The world’s largest and strongest space telescope is now on the market at your native U.S. put up workplace.
A postage stamp depicting (opens in new tab) NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Thursday (Sept. 8). USPS Board of Governors vice chairman Anton Hajjar served because the dedicating official on the First Day of Situation ceremony held on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
“The James Webb Area Telescope orbits the sun about one million miles away from our planet. Now it would journey america mail system, with the launch of this new Endlessly stamp,” stated Hajjar on the occasion. “The Webb telescope is sending actually astounding pictures, I am certain you’ll agree!”
Gallery: James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st photos
“The telescope itself, which we have a good time on this stamp, is an engineering marvel, a long time within the making,” Hajjar stated.
Seven months after its launch in December 2021, the Webb Area Telescope started returning infrared pictures and information that’s now redefining astronomers’ understanding of the universe. Amongst its early science outcomes has been its first direct imaging of an exoplanet and the deepest and highest-resolution infrared view of the universe (opens in new tab) ever seen.
The Webb Area Telescope stamp depicts the tennis court-size observatory set towards a starscape primarily based on a digital illustration by artist James Vaughan (opens in new tab). Now on the market in panes of 20, the Webb stamp is Endlessly denomination, that means it would at all times be equal in worth to the First-Class Mail 1-ounce worth.
“When anybody who makes use of these stamps appears at this telescope, I would like them to see what I see — its unbelievable potential to disclose new and surprising discoveries that assist us perceive the origins of the universe, and our place in it,” stated Bob Cabana, NASA’s affiliate administrator and a former astronaut, who joined Hajjar on the ceremony. “This telescope is the most important worldwide space science program in U.S. historical past, and I am unable to wait to see the scientific breakthroughs it would allow in astronomy.”
Different officers in attendance and collaborating within the First Day of Situation ceremony included Ellen Stofan, undersecretary for science and analysis on the Smithsonian Establishment; Lee Feinberg, optical telescope component supervisor for the Webb telescope at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart; Erin Smith, Webb telescope deputy observatory undertaking scientist at NASA Goddard; and Elliot Gruber, director of the Nationwide Postal Museum.
Webb stamp souvenirs
Along with selling the James Webb Space Telescope stamp at $12 per pane of 20, the USPS additionally has new, associated collectibles available from its online store.
Now transport are two completely different envelopes stamped and postmarked for the primary day of situation. Known as “first day covers” by philatelists, the 2 collectibles embrace both the official first-day-of-issue ink postmark or a digital shade postmark. Each cancellations function the stamp’s title and the small print of its issuance, in addition to a hexagonal sample representing the Webb’s 21-foot-wide (6.4-m) main mirror. The digital shade postmark fills the design with the “colours of the cosmos.”
The Webb first day cowl retails for $1.15 every. The digital shade postmark lists for $2.00 every.
Additionally out there are uncut “press sheets” of six panes with or with out die-cuts ($72 every) and a 15.5 by 12.5 inch (39.4 by 31.8 cm) print of the stamp artwork framed with one of many stamps ($39.95).
Collectors who have been unable to be on the Nationwide Postal Museum on Thursday also can purchase a “ceremony memento,” with consists of the occasion invitation (formed to resemble the Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror) and program, as nicely one of many new stamp panes for $27.95.
First-day postmarks
The USPS may also reply to requests for the first-day-of-issue postmark although the mail.
Starting Thursday, the general public has 120 days to purchase and affix the James Webb Area Telescope stamp to an envelope of their alternative, self-address or handle it to others after which mail it inside a bigger envelope to:
FDOI — James Webb Area Telescope Stamp
USPS Stamp Success Companies
8300 NE Underground Drive, Suite 300
Kansas Metropolis, MO 64144-9900
After making use of the first-day-of-issue postmark, the USPS will return the envelope by way of the mail. There is no such thing as a cost for the postmark as much as a amount of fifty, after which it’s 5 cents per further postmark. All requests should be postmarked by Jan. 6, 2023.
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