"Jovian Night"
30" x 30" Acrylic ©1987

Like celestial drapery an aurora, similar to those seen on Earth, glows eerily in the night sky of the giant outer planet Jupiter. Unlike the rocky inner planets Earth and Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have no solid surface but increasingly dense atmospheres. Two of Jupiter's many moons, Io and Europa, linger over the bizarre cloudscape dominated by what appears to be a cyclonic storm. Lightning flashes in the gloom below. Some bolts would be bright enough to illuminate areas as vast as a continent on Earth.