When it comes to science fiction, fantasty, and space art, Ron Miller is an artist's artist. Before becoming a freelance illustrator (and Hugo-nominated book author), Miller was art director for the National Air & Space Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. Along with doing book and magazine illustrations, he's also created production art for films like Dune and Total Recall, and designed stamps for the US Postal Service. Recently, Scientific American commissioned art from Miller to illustrate their new online feature, "8 Wonders of the Solar System, Made Interactive." The multimedia feature explores the likes of Jupiter's Red Spot, the Geysers of Enceladus, the sunrise on Mercury, and, of course, Saturn's rings. Here's the caption for the image above, depicting Valles Marineris on Mars:
People have been known to fall to their knees and weep at the sight of Arizona's Grand Canyon. One wonders what the first traveler to the Mariner Valley will do when gazing into this canyon. At almost four miles deep and so wide that in some places you would have to strain to see the other side, this gigantic tectonic crack would span the U.S. from New York to California–a quarter of the way around the planet–so that sunrise at one end happens six or so hours before sunrise at the other. Water once ran through large segments of this expanse. In this image the traveler views an icy mist filling the valley as the suns sets over the north rim.
"8 Wonders of the Solar System, Made Interactive"
