Hi Cassie,

I'm not a serious stamp collector, but I like to collect stamps from other countries when I travel and I have a few space-themed stamps, like the Star Wars stamps that were issued last year. I also have a sheet of U.S. Mail stamps showing the aurora borealis and aurora australis to commemorate the International Polar Year (IPY). You can see other stamps issued for the International Polar Year here: http://www.ipy.dk/stamps.htm

I found a list of stamps commemorating the International Heliophysical Year 2007-2008 here: http://www.cira.colostate...RAMM/hillger/IHY.htm The very first stamp on this list is from Armenia and has a picture of the Sun on it. Further down the list there is a stamp from Monserrat with a picture of one of my heroes, James Van Allen, who was a famous space scientist from Iowa, and the Explorer 1 satellite. Explorer 1 was launched about 50 years ago and it was the first successful U.S. satellite. Observations from Explorer 1 produced the discovery of the famous Van Allen Radiation Belts. You can read more about James Van Allen here: http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/ProfVanAllen/

Kris