The Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Survey (NGDEEP) is a research program led by UT scientists that will utilize the new James Webb Space Telescope to do deep imaging (take pictures of deep space) and a deep spectroscopic survey. They wanted a logo that would portray the telescope and both branches of their studies, imaging and spectroscopy. Since there has been controversy about the naming of the new telescope (it is alleged that James Webb was complicit in the State Department's purge of LGBTQ individuals from the federal workforce during his time at NASA), NGDEEP wanted to convey that despite their association with JWST, their group is welcoming of all individuals. Therefore it was decided that the rainbow spectrum representing spectroscopy would also double as a Pride flag.
