Astronomy

New Horizons snapped this image of Pluto on July 12, 2015.

How Pluto Got Its Name

New Horizons carries an instrument named for Venetia Burney, the 11-year-old girl who named Pluto

Here’s What the Sun Looks Like Through an X-Ray Telescope

All of the wonder of Earth’s closest star, none of the retinal damage

The Cassini spacecraft took this image of three of Saturn's moons, Rhea, Mimas and Titan.

See Three of Saturn’s Moons Pose in a Family Photo

While in orbit, Cassini captures a stunning shot of three crescents

An image of the galaxy NGC 1097, home to the black hole researchers just weighed

How Do Scientists Weigh a Supermassive Black Hole?

A new method puts the mass of one black hole at 140 million times the mass of our Sun

There Will Be an Extra Week of Summer This Year

Cultural summer ensures 106 days of fun in the sun

The last of the data from the New Horizons flyby won’t arrive until late 2016.

One Man's Lifelong Pursuit of Pluto is About to Get Real

When the New Horizons spacecraft races by the quasi-planetary body, Alan Stern will have finally met his match

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Ask Smithsonian: How Many Rings Does Saturn Have?

The age, origin and purpose of Saturn's rings have mystified scientists since the days of Galileo

On October 7, 2014, protestors blocking the road, halted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

The Heart of the Hawaiian Peoples' Arguments Against the Telescope on Mauna Kea

Native Hawaiians are not protesting science, but instead are seeking respect for sacred places, and our planet

Four of the astronauts who will be conducting spacewalks train at the Kennedy Space Center.

Behind the Scenes of the Last Mission to Repair the Hubble Space Telescope

Photographer Michael Soluri shares an intimate look at the team that saved the iconic observatory

There Might Really Be a Planet X, Lurking Beyond Pluto

The far reaches of our own solar system could contain worlds undiscovered.

Why Astronomers Are Fighting Back Against Robotic Lawnmowers

It’s a feud fueled by radio frequencies

The blobs, colored to show motion, are G2 as it approaches and passes the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

Escape From the Black Hole’s Abyss!

An object called G2—previously believed to be a gas cloud—narrowly slipped from the clutches of a supermassive black hole

The observatory atop Mauna Kea

Hawaiians Are Protesting Construction of the World’s Largest Telescope

Native Hawai'ian activists say the volcano-top project is damaging sacred lands

Every Year Spring Gets 30 Seconds Shorter

But the good news is that summer will be that much longer thanks to some peculiarities in how the Earth moves

The zodiacal light.

Catch a Glimpse of the Zodiacal Light Show This Month

For some in the northern hemisphere, a celestial treat sometimes referred to as “false dusk” is lighting up the night

Our familiar, and only true, Moon -- the only photos of the 'second moon' are of a distant, blurry object

Bet You Didn’t Know About the Earth’s "Second Moon"

Even astronomers didn’t realize it was following the Earth until 1997

An artist’s interpretation of the star quartet — as a young star and three gas condensations on the left and as star siblings on the right.

Stars Have Womb Siblings

Four baby stars, still gestating in their parental gas cloud, move together - for now at least

The variable stars flickering to the golden ratio are RR Lyrae — a class of pulsars first found in the constellation Lyra (bisected by the Milky Way here)

Pulsing Stars Flicker in a Pattern Close to the Golden Ratio

The famed ratio, which shows up in art, architecture and nature, can also be found in space

An artist's illustration of Kepler-444 and its five planets

These Five Earth-sized Planets Are Super Old

Kepler-444 is 11.2 billion years old and its five planets could tell us about planet formation in the early universe

The scales on Fragment C divide the year by days and signs of the zodiac.

Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism, the First Computer

Hidden inscriptions offer new clues to the origins of a mysterious astronomical mechanism

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