With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST; Webb Telescope) on December 25, 2021, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been all over the news for over a month as the telescope has unfolded itself to take its position in space.

In celebration of the Webb Telescope’s successful launch and unfolding process, NASA has announced an art/science (also known as, art/sci or sciart) has issued an extension to an art/sci challenge (I don’t know when it was first announced),

Here’s more from the January 21, 2022 NASA news release on EurekAlert announcing the extension,

NASA’s biggest and most powerful space telescope ever launched on Dec. 25, 2021! The James Webb Space Telescope, or Webb, will be orbiting a million miles away to reveal the universe as never seen before. It will look at the first stars and galaxies, study distant planets around other stars, solve mysteries in our solar system and discover what we can’t even imagine. Its revolutionary technology will be able to look back in time at 13.5 billion years of our cosmic history.

Show us what you believe the Webb telescope will reveal by creating art. You can draw, paint, sing, write, dance — the universe is the limit! Share a picture or video of you and your creation with the hashtag #UnfoldTheUniverse for a chance to be featured on NASA’s website and social media channels.

How to Participate

1. Use any art supplies you’d like to create art. The art could be a drawing, song, poem, dance or something else! Check out the resources linked below for inspiration.

2. Take a picture of you holding your art, or film a less than one-minute video of you describing or performing your art.

3. Share your photo or video on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram using #UnfoldTheUniverse for a chance to be featured on NASA’s website and social media accounts!

4. If your submission catches our eye, we’ll be in touch to obtain permission for it to be considered for NASA digital products.

Deadline for Submissions EXTENDED: Good news! We will now keep the #UnfoldTheUniverse art challenge open through the return of our first science images, expected to be about six months after launch. Keep your submissions coming – we love seeing your creativity!

Our web gallery of selected #UnfoldTheUniverse submissions can be found here.

Want to learn more about Webb? Start here:

James Webb Space Telescope Website
Webb Mission Overview
Introduction to the Webb Telescope Video
“29 Days on the Edge” Video

For kids:

What is the James Webb Space Telescope? (4th grade and up)
STEM Webb Toolkit (K-12)

You can also find out more about the telescope and its technical specifications in the James Webb Space Telescope Wikipedia entry (Note: Links have been removed),

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope and an international collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).[8] [emphasis mine] The telescope is named after James E. Webb,[9] who was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968 and played an integral role in the Apollo program.[10][11] It is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship mission in astrophysics.[12][13] JWST was launched on 25 December 2021 on Ariane flight VA256. It is designed to provide improved infrared resolution and sensitivity over Hubble, viewing objects up to 100 times fainter than the faintest objects detectable by Hubble.[14] This will enable a broad range of investigations across the fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observations up to redshift z≈20[14] of some of the oldest and most distant objects and events in the Universe (including the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies), and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

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Features

The James Webb Space Telescope has a mass about half of Hubble Space Telescope’s, but a 6.5 m (21 ft)-diameter gold-coated beryllium primary mirror made of 18 hexagonal mirrors, giving it a total size over six times as large as Hubble’s 2.4 m (7.9 ft). Of this, 0.9 m2 (9.7 sq ft) is obscured by the secondary support struts,[45] making its actual light collecting area about 5.6 times larger than Hubble’s 4.525 m2 (48.71 sq ft) collecting area. Beryllium is a very stiff, hard, lightweight metal often used in aerospace that is non-magnetic and keeps its shape accurately in an ultra-cold environment[46] – it has a specific stiffness (rigidity) six times that of steel or titanium,[47] while being 30% lighter in weight than aluminium. The gold coating provides infrared reflectivity and durability.

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Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was very interested in space and the aeronautics industry and, accordingly, his government invested in the JWST.

Good luck with your entry or entries!