Decoding the dawn

This print story appeared in the October 2023 issue of National Geographic magazine and features beautiful artwork by Mark Garlick.

The graphic has the ambitious goal of representing the timeline of the early universe—the first one and a half billion years after the Big Bang. During this period of formation, including the emergence of the first stars, galaxies, and quasars, the cosmos underwent transformations that have not occurred again in its 13.7-billion-year history.

Discoveries about the young universe have been made possible by the Webb Telescope, which has been conducting scientific observations since 2022. Some of the questions the observatory is seeking to answer are also explored in the graphic.

Explore the online version of the graphic (which may be behind a paywall), featuring remarkable images captured by the telescope, along with simulation videos of early star-forming regions and galaxies.

Also in this issue is a large-format poster featuring one of the most iconic regions in space, the Pillars of Creation. First popularized by Hubble Space Telescope images, this region is shown in the poster as captured by the Webb Telescope. We added graphics explaining the revolutionary observatory and details of the image.

The poster received an Award of Excellence from the Society for News Design, and both the graphic and poster were part of the space issue portfolio of maps and graphics that was awarded a Silver Medal.