National Air and Space Museum

The smooth surface of a round planet is partially illuminated by the sun; the planet's other half is in shadow. The planet is surrounded by thousands of rings.

The Weird, Wild and Wonderful Universe, According to the Internet's Favorite Astronomer

Air & Space Quarterly talks to The Bad Astronomer Phil Plait

A multitude of stars packed together in a dense region of space, shining brightly in the surrounding darkness. A bright blue cloud in the lower half of the image with pitch black patches appearing within the cloud

James Webb Space Telescope Sees Features Astronomers Have Yet to Explain

Astronomers explore an area of space packed with stars—and mysteries

Eclipse 2017_070.jpg

Beyond Totality: Appreciating the Partial Eclipse

If you can’t be in the path of totality for a solar eclipse, don’t lose heart! A partial solar eclipse is still worth experiencing.

In this pastel drawing, 14 bluish white rays radiate out and upward from a dark half-moon shape flanked by trees. White stars are visible in the night sky.

These Depictions of Celestial Wonders Helped Make Astronomy Mainstream

Before we had access to stunning photos of our galaxy from ground- and space-based telescopes, visionaries like Étienne Trouvelot's captured celestial magic through their art

Vera Rubin and Kent Ford (white hat) setting up their image tube spectrograph at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. (Photo: THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE)

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Women of Chilean Astronomy

The Vara C. Rubin Observatory is perched on Chile's Cerro Pachon in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and stands as a doorway to exploring the women of Chilean astronomy.

The Perseverance captured this image of itself and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter days before its maiden flight. (NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ ASU/ MSSS/ Seán Doran)

The Wright Moment: Ingenuity Prepares for Flight

Ingenuity, the small, four-pound autonomous aircraft, will attempt the biggest of feats. The Wright brothers lifted their 1903 Wright Flyer off the ground over a century ago, and now the Mars helicopter will attempt the same. Ginny took off from the surface of the Red Planet on Monday, April 19.

Perseverance Rover on Mars ( NASA Illustration)

Six Ways to Celebrate Perseverance This February

Be a part of NASA's Perseverance rover landing this February with these six ways to celebrate the mission to Mars.

Two prominent lobate thrust fault scarps on Mercury, Discovery Rupes and Beagles Rupes, imaged by Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft. Discovery Rupes (left), named for the ship HMS Discovery, shown here in a MDIS high-incidence angle image mosaic, was first imaged by Mariner 10 in the mid-1970’s. Beagle Rupes (right), a bow-shaped fault scarp, was initial imaged during MESSENGER’s first flyby.

Mercury, The Not So Shrunken Planet

Based on my research, which include image composites of two flyby views of Mercury from the MESSENGER spacecraft, I conclude that Mercury has not cooled and shrunken as much as previously thought.

The waxing gibbous Moon as we viewed it on December 3, 2011.

The Moon: Before We Knew

Reading Mark Wick’s novel To Mars Via the Moon words motivated reflection on how our thinking of the Moon changed as real-life science and technology has evolved, in contrast to science ficton.

The Hope spacecraft of the United Arab Emirates' Emirates Mars Mission during testing.

Launching Hope to Mars

Museum director Ellen Stofan reflects on the significance of the United Arab Emirates upcoming mission to Mars.

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