oil on canvas, 1973 impression of the frigid landscape of a hypothetical planet beyond Pluto. Lakes of liquid nitrogen cover the surface.
Pluto at Perihelion - Pluto's thin atmosphere thaws when it is near the sun, perhaps causing parhelia and other optical effects
Portrait of Clyde Tombaugh
Portrait of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, with the Lowell Observatory discovery plates, 50th anniversary commemorative poster, acrylic and gouache on illustration board, © Don Dixon 1980
Oort Cloud Object
a comet nucleus, whose exotic ices are stained brown by cosmic radiation, basks in the light of an ancient supernova, acrylic and gouache on illustration board, 1993, © Don Dixon
Oort Cloud
fragments of a comet nucleus drift in the icy reaches of the Oort Cloud, far from the sun. Digital painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American, 1999, © Don Dixon
Kuiper Belt
Diagram showing the inclined orbit of minor planet Pluto with respect to the Kuiper Belt surrounding the solar system. Digital 1999 © Don Dixon
Pluto Landscape
Reddish organic compounds may blanket the icy surface of Pluto. Pluto's moon, Charon, Pluto's largest moon,looms in the sky. - painting by Don Dixon for Scientific American
Pluto and Charon
Pluto and Charon – A remarkably prescient rendering of Pluto and its moon Charon, which form a double planet at the frontier of the solar system, cover for Out of the Darkness, by Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto ; acrylic and gouache on illustration board, 1979, © Don Dixon
Hypothetical Planet X
A hypothetical planet in the outer reaches of the solar system orbits more than 700 times farther from the sun than earth does. A super-Earth, with an estimated mass of 10 Earths (approximately 5,000 times the mass of Pluto), a diameter two to four times that of Earth, and a highly elliptical orbit with an orbital period of approximately 15,000 years, the planet is shown as a ringed ice giant whose night side is illuminated by lightning and aurorae powered by galactic cosmic rays. digital painting, copyright Don Dixon, 2016
Glacier on Pluto
503-Pluto-Glacier A glacier of frozen nitrogen flows through a valley on frigid Pluto, with its large moon Charon on the horizon. Oil on masonite panel, 2015, copyright Don Dixon, 2016