Where our stories begin.
Meet the people and places we learned from.
We consult original institutions, preserve the core facts across reading editions, and label older material clearly. Photographs are resized and sometimes cropped for display. Artwork is shown in full. No scene has been generated or fabricated.
A forest between two worlds
Jess Sutt / USFWS • Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. Public domain; cropped and resized for display. Original image & credit.
Inside a stellar nursery
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; processing: J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI). NASA educational/editorial media-use guidelines; no endorsement. Colors assigned to infrared observations. Original image & credit.
Why does the ocean look blue?
Robert Schwemmer / CINMS / NOAA • Big Sur, California. Public domain (NOAA); also published under CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/). Cropped and resized for display. Original image & credit.
Who gets to see the stars?
NPS / Ben Banet • Los Angeles skyglow from Mount Whitney. U.S. government photograph; editorial use. Original image & credit.
The butterfly journey that takes generations
Eileen Hornbaker / USFWS • photographed August 22, 2018. Public Domain, as labeled by USFWS. Original image & credit.
How invisible light becomes a picture
- NASA: How Webb’s full-color images are made
- ESA/Webb: From measurements to images
- NASA: About Webb images
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; processing: J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI). NASA educational/editorial media-use guidelines; no endorsement. Colors assigned to infrared observations. Original image & credit.
The wave that makes a mountain look small
Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave), ca. 1830–32. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (JP1847). Public domain / The Met Open Access. Full artwork reproduced without cropping. Original image & credit.
Our photography desks
For future issues, start with NOAA Photo Library for oceans and coasts, NASA Science imagery for space, and USFWS photography for wildlife. Check each image’s credit and usage terms.
Reuse information
Government photographs are used for factual educational reporting. No agency endorsement is implied. Webb credits remain with NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI and the named processors. NASA media guidelines.
Each article includes its source check date and image credits. Editorial text is adapted, not quoted.