, where the radiation streams outwards. Then in the convective zone, the radiation rises to the surface in convective cells. Lastly ...Read more.

Asteroid Collision (2013)

Asteroid Collision (2013)

Commissioned for the cover of the prestigious British journal journal Nature, this space image illustrates a story about the large asteroid Vesta being hit by a smaller one, long ago. The impact is thought to have caused Vesta's southern-hemisphere crater. ...Read more.

Plumes of Enceladus (2013)

Enceladus, Saturn, geyser, volcanism, planet, gas giant, satellite

Plumes of Enceladus (2013)

Enceladus is a mid-sized satellite of Saturn, about 500 km across, known since 1789. In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft discovered that this relatively small world is, surprisingly, geologically active. Geyser-like jets of water were seen spewing from the moon's south-polar surface ices, vented by a pr ...Read more.

Watery Asteroid (2013)

Watery Asteroid (2013)

This was a commission for scientists at the University of Warwick, for use in a press release. The story concerned a ring of water-rich debris that had been found around a star. The astronomers believe that comets or perhaps watery-laden asteroids have passed too close to the star and been shredded ...Read more.

Planets and Stars Compared (2012)

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Sun, star, red giant, blue giant, animation, ice giant, gas giant, planet

Planets and Stars Compared (2012)

This animation compares the sizes of all the planets in the Solar System, starting with the smallest, Mercury, and increasing in size up until Jupiter. It then goes on comparing the Sun to other, larger stars. The concentric circles which appear towards the end of the clip indicate the orbits of the ...Read more.

Primordial Earth Animation (2012)

volcanism, Earth, landscape, primordial, animation

Primordial Earth Animation (2012)

An animation of the primitive Earth in the process of formation. We view the newborn world from its troubled surface – a sea of lava dotted with volcanoes spewing more lava, ash and smoke into the atmosphere. Meteorites fall frequently, illuminating the black, lifeless, surface rocks. And in the s ...Read more.

Solar System Animation (2012)

Sun, planet, animation, comet, asteroid, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, ice giant, gas giant, terrestrial planet

Solar System Animation (2012)

Animation of the eight major planets in the Solar System, along with a comet and the asteroid belt. The planets are not to scale, and neither are their relative distances. Please like or subscribe to my YouTube channel. ...Read more.

Birth of the Moon (2011)

Moon, Earth, formation, planetoid, ring, terrestrial planet, planet, accretion

Birth of the Moon (2011)

Witness the formation of the Moon. The young Earth (right) is still surrounded by a ring of debris from which the Moon (left) has recently formed. The debris is the result of the Earth having been hit by a large protoplanet. This image appeared in Earth: The Life of a Planet, a book by Mike Goldsmit ...Read more.

Comets Bringing Water (2011)

comet, Earth, Moon, impact, water, ocean, protoplanet, planetesimal, planet, terrestrial planet, formation

Comets Bringing Water (2011)

A view of the early Earth and Moon system, still enduring the seemingly endless bombardment of planetesimals and comets that rained down for the first several hundred million years of the pair's existence. It is thought that impacts by icy comets helped furnish the Earth with water for its oceans. T ...Read more.

Huygens on the Surface of Titan (2011)

Huygens, probe, Cassini, Titan, satellite, Saturn, methane, rain, hydrocarbon, surface

Huygens on the Surface of Titan (2011)

This image imagines the Huygens probe on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The probe, which landed on the satellite in January 2005, is shown as it might appear now, having weathered Titan's icy, hydrocarbon-rich climate for several years. This image appeared in Universe: Journey into Dee ...Read more.

Ice Geyser on Triton (2011)

planet, gas giant, Neptune, Triton, landscape, geyser, satellite, ice giant, ring

Ice Geyser on Triton (2011)

When the Voyager 2 probe flew past Neptune (top) in August 1989, it also imaged its largest moon Triton. The pictures showed that although Triton's surface is the coldest in the known Solar System at -240 Celsius (-400 Fahrenheit), it is still volcanically active. However, the volcanoes are cryonic ...Read more.

Mars and Opportunity Rover (2011)

Mars, rover, Opportunity, Spirit, landscape, probe

Mars and Opportunity Rover (2011)

This image, created for the children's book Universe: Journey Into Deep Space, imagines one of the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit or Opportunity) on the surface of the Red Planet. It is the future. The rover, having ceased functioning long ago, is starting to show signs of weathering. This image ap ...Read more.

Molten Planet (2011)

Earth, protoplanet, planetesimal, formation, planet, terrestrial planet, landscape, accretion

Molten Planet (2011)

An illustration showing a primitive terrestrial planet, more properly called a protoplanet, in the process of formation. We view the newborn world from its troubled surface, and a whole host of similar worlds is visible in the sky before us. This image appeared in Earth: The Life of a Planet, by Mik ...Read more.

Blue Mars (2010)

planet, terrestrial planet, Mars, future, water, ocean, animation, terraform, satellite

Blue Mars (2010)

In this movie, the lowland areas of Mars are covered in a blue sea. Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, are seen transiting across the planet in that order. It is thought that liquid water existed on Mars millions of years ago, but it is now too cold and has too little atmospheric pressure to posses ...Read more.

Once Upon a Time on the Earth (2010)

Earth, primordial, volcanism, Moon, formation

Once Upon a Time on the Earth (2010)

Solar System Formation (2010)

formation, accretion, planetesimal, solar nebula

Solar System Formation (2010)

Here, I show the early Solar System – well, not necessarily our solar system. Gas and dust has lumped together to form asteroid-sized planetesimals, and these will then come together to form the larger bodies astronomers call planetoids. Soon, the planetoids will have grown to the size of true pla ...Read more.

Within the Rings of Saturn (2010)

planet, gas giant, Saturn, ring, animation

Within the Rings of Saturn (2010)

In this clip, we view the planet Saturn from a distance, before diving towards its equatorial plane and into its glorious ring system. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water ice – which is why they are so bright – and range in size from about a centimetre to a few metres across. ...Read more.

End of an Era (2009)

asteroid, comet, Earth, Cretaceous, impact, extinction, collision, Paleogene

End of an Era (2009)

A vast asteroid or comet, 7 miles (10 km) across, slams into the Earth at a speed measured in kilometres per second. It was an event such as this which ended the reign of the dinosaurs and other species some 65 million years ago, the so-called Cretaceous-Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event. We see t ...Read more.

Impact Imminent (2009)

Impact Imminent (2009)

High above the Earth, an asteroid a few kilometres across enters our planet's atmosphere at a speed of several kilometres per second. At that velocity, it is only a matter of seconds before the asteroid smashes into the surface, vaporising both itself and the ground around the impact site, hollowing ...Read more.

Lunar Naissance (2009)

Moon, Earth, formation, planetoid, ring, accretion

Lunar Naissance (2009)

This one is similar to Chaos and Order. Both show the formation of the Moon. The young Earth (left) is still surrounded by a ring of debris from which the Moon (right) has recently formed. The debris is the result of the Earth having been hit by a large protoplanet. This is a revised and improved ve ...Read more.

Near-Earth Asteroid VI (2009)

asteroid, near-Earth, Earth, planet, terrestrial planet, Moon

Near-Earth Asteroid VI (2009)

The near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) are those whose orbits cross that of our planet. It is these worldlets that pose the greatest threat to the Earth and its fragile biosphere. They have hit us in the past, and certainly will do so again. ...Read more.

Outer Solar System (2009)

Sun, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Jupiter, gas giant, terrestrial planet, planet, ice giant

Outer Solar System (2009)

Here is a view of the Solar System, focusing on the giant outer planets Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn is in the foreground. Had the various elements in this image been to scale, which they are not, the orbits of the innermost planets would be shown much smaller, so vast is the full ext ...Read more.

Uranus (2009)

planet, gas giant, ice giant, Uranus, ring

Uranus (2009)

This artwork shows Uranus, the second smallest but least massive gas giant, as seen from space. Uranus is a fluid world of hydrogen and helium, its blue-green hue attributed to methane in its atmosphere. It is a lot like Neptune. ...Read more.

Binary Asteroid 90 Antiope (2008)

asteroid, 90 Antiope, binary, asteroid belt

Binary Asteroid 90 Antiope (2008)

This is an impression of the binary asteroid 90 Antiope, which orbits in the main part of the outer asteroid belt. Each asteroid is about 86 km across, orbiting its partner from a distance of 170 km and with a period of 16.5 hours. Binary asteroids are thought quite common, created during collisions ...Read more.

Blue Mars IV (2008)

planet, terrestrial planet, Mars, future, water, ocean, terraform, satellite

Blue Mars IV (2008)

Astronomers are uncovering more and more evidence that seems to indicate that the planet Mars, now dry and lifeless, was once able to support liquid water. This impression shows the red planet in the future, when humans have terraformed and colonised its surface. There are vast seas and a much thick ...Read more.

Saturn's Rings (2008)

Saturn's Rings (2008)

We hover above the equatorial plane of Saturn in this artistic impression, the spectacular rings illuminated by the distant Sun. The rings are made of countless icy fragments, mostly small but some as large as a house. It is their icy coverings that make them so reflective and brilliant in the Sun's ...Read more.

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (2008)

landscape, red giant, Sun, Earth, future, astronomical art

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun (2008)

At some point in the future, the Solar System's in for a roasting. And then some. About 6 or 7 billion years from now, the Sun will exhaust its hydrogen supply and swell to become a red giant. Its luminosity will balloon enormously, along with its radius. Mercury and Venus, the innermost two planets ...Read more.

Protoplanet (2007)

accretion, planetoid, planetesimal, formation

Protoplanet (2007)

This image is very similar to Fiery Birth andEmergence of the Terrestrials, showing a primitive terrestrial planet, or protoplanet, in the process of formation, 4500 million years ago. ...Read more.

Solar Flare (2007)

Solar Flare (2007)

Solar flares are powerful explosions that occur in the atmosphere of the Sun, more specifically in the parts known as the corona and the chromosphere. When they erupt, they heat the Sun's plasma to tens of million of degrees Celsius, in the process accelerating atmospheric particles (electrons, prot ...Read more.

Earth's Magnetosphere (2006)

Earth, planet, star, terrestrial planet, magnetosphere, Sun, stellar wind, diagram, magnetic

Earth's Magnetosphere (2006)

A diagram showing how the interaction of our atmosphere with the Sun's 'wind' produces the so-called magnetosphere. ...Read more.

Fiery Birth (2006)

An illustration showing a primitive terrestrial planet, more properly called a protoplanet, in the process of formation. The planet grows as its gravity sucks in more and more rocky debris. The whole process takes hundreds of millions of years. ...Read more.

Beneath Titan's Veil (2004)

planet, gas giant, Saturn, Titan, hydrocarbon, methane, rain, landscape, surface

Beneath Titan's Veil (2004)

Titan is the subject of the Huygens probe, which reached this Saturnian moon on 14 January 2005. In this image, made before the encounter, I assumed a landscape sopping with murky, frigid, liquid hydrocarbon seas, while similar substances rain from the thick air. This more recent image done for the ...Read more.

In the Shadow of Charon (2004)

In the Shadow of Charon (2004)

Charon is the largest of the known satellites of Pluto, the Solar System's recently demoted planet. In this depiction, Charon is in the foreground with the Sun behind, casting a sharp shadow of Charon onto the surface of Pluto beyond. ...Read more.

The Quiet Sea (2004)

Saturn, Cassini, Huygens, satellite, landscape, Titan, probe, spacecraft, clouds

The Quiet Sea (2004)

This is an impression of the Huygens probe, which touched down on Titan on 14 January 2005. Saturn is shown nearly full (as it appeared when the probe got there) but with a substantial shadow of the ring system on it cast by the Sun. A bit of artistic licence here, too, for Saturn was in the other h ...Read more.

3001 Earth Odyssey (2003)

planet, Earth, terrestrial planet, Moon, eclipse, Sun, future, cities, space art

3001 Earth Odyssey (2003)

Here I show the Earth in the deep future, when our technology has advanced to the point that we can clearly see it from orbit. Or perhaps it's a different planet elsewhere in the universe, somewhat like the Earth but having a greater technology than ours now. ...Read more.

Charon (2003)

Charon, Pluto, Kuiper Belt, dwarf planet, landscape

Charon (2003)

Charon is the largest of the known satellites of Pluto, the Solar System's recently demoted planet. In this image, we see Charon as it might appear from the surface of Pluto. I imagined the surface to look somewhat like that of Neptune's largest satellite, Triton, though this is of course pure specu ...Read more.

The Rubble (2003)

asteroid, asteroid belt, Sun, planet, gas giant, terrestrial planet

The Rubble (2003)

This is an artistic representation of the asteroid belt – and I do mean 'artistic'! I say that because I have overpopulated it. In reality, the asteroid belt, which exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is exceedingly thinly spread. ...Read more.

Birth of the Solar System (2002)

solar nebula, formation, accretion, planetoid, planetesimal, Sun

Birth of the Solar System (2002)

What you see here is an impression of our Solar System forming, from the initial supernova that started the contraction of a gas cloud. As the cloud collapses and spins, it gets flatter. Soon, pieces of material in the disc begin to lump together (accrete) to make ever larger bits that will one day ...Read more.

Flight of the Eagle (2002)

crater, Moon, Eagle, traditional art, spacecraft

Flight of the Eagle (2002)

This is my first go at soft pastels (not oil pastels) in about 18 years. The background crater field is almost entirely black and white pastel on grey card, but I added some highlights with a white coloured pencil. The ship, meanwhile, was painted in acrylic, copied from a model I made. The image sh ...Read more.

Philae (2002)

Rosetta, probe, comet, nucleus, Philae, 67P, Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Philae (2002)

This image depicts the first ever landing of a probe on the surface of a comet. The lander, called Philae, is part of the European mission Rosetta, which was finally launched on 2 March 2004. In early 2014, having spent ten years in space and having travelled an incredible 4 billion miles, the Roset ...Read more.

Sun Eater (2002)

Sun Eater (2002)

This was a commission for the November 2002 Scientific American. They wanted me to illustrate what would happen if a white dwarf, tiny and dense, collided with our Sun. As the white dwarf approaches, its tidal pull on the Sun stretches the latter into an egg-like shape. I have exaggerated the stretc ...Read more.

Emergence of the Terrestrials (2001)

terrestrial planet, formation, planet, planetesimal, planetoid, accretion

Emergence of the Terrestrials (2001)

This shows a view towards the Sun in the days when the terrestrial planets were forming from the protoplanetary disc, about 4500 million years ago. It shows an advanced stage in the process of planet formation. ...Read more.

Long Hair (2001)

comet, Earth, Moon, coma, planet, terrestrial planet

Long Hair (2001)

Though comets themselves are only kilometres across, the gas and dust freed from their icy surfaces can stretch vast distances, blown by the solar wind and by radiation pressure. Here, a bright comet passes behind the Earth as it heads towards the Sun, its tail – longer than the radius of Earth's ...Read more.

Meltdown (2001)

Sun, landscape, Earth, red giant, star, volcanism, future

Meltdown (2001)

This is what the Earth may look like when the Sun becomes a red giant. It's similar to Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, but this one shows the planet at an advanced stage, when it has become almost fully molten as a result of the heat of the gian ...Read more.

Europan Night (2000)

planet, gas giant, Jupiter, Europa, landscape

Europan Night (2000)

What you have here is a view of the giant planet Jupiter from a vantage point somewhere above the surface of Europa, one of its icy moons. The Sun is right behind you but just below the moon's horizon, so the light in this rendition is coming from Jupiter. Europa's surface is a cracked layer of ice ...Read more.

Future Europa (2000)

planet, gas giant, future, Jupiter, Europa, landscape, Sun, red giant

Future Europa (2000)

Several billion years from now our Sun will become a swollen caricature of itself – a red giant. When that happens the icy moons around the outer planets will warm up. Europa, a satellite of Jupiter which at the present possesses a crust of solid ice, is one such moon that might be thus affected. ...Read more.

The Quiet Death (2000)

Earth, white dwarf, Sun, landscape, future, surface

The Quiet Death (2000)

It is the far future, perhaps 8 billion years from now, and the Sun is facing a quiet death. All that remains is a tiny glowing ember called a white dwarf. At first the star will be fairly luminous by virtue of its temperature. But as it cools down it will grow steadily dimmer. This is a view from t ...Read more.

Titan Arrival (2000)

Titan, Saturn, probe, spacecraft, future, gas giant, satellite, ring

Titan Arrival (2000)

A spaceship approaches Titan, Saturn's largest moon, at some time in the future. Saturn looms in the background. I did the ship from scratch in Photoshop, literally drew it line by line and then coloured it in. Takes ages, but I think the results always look more personal than ships done in 3D progr ...Read more.

Chaos and Order (1999)

Moon, Earth, planet, terrestrial planet, formation, accretion, impact, protoplanet, planetesimal

Chaos and Order (1999)

How the Moon formed is something astronomers have been wondering for ages. The best idea is that put forward by Bill Hartmann – an astronomer and fellow space artist – and Donald Davis. They assert that a massive protoplanet slammed into Earth just after it had formed, creating a ring of debris ...Read more.

Disaster! (1999)

shuttle, Earth, planet, terrestrial planet, impact, collision, spacecraft

Disaster! (1999)

This is a variation of an illustration done for the UK magazine Frontiers back in 1999. It was to illustrate (if I remember correctly) an article about the dangers of Shuttle missions. The ship was painted on screen, with a mouse, in Photoshop with no prior scanning. The planet is a Bryce sky which ...Read more.

Jovian Flyby (1999)

light sail, Jupiter, Europa, solar sail, gas giant, planet, spacecraft, future

Jovian Flyby (1999)

This is a solar sail, as in Rendezvous Halley, but this time having a square design. Solar sails are gigantic sheets of highly reflective but wafer-thin material. They intercept photons – particles of light – from the Sun, and the pressure from this pushes the craft through space. ...Read more.

Dark Menace (1998)

Some asteroids pass so close to the Sun that they must glow red-hot at times. Icarus is one such, named after the ill-fated Greek who used wax to bind bird feathers together to make himself a set of wings – only to fly so close to the Sun that the wax melted and he fell to his death in the Sea of ...Read more.

Triton Doom (1998)

planet, gas giant, satellite, volcanism, Neptune, Triton, ice giant

Triton Doom (1998)

Triton, largest moon of Neptune, is doomed. Its irregular orbit is taking it inexorably closer to its parent planet. At a time in the future too distant for humans to comprehend, the moon will have come so close to Neptune that the gravity of this immense planet, four times the diameter of the Earth ...Read more.

Sojourner (1997)

Mars, rover, Pathfinder, Sojourner, landscape, traditional art

Sojourner (1997)

This is my impression of the Mars Pathfinder rover, called Sojourner, which touched down safely on the Red Planet on American Independence Day in 1997. The craft itself actually landed in a lava flood plain – chosen because it was flat and easier to achieve a nice touch-down there. This image depi ...Read more.

ORIGINAL FOR SALE!

Blue Ice (1996)

planet, gas giant, Neptune, Triton, landscape, satellite, traditional art, ice giant

Blue Ice (1996)

Triton, Neptune's largest satellite, orbits at such a distance that, from its surface, Neptune appears roughly sixteen times the diameter of our Moon as seen from the Earth. Out here, the Sun is 900 times fainter than we know it, but still brighter than 550 full Moons. However, when Triton is betwee ...Read more.

ORIGINAL FOR SALE!

Long-Distance Caller (1996)

Long-Distance Caller (1996)

This picture was a commission for the cover of the UK magazine Quest , in June 1997. The image's title is indicative of the fact that many comets come from way beyond the Solar System – taking millions of years to get here – and are in essence only just visiting. ...Read more.

ORIGINAL FOR SALE!

Tides of Fire (1996)

planet, gas giant, Jupiter, landscape, traditional art, volcanism

Tides of Fire (1996)

This picture shows Jupiter seen from the surface of its closest Galilean moon, Io. Because Io is so close to Jupiter, it is constantly engaged in a tug-of-war with the planet's considerable gravity. On Earth, the Moon's gravitational pull, and to a lesser extent the Sun's, are responsible for the oc ...Read more.

ORIGINAL FOR SALE!