Comet Probe. The surface looks bright only because of the glare of sunlght; it is actually very dark. Also, we are seeing an area which has been disturbed by evaporation and the outgassing of volatiles, revealing ice. In the foreground are dartk rocks perched on pinnacles of ice which they have shielded from sunlight.

From Futures

On 17 November 1999, in the early hours (between 02.00 and 04.00) there was a major shower of meteors or 'shooting stars'. Had it been anything like the big storms of, say, 1799 or 1833, (we wish!), we might have seen something like this. In the event, most of the UK was clouded out (surprise!), but at least an artist can imagine how it could have been!

In this shot of Stonehenge we are looking roughly east, with Leo somewhat south-east.. The radiant is inside the Sickle of Leo, and I have shown it at the time of the peak of the shower. Ursa Major is at top left. The Leonids have a distinctly greenish tint. I have shown two sporadic meteors ~ probably stray Taurids ~ coming in from the west. An even better shower was seen in 2001, especially in the USA.

(courtesy Astronomy Now)

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This link will take you to the story of the discovery, by the ULYSSES probe, of the longest comet tail ever recorded. On the right is my illustration, as released to the media in April 2000 and used by Nature, among other publications.

I did two versions: this dramatic 'virtual reality' one and a diagrammatic version showing the orbits of the inner planets to scale.

There's also a link at the Imperial College, London

and the BBC site

An Apollo asteroid approaches to within 100,000 km of the Earth, which eclipses the Sun. Our atmosphere creates a 'ring of fire' ~ the sunset effect. While such a body might pass us by, there is every chance that Earth's gravity would draw it into a collision. . .

From Futures; see Sales page.

. . . which, if it occurred at night, might well look like this. A worst-case scenario, this asteroid has struck near an inhabited region. We can see the lights of great cities, but also the fires and smoke caused by a panicked populace. There is nowhere to run; an impact of this size would cause a 'nuclear winter' effect as vast quantities of dust, smoke and débris are hurled into the atmosphere, blotting out the Sun.

From Futures.

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