Articles tagged as Astronomy | Smithsonian Magazine

The forces that formed Pluto's heart may not be romantic, but the feature was love at first sight for scientists.

New Research

Scientists Finally Figured Out Why Pluto Has That Icy Heart

The dwarf planet’s geography, atmosphere and chemistry helped form its most famous feature

September 20, 2016

A harvest moon peeking through the trees on September 8, 2014.

This will be the last harvest moon eclipse until 2024

September 16, 2016

The Ratan-600 radio telescope, which reported the signal to the SETI Institute

Sorry folks, E.T. is still not phoning home

August 30, 2016

New Research

Discovery of a New Class of Galaxies Challenges Our Understanding of How Galaxy Formation Works

Dragonfly 44 near the Coma cluster has the same mass as the Milky Way but only 1 percent of the visible matter

August 26, 2016

New Research

Astronomers Have Discovered an Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Our Cosmic Backyard

But what would potential life look like on this planetary neighbor?

August 24, 2016

Astronomy students at the Banneker and Aztlán Institutes in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Space Hub

Why the Universe Needs More Black and Latino Astronomers

Astronomy has one of the worst diversity rates of any scientific field. This Harvard program is trying to change that

August 23, 2016

Abell 370: Galaxy Cluster Gravitational Lens

Think Big

Long After Einstein, Cosmic Lensing Reaches Its Full Potential

How Hubble is taking advantage of Einstein’s theories to study the most distant galaxies

August 15, 2016

Grab your sunglasses—all of those far-off stars, black holes and celestial bodies contribute to your killer tan.

New Research

Part of Your Suntan Comes From Photons That Are Billions of Years Old

Thank bodies from beyond the galaxy for a bit of that golden glow

August 15, 2016

Maria Zuber, first woman to run a NASA spacecraft mission, says she has a "genetic predilection" to explore space.

Life in the Cosmos

This Scientist Seeks Out the Secret History of Other Worlds

Maria Zuber has spent her career enabling discoveries beyond Earth. She says the best is yet to come

August 15, 2016

A long-exposure of Perseids taken in August 2004.

Space Hub

The Perseid Meteor Shower Looks Even More Beautiful When You Know Where It Comes From

Each streak across the sky is a fragment of the original material of our solar system

August 10, 2016

NASA's Kepler spacecraft launched on March 6, 2009. Today, technology and international collaborations are democratizing the space race.

Space Hub

Opening the Space Race to the Entire World

A new era of collaboration and affordable technology has scientists across the globe sending spacecraft into outer space

August 9, 2016

Cool Finds

Look Up! The Perseid Meteor Shower Is Going to Be a Doozy This Year

The number of shooting stars could double this year

August 5, 2016

An image of a nebula used in "The Hubble Cantata."

Cool Finds

The Cosmos Sings in This Fusion of Astrophysics and Music

The Hubble Cantata brings the stars down to earth

July 28, 2016

An artist's conception of four of the new planets, orbiting a single dwarf star. These small, rocky worlds are far closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun, but the star is smaller and cooler than our own.

New Research

Kepler Just Found 104 New Planets Outside of Our Solar System

Is anyone home?

July 19, 2016

A Delta Aquarid meteor streaks across the sky.

Cool Finds

Keep Your Eyes to the Sky for the Delta Aquarid Meteors This Month

The late-July meteor shower heralds the popular Perseids

July 18, 2016

This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

New Research

Breathtaking New Images Capture Failed Stars and Planet-Sized Objects Inside the Orion Nebula

It’s the deepest look into the nebula ever seen before

July 13, 2016

Galaxy GN-z11 seen in its youth by the Hubble telescope. GN-z11 is shown as it existed 13.4 billion years in the past, just 400 million years after the Big Bang.

Life in the Cosmos

If Telescopes Are Time Machines, the JWST Will Take Us the Furthest Back Yet

The James Webb Space Telescope promises to peer back into the making of the first galaxies

July 7, 2016

An artist's rendition of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. The craft is powered entirely by the sun's rays.

Space Hub

It’s Official: We Are Now in Orbit Around Jupiter

After a nerve-wracking entry, NASA spacecraft Juno successfully entered the gas giant’s orbit

July 5, 2016

Photograph of the megalithic cluster of Carregal do Sal, one of the passage graves in Portugal that may have doubled as an ancient telescope.

New Research

These Ancient Tombs May Have Been Both Grave and Observatory

The best view of the heavens could be from within the tomb

July 1, 2016

Ultraviolet images overlying a photo of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Jupiter’s Auroras Are the Best Light Show in the Solar System

June 30, 2016