Our Mission
Astronomy and space science are inspirational subjects and fuel the imagination of a new generation. Beginning in the 1960s, both scientists and the public developed a "sense of place" in our Universe through famous color images like pollo’s Blue Marble, Voyager’s Pale Blue Earth, and the Hubble Telescope’s Deep Field images. What new perspectives does the future hold and how can we convey their meaning?Beginning in 2002 with a NASA proposal to build NIRCam for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we have been laying educational foundations for the public to understand upcoming discoveries about our Universe and its constitutents, including galaxies, stars, our Solar System, and other planetary systems. By following evidence obtained from telescopes like JWST, we also hope to inspire the public, both young and old, to expand their horizons in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computer science, as well as artistic expression.
JWST is now exploring farther back in space and time, and inside dusty regions of space, to unveil the origins of a newborn Universe, other planetary systems, and perhaps life itself. However, the abstract nature of these topics, combined with non-visible infrared images, makes true understanding more difficult. We have been laying educational foundations 20-years prior to launch about concepts relating to light, spectra, telescopes, planets, stars, galaxies, and cosmology. Here's a recent synopsis of our progress.
