Halley Encounter - painted the night of the Giotto-Halley encounter, shows the peanut-shaped nucleus of Halley's comet
comets in our solar system's Oort Cloud are disturbed by the passing of a nearby dwarf star in the distant future - painting by Don Dixon
Earth and Moon in Comet Tail
earth and moon are dwarfed by the tail of a passing comet - digital painting by Don Dixon, 1998
A large asteroid is struck by a smaller one. Since both bodies are porous, most of the energy is absorbed as heat, rather than dispersed with ejecta, thus explaining the internal melting of asteroids. Digital, for Scientific American. © 2005 by Don Dixon.
A high-powered laser in earth orbit blasts surface material from an approaching comet nucleus in an effort to deflect it. Pre-production art for NBC miniseries "Asteroid." Acrylic and goache, 1997. © 2005 by Don Dixon.
In the Shadow of Icarus; an early painting by Don Dixon showing a crewed spacecraft sheltering in the shadow of the sun-diving asteroid Icarus as a tethered instrument examines the nearby Sun; 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas with watercolor paper applique´, 1972; copyright Don Dixon
346-Fire-over-ice-greenland-meteor-explosion
Meteorite impact in the Rub' al Khali
Mining an Asteroid
Operation Asteroid - An mile-long carbonaceous asteroid is maneuvered into orbit over the moon, where it will be mined for organics required to sustain a lunar base. An electromagnetic mass driver provides not only propulsion (by ejecting asteroidal rock at high velocity), but will be used to deliver mined material to the lunar surface where it can be collected by colonists. 18x24 inch acrylic and gouache on Masonite panel, 1980. copyright Don Dixon