Captivating space images show how it has inspired us throughout the ages

Thames and Hudson

It’s a testament to the human imagination that the emptiest, most desolate place we know—the universe—has inspired such an obsession. In his forthcoming book Space Journal: The Art, Science, and Space Explorationhost and author Dallas Campbell collects iconic images associated with the universe, along with its more interesting fringes.

Some of the most amazing images in Space diary it comes from a time when our knowledge of the universe and its possible inhabitants was scant and the gaps were filled in by fanciful ideas like this Belgian HG Wells cover War of the Worlds dated 1906, below – complete with robber tripod.

But astronomers soon began working to improve this knowledge. Around 1897, this would be through objects such as the basic but groundbreaking (at the time) telescope funded by businessman Percival Lowell, shown below.

Recently, the powerful James Webb Space Telescope stepped in. Its complex star shade requires intricate origami-style folding to wrap it up for launch (a prototype is shown in the main image).

Campbell was born just after NASA’s Apollo missions changed our view of the moon and space forever, but it clearly left an imprint on his mind, just as astronauts left imprints on the moon below.

“On Earth, footprints can petrify into rock or wash away within hours. Here, they last for eons, despite being made of the finest materials,” Campbell writes. “The Sea of ​​Tranquility has no tide to erase them. These are the imprints that mark the moment we migrated from our home planet to another.”

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