#UnfoldTheUniverse Art Challenge

a collage if images of people showing the art they created for #UnfoldTheUniverse
A selection of sample submissions for NASA's #UnfoldTheUniverse art challenge.
Credits: (Top row, L-R): Amelia Cochran, Jaden Berkley, Ella Zhou, Collin Cochran. (Middle, under Jaden Berkley): Jedidiah Dore. (Bottom row, L-R): Mansi Ashtamkar, Sue Reno, Greta Slocum, Ahmad Jabakenji, Gabriel Enache.

NASA’s biggest and most powerful space telescope ever launched on Dec. 25, 2021! The James Webb Space Telescope, or Webb, is orbiting a million miles away and will 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.

What Is #UnfoldTheUniverse

What do you think we’ll discover when we #UnfoldTheUniverse? 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.

Show us how you believe the Webb telescope will #UnfoldTheUniverse by creating art. 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. Credits: (Video Credit) - Kellie Gerardi, NASA; (Host and co-host) - Kellie Gerardi, Delta V. Baumruk; (Video Editing) Kellie Gerardi, Madison Dean

How to Participate

  • 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.
  • Take a picture of you holding your art, or film a less than one-minute video of you describing or performing your art.
  • 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!
  • 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 - ONGOING!  Good news! We will now keep the #UnfoldTheUniverse art challenge open. Keep your submissions coming - we love seeing your creativity!

This is a slideshow, hover on right and left side of image to reveal arrow buttons to sequence through the slides. Click any thumbnail for larger images and details. You can also view then entire gallery at once on Flickr.

#UnfoldTheUniverse art - by Amy Limon

More Webb Creative Activities

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    #UnfoldTheUniverse Art Challenge

    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 it with the hashtag #UnfoldTheUniverse! See what others have submitted in the gallery!

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    #jwstArt

    The #jwstArt effort started with a group of selected artists ( from a wide variety of disciplines ) to capture their impressions of Webb as it was being built in the NASA/GSFC clean room. The the public was invited to do the same. See the AMAZING work submitted from artists around the world on the gallery section of this page.

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    Webb Space Pumpkin Carving

    Carve your own James Webb Space Pumpkin! Choose from patterns and various levels of difficulty to create your own space pumpkin. Send us pictures of your work! See the amazing carving creations submitted by other Webb fans!

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    Build A Webb Model

    Build a paper model (or something more extravagant) of the Webb Telescope or design your own and show us your work! See the amazing variations and creativity in design, materials and construction of Webb models submitted by Webb fans all over the world!

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    Coloring Webb

    Grab your crayons, colored pencils, or paints and download these Webb coloring templates to create your own colorful version of the James Webb Space Telescope! Send us your creations and see what others have submitted in the gallery!

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    More Fun/Learning

    Our full list of fun / learning activites and products.

Keep Exploring

Related Topics

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Stars

Exoplanets

Galaxies

Looking like a pinwheel, this face-on spiral galaxy holds a bright-white core at image center. Arms curve outward from the core. They hold dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions. All on a black background dotted with stars.