"Flowers of the Sky" is a stunning collection of celestial art throughout the ages from the Public Domain Review. The artwork in this collection covers nearly a millennium of illustrations (chronologically) depicting comets, meteors, meteorites, and shooting stars. The earliest work in the collection is a shooting star, drawn in what looks to be pen and ink, from 1493. The latest is a surrealistic painting of space with a skull and large heads floating in the sky from 1910.
Some images in the collection are elaborate landscape paintings, while others are simple drawings of comets. They're all fantastic in their own way. I love seeing the different ways that the cosmos were depicted by various artists throughout many centuries.
Here are some fun facts about comets and shooting stars:
Comets have two tails. One is made of gas (ion tail) and the other of dust. Both tails always point away from the sun due to the solar wind.
Comets glow when near the sun. Heat causes their icy core to sublimate, forming a glowing coma (atmosphere) and tails.
A "shooting star" isn't a star at all. It's a tiny piece of space debris burning up in Earth's atmosphere. These bits, often no larger than a grain of sand, enter the atmosphere at high speeds and create a bright streak of light due to friction.
See also: Video: Kittens in Space, by Jonathan 'Song A Day' Mann
