1979 painting of Pluto turns out to be eerily accurate

Until New Horizons traveled 3 billion miles and captured increasingly clearer images of Pluto, nobody knew for sure what its surface looked like -- or did they? A detailed painting of the celestial body created in 1979 has turned out to be eerily accurate.

In fact, the image created 36 years ago by artist Don Dixon is a very close match to one taken by the NASA craft about a week ago. Back in the '70s, even the best available equipment couldn't provide a glimpse of Pluto that made it appear as anything other than a little, blurry orb.

See the striking images of the dwarf planet:

Dixon commented on the striking similarities between his rendering and the real thing. He assured everyone that he doesn't have any special prophetic powers. Rather, his detailed depiction of the dwarf planet emerged from scientifically based probabilities concerning its atmosphere, ground features, and geological activity.

The artist does note that Pluto ended up being far more orange than he ever imagined. Dixon says he, "...assumed the exotic ices would push colors more into the whites and grays."

He also didn't foresee that there'd be a giant heart shape on the dwarf planet.