Space

Outer space does have borders, but scientists are not yet sure exactly where they are.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

How Far Can Voyager I Go?

The spacecraft will run out of power around 2025, but where will it travel to first?

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What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

Photographer Thierry Cohen tries to reconnect city dwellers with nature through his mind-blowing composite images—now at New York City's Danziger Gallery

A team of scientists has recovered pieces of a rocket engine that launched Apollo astronauts to outer space.

Apollo Rocket Engines Pulled From Sea — But Where Will They Land?

Scientists retrieved pieces of rocket engines that may have launched the first man to the moon. Will any of them end up at the Air and Space Museum?

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UPDATED: Has the Voyager 1 Probe Finally Left the Solar System?

New data indicate the spacecraft, launched in 1977, has neared interstellar space, more than 11 billion miles away from the Sun

Artist’s rendition of a ethane lake on Titan.

Haiku Highlight the Existential Mysteries of Planetary Science

Conference-goers put into verse the ethane lakes on a Saturn moon, the orbital paths of Martian moons and a megachondrule's mistaken identity

To boldly go where only a few men (and women) have gone before: “Moving Beyond Earth,” a permanent exhibit at the Air and Space Museum, has a replica of the waste collection system used aboard NASA’s space shuttles. This may be the fanciest toilet you will ever see.

How Do Astronauts Go to the Bathroom in Space?

A look at the space shuttle toilet and "the deepest, darkest secret about space flight"

Jesper Kongshaug's Northern Lights display at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The Northern Lights—From Scientific Phenomenon to Artists’ Muse

The spectacular aurora borealis is inspiring artists to create light installations, musical compositions, food and fashion

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Scientists Map Buried Flood Channels on Mars in 3D

Deep channels, buried under lava but now mapped with satellite data, give hints to the planet's violent, wet and recent past

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The (Natural) World, According to Our Photo Contest Finalists

From a caterpillar to the Milky Way, the ten finalists in the contest's Natural World category capture the peculiar, the remarkable and the sublime

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When, Where and How to Watch the Comet PanSTARRS This Month

Look for the comet just after twilight in the Northern Hemisphere's western sky, with the best viewing chances to come early next week

A habitable planet orbits a white dwarf. Here the ghostly blue ring is a planetary nebula—hydrogen gas the star ejected as it evolved from a red giant to a white dwarf.

E.T. Phone Home: New Research Could Detect Signs of Life in this Decade

Thanks to a proposal by astronomers Avi Loeb and Dan Maoz, we could find evidence of extraterrestrial life very soon

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Small Satellites—Some the Size of Postage Stamps—Are Transforming How Scientists Conduct Space-based Research

A new fleet of nanosatellites is zooming through space

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What Damage Could Be Caused by a Massive Solar Storm?

An enormous solar storm could short out telecom satellites, radio communications, and power grids, leading to trillions of dollars in damages, experts say

Artist's conception of asteroid 2012 DA14 passing through the Earth-moon system on Feb. 15, 2013.

What Can We Do About Big Rocks From Space?

Last week's close encounters with space rocks have raised concerns about how we deal with dangerous asteroids. Here's how we would try to knock them off course.

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The Last Massive Exploding Meteor Hit Earth in 1908, Leveling 800 Square Miles of Forest

In 1908, a meteor exploding in mid-air released the energy equivalent to "185 Hiroshima bombs"

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A Smithsonian Expert Breaks Down the Science of Meteors

Meteor scientist Cari Corrigan says that the type of destruction wrought by today's meteor explosion over Russia is exceedingly rare

A rendering of Asteroid 2012 DA14, which will pass within 17,200 miles of Earth’s surface.

An Asteroid Will Skim Right By the Earth on Friday Afternoon

The 147-foot-wide rock will pass a scant 17,200 miles from Earth's surface, under the orbits of some telecom satellites

Galaxy M106′s spiral arms.

New Photos Show Stars on the Brink of Death and the Precipice of Life

Haunting images of spiral galaxy M106 and the stellar nursery of the Orion nebula capture the life cycle of stars

Super-Earth exoplanets may actually be severely uninhabitable, new research suggests.

“Earth-Like” Exoplanets May Actually Be Mini-Neptunes

Many newly discovered exoplanets may not be able to shed their dense hydrogen atmospheres, making them unsuitable for life

“Something pretty mysterious had to give rise to the origin of the universe.” –Richard Dawkins

The Building Blocks of Life May Have Come From Outer Space

The Building Blocks of Life May Have Come From Outer Space

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