A view of Pluto from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows the planet’s signature heart-shaped feature.

Once the Solar System’s Ninth Planet, Pluto Was Reclassified 20 Years Ago. Here’s Why Planetary Scientists and the Public Alike Love the Small Icy Body

Pluto is now the most well known of the outer worlds beyond Neptune—and the darling of the solar system

In Pompano Beach, a museum dedicated entirely to jellyfish has recently opened its doors.

‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors With Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass

August 24, 2026 1:55 p.m.

Smart News

In France, Brutal Summer Heat Waves Are Taking a Toll on the Flowers That Inspired Claude Monet’s Most Beloved Paintings

August 24, 2026 4:06 p.m.

‘Only One of Its Kind’ Jellyfish Museum Astounds Visitors With Awe-Inspiring Displays of Sea Nettles Safely Behind Glass

August 24, 2026 1:55 p.m.

This 15-Foot Python Is the First Known Snake to Receive Electrochemotherapy for Cancer. Now, She’s Officially Free of the Disease

August 24, 2026 1:31 p.m.

Closed to the Public Since WWII, a ‘Hidden’ Gallery at London’s Natural History Museum Opens Its Doors Once Again

August 24, 2026 1:18 p.m.

Centuries Ago, Europeans Were Plagued by Constant Flooding, With 16 Major Events That Killed Thousands Over the Course of Just Three Years

August 24, 2026 12:43 p.m.

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Latest Features

Science

Once the Solar System’s Ninth Planet, Pluto Was Reclassified 20 Years Ago. Here’s Why Planetary Scientists and the Public Alike Love the Small Icy Body

August 24, 2026 1:00 p.m.

How did Europeans build enormous, complex cathedrals before they had complex mathematics?

At the Smithsonian

How Did Medieval Builders Construct Complex Cathedrals Before Advanced Mathematics? And More Questions From Our Readers

September/October 2026

An illustration of Merlin's Cave, an attraction commissioned by Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach

History

This 18th-Century British Queen Turned King Arthur Into a P.R. Strategy, Drawing on Myth to Promote Her Dynasty’s Claim to the Throne

August 24, 2026 7:45 a.m.

Diego Rivera’s private collection of pre-Columbian art at the Anahuacalli Museum, which expanded and reopened in 2021.

Travel

Stunning Antiquities and Frida Kahlo’s Home Are Just Some of the Offerings That Have Bolstered Mexico City’s Fantastic Array of Museums

September/October 2026

The granite peak of Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia rises more than 11,000 feet above sea level, attracting hikers and climbers from around the world.

Travel

These 15 Stunning Photographs Capture All That There Is to Love About the People, Land and Culture of Argentina

August 21, 2026

The Smithsonian holds a nugget, above, thought to have been discovered by James Marshall in 1848.

History

When a Carpenter in California Found a Nugget of Gold, It Started a Rush Toward Nothing Less Than the Modern World

September/October 2026

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

Give a Gift Renew

Summer 2026

The “Ether Dome” at Massachusetts General Hospital is now a National Historic Landmark.

Science Theater of Relief

Medical procedures used to be a scream-filled endurance test until doctors at this Boston institution learned to tame the pain of patients

The view from Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York.

Travel Rediscovering America’s Original Grand Tour

Follow along as we retrace the route one journalist laid out in “The Fashionable Tour,” from New York City to Niagara Falls, when memories of the fight for independence were still fresh

History How to Build a Character

Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said

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History

When a Carpenter in California Found a Nugget of Gold, It Started a Rush Toward Nothing Less Than the Modern World

At the Smithsonian

See the Cutest Photos of Three Red Panda Cubs Born at the Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute This Year

Smart News

Scientists Gave Dogs MRIs and Learned That They’re Surprisingly Good at Distinguishing Between Human Emotions, Even Some Negative Ones

Smart News

Archaeologists Have Found Thousands of Intact Ancient Human Brains. Scientists Say They’ve Figured Out Why the Organs Don’t Always Rot

Voices

These Photos Visualize the Legacy of Peter Spencer, Founder of America’s First Independent Black Church

Special Report

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

A Smithsonian magazine special issue in celebration of the nation's 250th

View Full Report

Featured Stories

Arts & Culture

Georgia O’Keeffe Ignored Advice to Mimic Great European Masters. Her Goal Instead Was to Be a Great American Painter

O’Keeffe’s New Mexico studio Ghost Ranch. Opposite, a 1918 photo portrait by future husband Alfred Stieglitz.

History

Born in 1810, Margaret Fuller Was Labeled a Child Prodigy. She Later Used Her Intellect to Ask Important Questions About Women’s Role in America

A portrait of Fuller, inspired by her 1845 Woman in the Nineteenth Century, which argued for equality of the sexes. The book’s opening illustration featured mystical symbols of harmonizing opposites, including the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail.

History

The American Revolution’s Overlooked Influence? Physics. How ‘Common Sense’ Spelled Out Astronomical Expectations for a New Nation

After Isaac Newton, above, revolutionized celestial mechanics, admirers such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Paine, left, saw in Newton’s natural laws a model for democratic self-government.

Photo of the Day

In the quiet of the forest, this mother and infant are caught between reflection and reality—much like their species is caught between survival and extinction. Orangutans now exist between two worlds: the wild they've known for millennia, and an uncertain future shaped by human hands. As palm oil plantations continue to fragment their habitat, these great apes are running out of space, out of time.

Between Two Worlds

By Amish Chhagan

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Podcast

Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That

Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.

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Latest Episodes

The Remarkable, Amazing Stories of Route 66 Reflect the Twists and Turns of 100 Years of Americana

April 23, 2026 | 34 minutes

A Photographer’s Glimpse Into the Dwindling World of the Cascade Red Fox

April 9, 2026 | 32 minutes

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

March 26, 2026 | 31 minutes

Venomous Snakes Represent a Serious Public Health Problem. Scientists Are Biting Back With a Groundbreaking Antidote

March 12, 2026 | 28 minutes

History

A woman kneels in prayer in front of children's coffins in Freckleton, England, on August 26, 1944.

When an American Airplane Crashed Into a School in 1944, an English Village Lost Almost All of Its Youngest Children. Why Has WWII’s Worst Civilian Aviation Accident Been Forgotten?

On August 23, 1944, a test flight over the village of Freckleton, located in northwest England, ended in disaster, claiming the lives of 61 people, including 38 students between the ages of 4 and 6

August 20, 2026

This Connecticut Teenager Spied on the British During the American Revolution, Succeeding Where Nathan Hale Failed

August 17, 2026

A Medieval Man’s Injuries Reminded One Archaeologist of Modern-Day Car Crash Victims. They Turned Out to Be the Work of an English Trebuchet

August 14, 2026

More History

Science

According to a niche perspective called “cosmological evolution,” universes may reproduce by spawning black holes in which new universes may form. The concept is far from proven, but researchers note its potential.

Earth’s Organisms Developed Via Evolution. Some Theorists Wonder: What if the Entire Cosmos Did, Too?

The idea that universes evolve like organisms sat on the fringes of theoretical physics for decades. Then, a Substack post and a 2022 find by the James Webb Space Telescope boosted the concept

August 18, 2026

Marine Biologists Solved a Wildlife Mystery From the Walkway of the Golden Gate Bridge: How the Harbor Porpoise Mates

August 14, 2026

Could Psilocybin Help Treat Anorexia? A Small Clinical Trial Suggests the Psychedelic May Make Patients More Open to Recovery

August 11, 2026

More Science

Innovation

Of the estimated 899 species of ticks worldwide, about 90 are found in the continental U.S.; however, only four species are responsible for most of the infections found in the U.S. today.

The First At-Home Test for Infected Ticks Could Improve Lyme Disease Diagnosis

LymeAlert will hit the market in August. The latest tool against the tick-borne illness could become a medicine cabinet staple

July 31, 2026

A Brief History of Hold Music, From Early Patents to the Soundtrack of Customer-Service Purgatory

July 24, 2026

How A.I. Will Reshape Radiology—Without Replacing Radiologists

July 29, 2026

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Travel

At Nona Manis, dining guests can enjoy a prix-fixe menu that may include any of these dishes: ikan pindang patin (braised fish), steak semur (steak with kecap manis sauce), laksa (seafood curry soup), oyster sambal matah and oyster gulai Aceh (oyster on the half shell with Balinese sambal and Aceh curry).

A New Generation of Chefs Reimagines Indonesian Cuisine in the Netherlands to Tell the Stories of Its Origins

The shift reflects a larger cultural moment, with chefs asking whether the cuisine should remain tied to colonial nostalgia or evolve into a reflection of modern Indonesian identity

July 30, 2026