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

Thames and Hudson

It is a testament to the human imagination that the emptiest and most desolate place we know of – space – has inspired such an obsession. In his forthcoming book, Space Journal: Art, Science and Cosmic Explorationpresenter and author Dallas Campbell brings together iconic images associated with space, along with its more interesting marginalia.

Some of the most captivating images in Space Journal comes from when our knowledge of space, and its possible inhabitants, was scant, and imaginative imaginings filled in the gaps instead, like this Belgian cover of HG Wells World War from 1906, below – complete with loot rack.

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

More recently, the powerful James Webb Space Telescope stepped in. Its complex star shadow required intricate origami-style folding to package it for launch (a prototype is shown in the main image).

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

“On Earth, footprints can be fossilized in stone or washed away in hours. Here they will last for ages, despite being formed in the finest materials,” writes Campbell. “The Sea of ​​Tranquility has no tides to erase them. These are imprints that mark a moment when we migrated from our home planet to another.”

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