Celebrate NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its continued exploration of deep space with this breathtaking Priority Mail Express® stamp. The Star Cluster stamp features star cluster IC 348, a formation approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth within the constellation Perseus.

Use these stamps to send mail quickly to those in your own universe all year long!

Captured in vivid detail by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2022, star cluster IC 348 provides clues to the origins of stars and planetary systems. The U.S. Postal Service celebrates our continued exploration of deep space with a captivating new Priority Mail Express® stamp.

Within the image, stellar material, captured in infrared light by JWST’s filters, cascades like billowing pink, purple, and white curtains while reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars — this is known as a reflection nebula.

Hidden within the enormous cloud of celestial dust are tiny, free-floating brown dwarfs — objects too small to be stars but larger than most planets. Each of the three brown dwarfs is less than eight times the mass of Jupiter. The smallest has just three to four times Jupiter’s mass, a tiny celestial body among the expanse of space. Because this star cluster is young — only about 5 million years old — the brown dwarfs appear relatively bright in infrared light, glowing from the heat of their formation.

Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp, using an image provided by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), ESA (European Space Agency), CSA (Canadian Space Agency), STScI (Space Telescope Science Institute), Kevin Luhman (Penn State University), and Catarina Alves de Oliveira (ESA).

Star Cluster IC 348 is being issued in a pane of four stamps.

Upon favorable review by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the stamp will be denominated at the new Priority Mail Express Flat Rate Envelope rate.