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Stamps showing off the amazing features of space have been unveiled, with the Royal Mail hoping they will “celebrate the UK’s contribution to our understanding of the universe”.
The new collection – named “The Visions of the Universe” – features eight different postage labels that can be pre-ordered for February 11 as a set for £9.75.
The stamps have been released to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Included in the selection is the Cat’s Eye Nebula – first spotted by the RAS’s inaugural President William Herschel in 1786.
Created by London-based artist Robert Ball, the collection also features Jupiter’s aurora, glowing bluish gas wrapped around the planet’s north pole, and the comet 67P, which belongs to the Jupiter family.
Other celestial objects in the issue are Saturn’s moon Enceladus, with plumes containing water vapour spewing from its surface, and the Cygnus A, a galaxy around 600 million light years away from Earth and a powerful cosmic source of radio waves.
Philip Diamond, executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, said: “This striking and attractive set of stamps reflects the drama of the universe around us.
“I’m delighted that our bicentenary year is marked by a genuine collector’s item combining tradition with contemporary science.”
Other astronomical phenomena in the collection include black holes, pulsars, and gravitational lensing – which is caused by massive celestial objects distorting or bending light.
Amazing NASA Space Images – In pictures
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Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
NASA
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This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft
NASA
3/60
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984
NASA
4/60
The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image
NASA
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Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program
Getty Images
6/60
The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960
NASA
7/60
The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey
NASA
8/60
The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961
NASA
9/60
President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress
NASA
10/60
Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth
NASA
11/60
A close-up view of an astronaut’s bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969
NASA
12/60
Man’s first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, “Eagle,” touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969
NASA
13/60
After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet
NASA
14/60
Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965
NASA
15/60
The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it’s budding young pilots
NASA
16/60
Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968
NASA
17/60
American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
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Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969
NASA
19/60 Home
View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission
NASA
20/60
Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969
Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images
21/60 Lunar mission
Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972
NASA
22/60
First image of Viking 1’s foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976
NASA
23/60
The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977
NASA
24/60
A dramatic view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979
NASA
25/60
The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981
NASA
26/60
Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space
NASA
27/60
One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called ‘Pillars of Creation’
NASA
28/60
Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973
NASA
29/60
NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA’s SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun’s hot, thin corona
NASA
30/60
Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000
31/60
Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000
NASA
32/60 2004
The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004)
NASA
33/60 2005
A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005)
NASA
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International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008
NASA
35/60
The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA’s Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp
NASA
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Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum’s face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks.
AFP/Getty Images
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In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA’s Great Observatories — Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory — have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way
NASA
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A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn
NASA
39/60
This majestic false-color image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows ‘mountains’ where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars
NASA
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The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station
NASA
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Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011
NASA
42/60
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012
NASA
43/60
Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet
NASA
44/60
Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St. James’s Park east of Buckingham Palace
NASA
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International Space Station image of London at night
NASA
46/60
This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015
NASA
47/60
Pluto’s haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015
NASA
48/60
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called “recurring slope lineae” or RSL
NASA
49/60
Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016
NASA
50/60
The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017
NASA
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Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017
NASA
52/60
The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017
53/60
This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater
NASA
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US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen’s looking spectacular from above
NASA
55/60
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018
NASA
56/60
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018
NASA
57/60
The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli
NASA
58/60
The Bailey’s Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse
NASA
59/60
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington
NASA
60/60
Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed it’s 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops.
NASA
1/60
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
NASA
2/60
This 1969 photograph of the eclipse of the sun was taken with a 16mm motion picture camera from the Apollo 12 spacecraft during its trans-Earth journey home from the moon. The fascinating view was created when the Earth moved directly between the sun and the Apollo 12 spacecraft
NASA
3/60
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II photographed 320 ft from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the first untethered EVA, made possible by his nitrogen jet propelled backpack (Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU) in 1984
NASA
4/60
The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image
NASA
5/60
Space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida in 2011. This lift off is the last in the 30-year-old shuttle program
Getty Images
6/60
The first teklevision image of Earth from a weather satellite taken by the TIROS-1 satellite in 1960
NASA
7/60
The Echo 2 satellite in 1960. Once the balloon was launched into orbit, a prerecorded message from President Dwight Eisenhower was transmitted from California and heard with clarity in New Jersey
NASA
8/60
The original seven Mercury astronauts and pioneers in human space exsploration pose in their silver spacesuits in 1961
NASA
9/60
President John F. Kennedy calls for a moon landing in 1961 durning Congress
NASA
10/60
Astronaut John Glenn climbs into his Friendship 7 space capsule in the Atlas rocket in 1962. Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth
NASA
11/60
A close-up view of an astronaut’s bootprint in the lunar soil, photographed with a 70mm lunar surface camera during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the moon in 1969
NASA
12/60
Man’s first landing on the Moon. Lunar Module, “Eagle,” touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the east side of the Moon. Astronauts Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong wre the first men to walk on the Moon in 1969
NASA
13/60
After an 8 month voyage to Mars, Mariner 4 makes the first flyby of the Mars (the red planet) in 1965 and became the first spacecraft to take close-up photographs of another planet
NASA
14/60
Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission in 1965
NASA
15/60
The X-15 completed 199 flights to the edge of space from 1959-1968. Neil Armstrong was one of it’s budding young pilots
NASA
16/60
Earthrise over the moon from Apollo 8 in 1968
NASA
17/60
American astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins lift off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, in the mammoth-sized Saturn V rocket on their way to the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969
18/60
Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. saluting the US flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969
NASA
19/60 Home
View of Moon limb with Earth on the horizon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission
NASA
20/60
Apollo XI astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin laugh with President Richard Nixon aboard the USS Hornet in 1969
Richard Nixon Foundation via Getty Images
21/60 Lunar mission
Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA) in 1972
NASA
22/60
First image of Viking 1’s foot plantid on martian soil foot in 1976
NASA
23/60
The first ever long distance image of the Earth and Moon together. The image photograph was taken by Voyager 1 in 1977
NASA
24/60
A dramatic view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and its surroundings in 1979
NASA
25/60
The first space shuttle launch Columbia lifts off in 1981
NASA
26/60
Astronaut Sally Ride on the flight deck of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. She became the first American woman in space
NASA
27/60
One of the most celebrated images taken by the Hubble called ‘Pillars of Creation’
NASA
28/60
Space shuttle Challenger destructs after lift off in 1973
NASA
29/60
NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope aboard ESA’s SOHO spacecraft took this image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence in 1999. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun’s hot, thin corona
NASA
30/60
Trailing a column of flame and smoke that dwarfs it, Space Shuttle Endeavour leaps into the clear blue Florida sky on mission STS-99 in 2000
31/60
Space Shuttle Atlantis clears the tower as it roars into space on mission STS-106 after a perfect on-time launch in 2000
NASA
32/60 2004
The deepest view of 10,000 galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope called the Hubble Ultra Field Deep (2004)
NASA
33/60 2005
A new view of the Eagle Nebula, one of the two largest and sharpest images Hubble Space Telescope has ever taken (2005)
NASA
34/60
International Space Station pictured by the crew of Atlantis in 2008
NASA
35/60
The rim of Gale Crater is visible in the distance, through the dusty haze, in this view of NASA’s Curiosity rover of a sloping hillside on Mount Sharp
NASA
36/60
Taken on June 03, 2008 and released by NASA on June 4, 2008 shows US space shuttle Discovery Mission Specialist Michael Fossum being photographed by US Mission Specialist Ronald Garan (reflected in Fossum’s face shield) as they work outside The International Space Station during the first of three planned space walks.
AFP/Getty Images
37/60
In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, NASA’s Great Observatories — Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory — have produced a matched trio of images of the central region of our Milky Way
NASA
38/60
A striking black and white image showing the detail of the planet Saturn
NASA
39/60
This majestic false-color image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows ‘mountains’ where stars are born. These towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm embryonic stars
NASA
40/60
The space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas in 2011 prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station
NASA
41/60
Aurora Australis, seen from a point over the southeast Tasman Sea near southern New Zealand. in 2011
NASA
42/60
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright sun during the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity (EVA). During the six-hour, 28-minute spacewalk in 2012
NASA
43/60
Behold one of the more stunningly detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage, created from photographs taken by the VIIRS instrument in 2012 on board the Suomi NPP satellite, shows many stunning details of our home planet
NASA
44/60
Numerous recognizable features appear in this detailed view of London, photographed by an Expedition 10 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS). The most striking visual features are green open spaces such as Regent’s Park, Hyde Park and St. James’s Park east of Buckingham Palace
NASA
45/60
International Space Station image of London at night
NASA
46/60
This image of Tropical Storm Anna taken from the International Space Station in 2015
NASA
47/60
Pluto’s haze layer and its blue colour, taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) in 2015
NASA
48/60
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, dark, narrow streaks on the slopes of Hale Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. These dark features on the slopes are called “recurring slope lineae” or RSL
NASA
49/60
Earth observation taken during a night pass by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2016
NASA
50/60
The moon rises in low Earth orbit by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik from the International Space Station in 2017
NASA
51/60
Hurricane Harvey is pictured off the coast of Texas in 2017
NASA
52/60
The International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as Expedition 50 astronauts captured this night image of sparkling cities and a sliver of daylight framing the northern hemisphere in 2017
53/60
This composite image made from a series of 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover in the Gale Crater
NASA
54/60
US. National Parks From Space. Mt Saint Helen’s looking spectacular from above
NASA
55/60
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft as it lifts off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in 2018
NASA
56/60
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captures Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, as the spacecraft performed its 13th close flyby of Jupiter in 2018
NASA
57/60
The stunning iamge was shared on social media by astronaut Paolo Nespoli
NASA
58/60
The Bailey’s Beads effect is seen as the moon makes its final move over the sun during the total solar eclipse
NASA
59/60
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun during a solar eclipse from Ross Lake, Northern Cascades National Park, Washington
NASA
60/60
Swirling cloud belts and tumultuous vortices within Jupiter’s northern hemisphere picture taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed it’s 13th flypast. Juno was about 9,600 miles (15,500 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops.
NASA
The idea of the Royal Astronomical Society was first conceived in 1820 during a dinner at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London.
It now has a membership of more than 4,000 astronomers, known as Fellows, and aims to promote the study of astronomy, geophysics, and other closely related branches of science.
Philip Parker, a Royal Mail spokesperson, said: “These vivid and beautiful new stamps celebrate the UK’s contribution to our understanding of the Universe, from geysers erupting from one of Saturn’s moons to the extraordinary nature of Black Holes.”
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