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Astronomy

New Research

We Know Physics is Largely White and Male, But Exactly How White and Male is Still Striking

Most current physics students will likely never have an African American physics teacher, says a new survey

Surely this exoplanet deserves a better name than CoRoT-7b.

Cool Finds

Ok, Now There’s an Actual, Official Contest to Name New Exoplanets

The International Astronomical Union is throwing their own exoplanet naming contest

An artist's rendition of Gliese 581g from 2010. Unfortunately the artist put a planet where there isn't one.

New Research

Gliese 581g, the First Exoplanet Found That May Have Been Able to Host Life, Doesn’t Actually Exist

So long Gliese 581g, the potentially habitable exoplanet that never was

This image was taken while exploring a 1300m lava cave in Iceland. In some areas the roof has caved in, so snow piles up in the winter time and creates these snow peaks. The aurora at its peak gleams through the roof of the cave and despite only taking up a small portion of the photo, it remains the focal point.

Cool Finds

These Amazing Pictures Made the Shortlist For Astronomy Photographer of the Year

The competition, now in it’s sixth year highlights beautiful images of the sky from around the world

The newly discovered "mega-Earth" Kepler-10c dominates the foreground in this artist's conception. Its sibling, the lava world Kepler-10b, is in the background. Both orbit a sunlike star. Kepler-10c has a diameter of about 18,000 miles, 2.3 times as large as Earth, and weighs 17 times as much. Therefore it is all solids, although it may possess a thin atmosphere shown here as wispy clouds.

New Research

This Rocky Exoplanet is Really, Really Big—Too Big

Kepler-10c is a rocky planet that’s too big to be a rocky planet

This year, Smithsonian magazine's festival is themed "Science Meets Science Fiction."

Future Is Here Festival

The Future is (Still) Here: Day Two of Smithsonian’s Second Annual Conference

Instead of holding its own global fest this year, Nerd Nite descended on our nation’s capital.

A combination of infrared and X-ray observations indicates that a surplus of massive stars has formed from a large disk of gas around Sagittarius A*.

Future Is Here Festival

Inside Black Holes

Three recent black hole events and how they shape our universe

Left, a golden record (© Nasa/National Geographic Society/Corbis) Right, the other side of the golden record shows directions to play it. Identical records carrying the story of Earth were sent into deep space on Voyager 1 and 2.

Future Is Here Festival

The Golden Record 2.0 Will Crowdsource A Selfie of Human Culture

Inspired by a similar effort in the 1970s, the project wants your help in creating a portrait of humanity to send out of the solar system

Atlas V Launches the New Horizons Mission to Pluto.

Future Is Here Festival

Take a Peek Into the Future’s Present With Our Live Coverage of Smithsonian’s Two-Day Festival

The magazine’s 2nd annual conference brings together experts, authors and visionaries in the fields of science, science fiction and technology.

Life in the Cosmos

Sara Seager’s Tenacious Drive to Discover Another Earth

Planetary scientist Sara Seager has turned tragedy into tenacity in her search for new Earths among the stars

Sequential shots showing a 2010 lunar eclipse.

Trending Today

In the Western Hemisphere? Get Set for Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse

Tonight’s eclipse is the first of a rare spurt of lunar eclipses for the western hemisphere

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New Research

Astronomers Just Discovered an Asteroid With Rings

They aren’t supposed to be there, but…there they are.

One small chunk of one small slice of one portion of the absolutely massive photo of the Milky Way captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Cool Finds

This 6 GB Photo of the Milky Way Is As Stunning As It Is Massive

Over the past 10 years the Spitzer Space Telescope captured this gorgeous infrared panorama of the Milky Way

An artist's rendering of Kepler-34b, an exoplanet believed to orbit two stars.

Life in the Cosmos

How Do Astronomers Actually Find Exoplanets?

A handful of ingenious methods have been used to detect the planets too far away for us to see

The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* is at the center of the Milky Way.

Trending Today

We’re About to Watch As a Supermassive Black Hole Tries to Gobble a Gas Cloud

A huge cloud of dust is on a collision course with the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way

The Intel Science Talent Search honored the top winner and nine esteemed runners-up of its 2014 competition at a black-tie affair in Washington, D.C.

These Teenagers Have Already Accomplished More Than You Ever Will

The winners of this year’s Intel Science Talent Search take on flu vaccines, stem cells and tools for diagnosing cancer

Observing the center of the Milky Way at Paranal Observatory.

Top 10 Travel Destinations for An Astronomy Geek

From the world’s biggest telescopes to isolated islands, here are some of the best places to explore the cosmos

A pigeon trap, on view at the Air and Space Museum, used by Nobel Prize winners Penzias and Wilson to remove the birds roosting in the radio antenna's large horn.

Think Big

How Two Pigeons Helped Scientists Confirm the Big Bang Theory

For decades, astronomers had debated how the universe began. Then, in 1964, they had their “Eureka!” moment

An artist's rendition of the Big Bang.

What Astronomers Are Still Discovering About the Big Bang Theory

A half-century after it was confirmed, the theory still yields new secrets

SM0313 is the little star right in the center.

New Research

This is the Oldest Star We’ve Ever Seen

SM0313 was part of the second wave of star formation

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