Editorial transparency
Image policy
How photographs, illustrations and visualizations are selected, described and contextualized.
Selection and context
An image should add information or context. We distinguish photographs, composites, illustrations and schematic representations so that an artistic rendering is not presented as a direct observation.
Provenance and accessibility
We retain provider, creator, source URL, license and credit when available. Alternative text describes relevant information without repeating an attribution already visible.
Documentary images and generated illustrations
For a named person, spacecraft, mission event or specific object, we seek a verifiable documentary image. Generated imagery may illustrate a generic or conceptual subject when an exact photograph is unnecessary, but it must not be presented as evidence; provenance is retained and duplicate use within the same story is checked.
Selection hierarchy and factual fit
We first seek original material from a scientific archive, mission, agency, observatory, research team or other identifiable rights holder. A licensed documentary image is preferred when the story concerns a specific person, spacecraft, launch, place or event. The review checks more than visual resemblance: the subject, date, mission phase, instrument, version and caption must fit the article.
A generic archive image must not imply that it depicts the reported event. Generated illustrations are a last-resort editorial option for broad concepts where exact documentary correspondence is unnecessary. They must remain distinguishable from observations and cannot be used to manufacture evidence, a real person, a specific vehicle configuration or an event that was not photographed.
Image review, publication and removal
Before approval, the system records the source, provider, creator, license, credit, file type, dimensions and a technical fingerprint. Automated checks can detect inaccessible files, unsafe formats, duplicates and obvious metadata gaps; editorial review confirms relevance, caption accuracy, crop quality and useful alternative text. An image is not ready merely because it downloads successfully.
Usage is tracked across articles, object profiles, listings and galleries. This prevents repetitive imagery and allows a corrected credit, license restriction or justified removal to reach every placement. If provenance becomes uncertain, the asset can be withdrawn while it is investigated rather than remaining public on the assumption that an earlier approval is permanent.
Editing integrity, captions and AI disclosure
Routine technical edits such as resizing, color-profile conversion or modest cropping must not change the evidential meaning of an image. We do not remove or add objects in documentary material, combine moments as if they were one exposure, or use a crop that hides context essential to interpretation. Scientific composites and false-color images are legitimate when their processing and purpose are explained rather than presented as natural human vision.
Captions identify what is shown, when and how it was obtained when those details matter; credit and license information remain separate from the descriptive text. Generated or materially synthetic illustrations are recorded as such in media metadata and editorial context. They are never assigned documentary status, and their visual plausibility is not treated as confirmation that the depicted scene occurred.