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Science / Space

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The Water On the Moon Probably Came From Earth

New isotopic analysis of hydrogen in Apollo-era Moon rocks shows that the water locked inside them hails from our planet

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10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day

Pigeon-eating catfish, Antarctic trash, and more: A list of surprising, alarming and exciting discoveries about our planet from the past year

With each new frontier of exploration and travel came new challenges.

Lost in Space and Other Tales of Exploration and Navigation

A new exhibit at the Air and Space Museum reveals how we use time and space to get around every day, from maritime exploration to Google maps

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Robot Cars and R2D2s: Snapshots from Behind-the-Scenes of new “Time and Navigation” exhibit

From sea to space and back again, the new Air and Space exhibit shows you how we get where we’re going

Who’s in the suit? Increasingly, it’s our digital selves.

How to Travel to Outer Space Without Spending Millions of Dollars

Who’s in the space suit? Increasingly, it is our digital selves

Astronauts float in zero gravity outside the Challenger space shuttle in 1984.

How IMAX Pulled Spaceflight Down to Earth

The 1985 film that famously revealed the lives of astronauts in zero gravity returns to the big screen

Jupiter’s innermost large moon, Io, is extremely volcanic. “If you look closely on the upper left and upper right horizon, you can see eruptions in the process of happening,” says Benson. “We know that at least 400 volcanos are continuously blasting magma into space from Io.” Mosaic composite photograph. Galileo, July 3, 1999.

Michael Benson’s Awe-Inspiring Views of the Solar System

A photographer painstakingly pieces together raw data collected by spacecraft to produce color-perfect images of the Sun, planets and their many moons

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

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