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AsteriaStar
Observatory

Image Library

A searchable home for verified, openly licensed space imagery.

Overview

The image library is a provenance catalogue: each entry records the source archive, instrument, capture context, credit line and licence for an openly licensed or public-domain image, and links to the official original. It records metadata rather than re-hosting unverified files.

  • Every catalogued image carries source, credit, licence and a link to the official archive.
  • The platform never fabricates a credit, licence, capture date or source URL.
  • Only openly licensed or public-domain imagery is catalogued.
  • The catalogue is deliberately small and verified rather than large and unchecked.

Why provenance, not just pictures

An astronomical image is evidence. It was produced by a specific instrument, at a specific time, through specific filters, and processed in a specific way — and every one of those facts changes what the image can legitimately be used to claim. An image detached from that context is decoration.

The archive therefore treats metadata as the primary record. Each entry ties an image to the entity it depicts in the knowledge graph, names the observing facility or mission, records the credit line exactly as the source archive states it, and identifies the licence. Where any of that cannot be verified, the image is not catalogued.

What each record contains

  • The entity the image depicts, linked to its catalogue page.
  • The source archive and a link to the official original.
  • The credit line, reproduced as the source states it.
  • The licence — public domain, CC BY, or CC BY-SA — with the terms that follow from it.
  • Alt text describing what is visible, written for readers using a screen reader.
  • The role the image plays: an observation, a diagram, or a labelled artist's impression.

Artist's impressions are labelled as such

A large share of widely circulated space imagery is artwork rather than observation. Renderings of exoplanets, of spacecraft at their destinations, and of objects too small or distant to resolve are produced for communication, and they are legitimate when identified.

They become a problem when presented as photographs. Asteria Star records the role of each image explicitly, so an artist's impression is never displayed as though it were an observation. Where no authentic image of an object exists — which is true of nearly every exoplanet and of most catalogued stars — the honest presentation is no image at all.

Why the catalogue is small

Verifying an image properly takes real effort: confirming the subject identification, locating the official source record, checking the licence terms actually stated there rather than assumed, and reproducing the credit exactly. That work does not scale by scraping.

The archive shows its own size on every listing page. A small verified catalogue is a more honest artefact than a large one assembled from unchecked sources, and stating the count plainly is part of that.

Continue in the data

Catalogues, hubs, and reference pages that hold the underlying records for this topic.

Frequently asked

Does Asteria Star host these images?
It catalogues them. Each record holds verified metadata — source archive, instrument, credit, licence, and a link to the official original — rather than re-hosting binaries the platform has not verified. The intent is to be a provenance layer over the public archives, not a mirror of them.
Why do some objects have no image at all?
Because no authentic image exists. Almost every exoplanet and the great majority of catalogued stars have never been resolved into anything but a point of light, and no telescope currently produces one. Showing an artist's impression in that gap, unlabelled, would misrepresent what is known — so the honest presentation is an empty image slot.
Can I reuse the images catalogued here?
That depends on the individual licence, which each record states. Public-domain items — including most NASA-produced imagery — carry the fewest restrictions, while CC BY and CC BY-SA items require attribution and, for CC BY-SA, share-alike terms. Always check the licence recorded on the item and the terms stated by the source archive itself.

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