Earlier this week, when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft went careening past an ancient chunk of rock more than four billion miles away, science celebrated a milestone—the flyby was the farthest visit to another world humans have made to date. The probe snapped numerous pictures of its target that are now making the long trek back to Earth.

But of course, no humans were actually there to document the spacecraft's big moment. So, what must that distant encounter have looked like up close? It’s the kind of question astronomers have been asking since they began studying the skies, and one that artists—with their brushes, paints, scientific knowledge, and imaginations—have for centuries been trying to help answer.

In July 1939, National