The U.S. Postal Service launched two new Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps today at the Big Sky, Montana, Post Office, showcasing breathtaking high-definition images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
The new stamps celebrate America’s ongoing exploration of deep space, providing collectors and customers with the opportunity to purchase the stamps, acquire a special first-day-of-issue postmark, and view large displays of the stamps at the Post Office retail lobby.
The stamps highlight two celestial wonders captured by the Webb Telescope: the spiral galaxy NGC 628 and the star cluster IC 348.
The Spiral Galaxy Priority Mail stamp features NGC 628, located 32 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. The image reveals the galaxy’s central core, where clusters of older stars emit blue infrared light, a hue assigned by Webb’s instruments. Emerging from the central core are vast spiral arms composed of stars, gas, and dust, which extend to the edges of the galaxy, rotating counterclockwise.
The stamp design includes the words “Spiral Galaxy” in white italics in the top-right corner, while “USA” is printed vertically in white on the bottom left. The denomination, “10.10,” is displayed horizontally along the bottom left edge. Designed by USPS art director Greg Breeding, the stamp incorporates imagery provided by NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, and several collaborating research teams.
The Spiral Galaxy stamp is issued in a pane of four and costs $10.10, matching the price of the Priority Mail Flat-Rate Envelope.
The Star Cluster Priority Mail Express stamp features IC 348, a star cluster located 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. This ethereal image captures a reflection nebula where gas and dust cascade in shades of pink, purple, and white, illuminated by the cluster’s stars. Additional stars and galaxies appear as pinpoints of light within and beyond the nebula. Notably, astronomers discovered three brown dwarfs — objects larger than most planets but too small to be stars — hidden within the nebula.
These discoveries challenge current theories of star formation, offering new avenues for research on celestial bodies of small mass.
The stamp design features the words “Star Cluster IC 348” in white italics in the top-right corner, “USA” printed vertically on the bottom left, and the denomination, “31.40,” displayed horizontally in white. Breeding, who also designed this stamp, used imagery provided by NASA and other space agencies, as well as researchers Kevin Luhman and Catarina Alves de Oliveira.
The Star Cluster stamp is also issued in a pane of four, costing $31.40, the price of the Priority Mail Express Flat-Rate Envelope.
The Webb Telescope’s remarkable ability to observe distant galaxies and star clusters with unprecedented clarity is transforming scientific understanding of the star-formation cycle and the origins of the universe.
Customers and collectors can follow the conversation and share their excitement about these cosmic stamps using the hashtags #StarClusterStamp and #SpiralGalaxyStamp.
