Stars Galaxies and Cosmology

102-Globular-Cluster
Globular clusters may the cores of galaxies that were disrupted by tidal interactions. Dozens of them swarm like bees about the core of the Milky Way ; acrylic…
170-Our-Galaxy
Our Galaxy. Stylized view of the Milky Way as seen from 100,000 light years. Acrylic on illustration board, 1988.
326-Quasar-B
intense jets of energy burst from the core of an active galaxy in this June, 1998 Scientific American cover - painting by Don Dixon
329-Quantum-Foam.jpg

an allegorical image based on the premise that our universe sprang from a quantum fluctuation in the cosmic vacuum - painting by Don Dixon

Big Bang
Big Bang
A two dimensional portrayal of the Big Bang. Distance from the bright core represents increasing time. painting by Don Dixon
348-Quantum-Cosmos
mysterious energy causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate, cover, January 1999, Scientific American - painting by Don Dixon
349-Horizon
diagram showing how the expansion of the universe delays contact between two points because speed of light is finite - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific…
358-Campanas-Survey
Volume of Universe Explored by Campanas Survey - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American
359-Cosmic-Structure.jpg

Large Scale Structure of Universe - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American

372-Evolution--of-stars.jpg

Evolution of Galaxies, the Solar System, Stars and the Universe - painting by Don Dixon for Smithsonian Institution

375-Microwave-Probe.jpg

Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American

382-Quintessence
Quintessence, an energy that pervades space-time, may regulate the expansion of the universe - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American
385-Galactic-Atmosphere.jpg

Even the galaxy has a kind of weather, in which fountains of tenous gas arch high above the galactic plain through vents blasted by supernova explosions - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American

386-Cosmic-Cycle
Created in collaboration with Bryan Christie, this diagram illustrates a kind of cosmic ecology. Radiation from bright stars and violently ejected gases from…
387-proto-galaxies
Protogalaxies form within filamentary clouds of matter in the early universe.
389-Universe-Time-line.jpg

History of the universe in four stages: the Big Bang is marked by the left vertex, followed by a million-year dark age until the first stars form at the intersection of huge filaments of primordial hydrogen. A period of intense star formation and violent explosions lays the foundation for the universe we see today. - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American

401-Dark-Matter-Halo.jpg

This diagram created for the March, 2003 issue of Scientific American suggests the immense halo of mysterious dark matter that many astrophysicists believe surrounds our galaxy. The visible stars and gases of the Milky Way contribute less than ten percent of its total mass.

409-Orion-constellation-3D.jpg

The stars delineating the constellation Orion are dispersed across nearly 2,000 light years in this 3D representation. Digital, 2003. © 2005 by Don Dixon.

411-CosmicInflation
In the theory of cosmic inflation, the universe expands from the size of an atomic nucleus to a baseball in a tiny fraction of a second. Digital, 2005. © 2005…
413-Ancient-Stars
The most ancient stars in the universe may provide clues to its evolution. This montage, suggesting the formation of stars and galaxies out of the Big Bang, was…
Some scientists speculate that, if microscopic black holes can be formed by the Large Hadron Collider, they may bridge the hyperdimensional gap between "branes"…
The strange and beautiful shapes of planetary nebulae, like the Cat's Eye, form through complex interactions between stellar winds and magnetic fields. Digital,…
Diagram showing the very small part of the sky that was surveyed in the Hubble Space Telescope's Ultra Deep Field project. Digital diagram © Popular Mechanics,…
Although the early universe was immensely hot, it was dark, because photons were not able to travel through the highly-ionized gas. In this diagram of cosmic…
Gamma rays burst from either pole of a shattered star undergoing a hypernova explosion. © Don Dixon, 2005.
The universe becomes very lonely as dark energy pushes most of it beyond our horizon. Diagram for Scientific American, 2004. © 2005 by Don Dixon.
435 Ancient Globular Cluster and asteroid
Strange clusters that seem to be a cross between open and globular clusters harbor stars that may provide clues to the evolution of the early universe. Cover…
Diagram for Scientific American shows steps in a celestial cataclysm. As the nuclear reaction within a giant star's core falters, the core collapses, triggering…
Diagram for Scientific American shows second type of supernova. Gas captured from a close companion star accumulates on the surface of a white dwarf star. The…

A brown dwarf star shines within its accretion disk. Streams of ionized dust and gas are drawn to the forming star by its magnetic field. Digital illustration for Scientific American © 2007 Don Dixon / cosmographica.com

Infographic showing the barred structure of our galaxy. Artwork © 2007 Don Dixon / cosmographica.com
Many billions of years in the future, the Milky Way will be alone in the observable universe, as all the local galaxies merge and the more distant ones recede…

The first stars, formed perhaps only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, were much more massive than our sun and much shorter lived, exploding as supernovae after shining for only a few million years.

Mountain ranges melt on the outer planet of a star that has gone supernova. Even before the wave of ejecta from the exploding star reaches the planet, the…
Dusty halo around white dwarf star
A white dwarf star is surrounded by a dusty halo of shattered planets, asteroids, and comets.

Galactic Star Streams

Streams of stars orbiting outside the plane of the Milky Way are thought to be the remains of small galaxies that were disrupted by tidal interactions and which are being assimilated into our own. Digital artwork © 2007 Don Dixon / cosmographica.com

Evolution of stars, planets, and brown dwarfs
Infographic showing how stars, planets, and brown dwarfs form depending on the mass of their parent nebula. Artwork © 2007 Don Dixon / cosmographica.com
a spiral galaxy rises gracefully in the sky of an alien world. cover of "Mountain Astrologer";acrylic and goauche and digital;1983/2006; copyright Don Dixon /…

Milky Way Rising over an extragalactic planet; Originally Spacescapes Number 60, this early gouache on illustration board painting shows our galaxy in the sky of an alien world high above the galactic pole; 1974 by Don Dixon.

Orion Nebula - an earthlike world, child of one of the young stars in the Great Nebula in Orion, floats near the outskirts of this stellar nursery. Acrylic and…
The Sun's Neighbors -geography of the Milky Way Galaxy. Our sun orbits about 30,000 light years from the center of the galaxy, which contains approximately 400…
Universe in Hand
503 - Universe in Hand — The universe is shown when it was only 10 centimeters in diameter, 10^-32 seconds after the Big Bang during the inflation era. Cover…
504 Thorne Zytkow Object - TZO - a dead star inside a dying star. A neutron star stirs the chaotic heart of a red giant star. digital, copyright 2016 Don Dixon