The Art of the Cosmos

Hundreds of deep space missions since the 1960s have captured stunning photographs of the cosmos. Many of these scientific images can also be classified as art. This book highlights more than 100 examples, revealing the splendor of our universe.

This book is a gallery of human accomplishment that celebrates the scientists and engineers who push civilization—including the ways that we produce and experience art—beyond the physical limits of our planet. The photographs, selected by Dr. Jim Bell, represent some of the finest examples of the art of deep space exploration, most of them involving high-tech robotic emissaries. The images are loosely organized by distance from the Earth, so that readers will slowly travel on a journey farther and farther away from home, ultimately voyaging out to vistas of the farthest-known places in the universe.