328-oortcloud-dixon – This astronomical illustration presents a view from within the inner regions of the Oort Cloud, looking back toward the distant Sun. In the foreground, craggy, irregularly shaped icy planetesimals and cometary nuclei are rendered with detailed, textured surfaces under faint illumination. In the background, the Sun appears as a bright, central star surrounded by a hazy, glowing disc of dust, which transitions into a vast, spherical swarm of countless microscopic icy particles extending across deep space. Digital painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American, 1999, © Don Dixon
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