Dawn of Infrared Astronomy (2017)

Some JWST inspired art. I tried to make something kind of magical, because that’s what I think this telescope will be. I don’t know who the first person to say JWST would begin the dawn of infrared astronomy was, but I took it a bit literally by placing the primary mirror as a kind of sun within a landscape.

The mesas and land formations are comprised of NIRCam filter throughput curves, so if it looks strange to you, that’s why. Infrared astronomy is fairly strange to most people. The sky texture is my Cygnus-X mosaic, which is an infrared image. The colorful light emanating from the primary mirror is actually created by using some simulated PSFs available from this page. I try to keep it nerdy.

NASA wants your JWST-inspired art, too.
www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2017/nasa-invites-you-to-cre…