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Science / Space

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine talks about getting American astronauts to the moon in the next five years while participating in a Future Con panel discussion at Awesome Con.

Future Con

This Year’s Future Con Showcased Cutting-Edge Science and Real-Life Superheroes

A part of Washington, D.C.’s Awesome Con, the dynamic presentation series blends entertainment and education

This artist's-concept illustration depicts the spacecraft of NASA's Psyche mission near the mission's target, the metal asteroid Psyche.

Future of Space Exploration

NASA Prepares to Build Spacecraft Bound for a Metal Asteroid

The Psyche spacecraft, headed to an asteroid with the same name, will explore a metal world thought to be the leftover core of a destroyed planet

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

Shortly after the first human space flight, the Soviet Union began planning to send a woman to space.

The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier

Two decades before the first American woman flew to space, a group of female cosmonauts trained in Star City of the Soviet Union 

Identical twin astronauts, Scott and Mark Kelly, are subjects of NASA’s Twins Study. Scott (right) spent a year in space while Mark (left) stayed on Earth as a control subject.

NASA’s Study of Astronaut Twins Creates a Portrait of What a Year in Space Does to the Human Body

Wide-ranging research compares astronaut Scott Kelly to his earthbound twin brother, Mark

The image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun.

Astronomers Capture First-Ever Image of a Supermassive Black Hole

The Event Horizon Telescope reveals the silhouette of a black hole at the center of a galaxy 55 million light-years away

Jennifer Levasseur from the National Air and Space Museum notes that the museum’s supply of popular astronaut foods is less comprehensive than its collection of rejects. “We only get what they didn’t eat (above: Apollo 17's spiced fruit cereal is now in the collections)."

Rita Rapp Fed America’s Space Travelers

NASA’s food packages now in the collections of the Air and Space Museum tell the story of how a physiologist brought better eating to outer space

An artist's concept of the Axel rover rappelling into a lunar pit.

NASA Considers a Rover Mission to Go Cave Diving on the Moon

The deep caverns and pits that dot the lunar surface could hold clues to the moon’s history and perhaps provide shelter for future human exploration

Margaret Hamilton stands next to a stack of program listings from the Apollo Guidance Computer in a photograph taken in 1969.

Women Who Shaped History

Margaret Hamilton Led the NASA Software Team That Landed Astronauts on the Moon

Apollo’s successful computing software was optimized to deal with unknown problems and to interrupt one task to take on a more important one

An ultraviolet image of the Andromeda galaxy, the closest major galaxy to the Milky Way, taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescope. Like our own galaxy, Andromeda is a spiral galaxy with a flat rotating disk of stars and gas and a concentrated bulge of stars at the center.

Streams of Stars Snaking Through the Galaxy Could Help Shine a Light on Dark Matter

When the Milky Way consumes another galaxy, tendrils of stellar streams survive the merger, containing clues about the universe’s mysterious unseen matter

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the International Space Station.

Future of Space Exploration

After a Successful Test Flight to the International Space Station, SpaceX Looks Ahead to Launching Astronauts

SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon spacecraft could launch the first astronauts from U.S. soil in almost a decade

A mural titled "The Origin of Life on Earth" at NASA Ames Research Center. The mural depicts the formation of our planet and the conditions that led to the evolution of life.

Earth’s Rock Record Could Reveal the Motions of Other Planets

Studying the layers of Earth’s crust, scientists have created a “Geological Orrery” to measure planetary motions dating back hundreds of millions of years

An artist's concept of the Beresheet lunar lander on the moon.

Israel’s Private Lunar Lander Blasts Off for the Moon

The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet will gradually raise its orbit to reach the moon, landing after about a month and a half of flight

A mosaic of Mars images captured by the Viking Orbiter 1, which operated around the planet from 1976 to 1980. Valles Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system, cuts across middle of the planet, stretching over 3,000 km long and up to 8 km deep.

With Opportunity Lost, NASA Confronts the Tenuous Future of Mars Exploration

Following decades of continuous flights to Mars, NASA is facing a shortage of missions

This cylindrical vessel, known as the Case/Throat/Nozzle (CTN), is the portion of RocketMotorTwo donated to the museum. It is one of the only non-reusable components of SpaceShipTwo.

The Engine Powering the Future of Civilian Spaceflight Enters the Collections

SpaceShipTwo’s historic rocket motor lands at the National Air and Space Museum

An artist's concept of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity superimposed on a photo of Victoria Crater, taken by the rover.

How NASA’s Opportunity Rover Made Mars Part of Earth

After more than 15 years exploring the surface of Mars, the Opportunity rover has finally roved its last leg

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Ingenious Minds

Astrophysicist Mercedes Lopez-Morales Is Grooming the Next Generation of Planet Hunters

“The Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood, Jr. talks with the astrophysicist about adrenaline, fear, curiosity and attracting younger generations to science

A picture taken on January 21, 2019 in Duisburg, Germany, shows a view of the Super Blood Moon above an industrial plant during a lunar eclipse.

Ten Stunning Photos of the Super Blood Wolf Moon Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse was visible across much of the world last night, bathing the moon in a reddish glow

Astronomers believe that in the distant future, trillions of years from now, new and exotic types of stars will form across the universe.

Four Types of Stars That Will Not Exist for Billions or Even Trillions of Years

According to models of stellar evolution, certain types of stars need longer than the universe has existed to form

The artist's concept depicts a comet-like tail of a possible disintegrating super Mercury-size planet candidate as it transits its parent star named KIC 12557548. At an orbital distance of only twice the diameter of its star, the surface temperature of the potential planet is estimated to be a sweltering 3,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Disintegrating Planets Could Be the Key to Discovering What Worlds Are Made Of

Exoplanets that have been ripped apart by their host stars could provide an opportunity to measure the minerals of the galaxy

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