Space
Space includes outer space, the sun and planets in the solar system
Galileo's Vision
Four hundred years ago, the Italian scientist looked into space and changed our view of the universe
August 2009 |
By David Zax
Apollo 11's Giant Leap for Mankind
40 years ago, the lunar module landed on the moon, providing an unforgettable moment for the millions watching back on Earth
August 2009 |
By Owen Edwards
Picture of the Week—Jupiter’s New Spot
Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley was the first person to spot the new spot on Jupiter, on July 19th. Professional astronomers quickly confirmed the sighting and started aiming their powerful telescopes at the gas giant. Scientists now say that a small comet probably created the scar, wh...
July 24, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Forensic Astronomer Tackles Three More Munch Paintings
Forensic astronomer Don Olson solves puzzles. He looks at pieces of art, passages of literature and stories from history and uses science to answer questions like: Why is the sky red in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream? (Gas and ash from the 1883 eruption of Mount Krakatoa produced colored skies ...
July 22, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Darwin for Dads and More Science Finds in the August Issue
When my daughter was small, I used to take her to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. There, I would explain why the dinosaurs disappeared and how mankind evolved from our primitive forebears. She seemed rapt. But a few weeks ago, after hearing me on the radio discuss a new boo...
July 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Apollo Astronauts Push for Mission to Mars
Today, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the focus is not on the past, but on the future. The seven astronauts in attendance at this morning’s NASA news conference were not content simply to relish in the accomplishments of the past.Astronauts Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7), Jame...
July 20, 2009 |
By admin
Moon Landing Video Restored
I always get a little shock when I see crisp, color images from the first moon landing (like the one featured as the most recent Picture of the Week). We’re all far more familiar with the grainy video that millions watched live 40 years ago today. But it’s one thing to snap color photos that will b...
July 20, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Legacy of Apollo
On July 16, 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11, the mission that put two men on the moon four days after lift-off.Forty years later, historians and NASA officials are still trying to gauge the legacy of the Apollo program. On Thursday, five panelists met at NASA headquarters to discuss its impact.Many o...
July 18, 2009 |
By Ashley Luthern
Picture of the Week—Apollo 11 Solar Wind Composition Experiment
NASA didn’t send people to the moon just to bounce around and hit golf balls; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 were performing science experiments during their brief time on the lunar surface. What looks like a white towel next to Aldrin in the photo above was the Solar Wind Composition ...
July 17, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Apollo 11 Owners’ Workshop Manual
If you wanted to replace the muffler on your Ford Mustang, you might logically turn to your handy copy of the Haynes Repair Manual. If you wanted to install a new space sextant in the Apollo 11 Command Module, you wouldn’t turn to the new Haynes Owners’ Workshop Manual, but you would have such a go...
July 16, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Science News From the Smithsonian
The tourists visiting the Smithsonian museums may not realize it, but there is a ton of fascinating research going on, sometimes within just a few feet of where they are standing. And in addition to the museums and the zoo, there are researchers at the astrophysical observatory in Massachusetts, th...
July 15, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A New Kind of Black Hole
Until now, there have been two known types of black holes: stellar-mass black holes that are several times more massive than our sun and are created when really big stars die out, and supermassive black holes that are millions to billions of times the mass of the sun and which sit in the center of ...
July 02, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Moonwalk Launch Party
The launch 40 years ago of Apollo 11, which put a man on the moon, brought Americans together during a time of nationwide unrest
July 2009 |
By David Burnett
Find the International Space Station with Twitter
Though I may be tweeting (@SarahZielinski), I’m still not exactly convinced of the value of Twitter. That said, a new service called Twisst (follow @twisst) is starting to convince me otherwise. Twisst uses Twitter in an interesting mashup with other services to let followers know when they can vie...
June 30, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
An Explanation for the Missing Sunspots
I bet that most of you don’t know that the sunspots are missing. That’s okay. I’m sure many people don’t realize that the sun is more than just a ball of fire: it has a complex internal structure, features that vary based on multi-year cycles, and it can create solar storms that knock out power and...
June 18, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Picture of the Week--Next-Gen Mars Rover
Those two little Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have far outlasted their original expected lifespans, but they have their limitations. They may have traveled far, but they have sometimes gotten stuck along the way. And we never saw them attempt to traverse a cliff or crevasse. The tethered "C...
June 12, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
How Should Earth Respond to an Alien Message?
How would you respond if we received a message from intelligent life in outer space? The SETI Institute would like to know. Their "Earth Speaks" project is soliciting messages (text, sounds and images), but rather than picking a favorite or favorites, the messages are tagged to summarize the conten...
May 21, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Hubble's Ugliest Photographs
With the Hubble Space Telescope’s fifth—and final—repair mission underway, Smithsonian.com highlighted the finest photographs taken by the world’s most famous telescope. While Hubble has plenty of hits, not all of its more than 200,000 pictures can be compared to Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” ...
May 12, 2009 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Finest Photos
Now that the telescope has received its final upgrades, we look back on Hubble's most memorable images from space
May 06, 2009 |
By Joseph Caputo
After Space, Saving Suits, Boots and Gloves
The spacesuits that kept U.S. astronauts alive now owe their survival to one woman
May 2009 |
By Megan Gambino
