Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Science / Space

The Willamette Meteorite is on view at the Natural History Museum.

Going Once…Going Twice…

Dancing With the Stars

The Red Planet

It’ll Still Be Called “The Red Planet”

None

Red Rover, Red Rover

None

Super Supernova

Image of the night sky above Paranal on 21 July 2007, taken by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky.

Are We The Armpit of The Galaxy?

A Space-Time Anomaly of Matter-Energy Reactions

None

They Came For The Martians, And I Was Silent Because I Was Not A Martian

None

Maria Zuber

On the surprise evidence of flowing water on Mars

Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico with its 300 m (980 ft) dish, one of the world's largest filled-aperture (i.e. full dish) radio telescope, conducts some SETI searches.

Earth to Space

Beyond Time

A unique sundial marks places as well as hours

The surface of Wild 2 is pockmarked with craters.

Clues from a Comet

The first mission to collect space matter from beyond the moon offers insights into the solar system’s creation

None

An Interview with Rob Irion, Author of “The Planet Hunters”

Rob Irion spoke with Amy Crawford about his article, “The Planet Hunters”

None

What Makes a Planet?

Why our solar system just shrank

Though the exoplanets found to date are in our galaxy, most are about 100 light-years away.

The Planet Hunters

Astronomers have found about 200 planets orbiting other stars, and they say it’s only a matter of time before they discover another Earth

None

Last Page: Moonstruck

You can’t believe everything you think

The View From the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos

Finding a Home in the Cosmos

In a new book written with his wife, Nancy Abrams, cosmologist Joel Primack argues that the universe was meant for us. Sort of

On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a mission specialist on STS-7.

35 Who Made a Difference: Sally Ride

A generation later, the first female astronaut is still on a mission

35 Who Made a Difference: John Dobson

Come one, come all. Share the sky with the father of sidewalk astronomy

Dubbed the "human satellite," McCandless (bottom center, with the 1984 Challenger crew, including pilot-photographer Gibson, upper left) now works on space robots.

Footloose

The image of Bruce McCandless’ spacewalk two decades ago still amazes. It was the first untethered walk ever—and was among the last

Page 38 of 40