Articles tagged as Moon | Smithsonian Magazine

Visualization of the giant impact that formed the moon

Journey to the Center of Earth

New Moon-Formation Theory Also Raises Questions About Early Earth

A new model of the impact that created the moon might upend theories about earth, too

August 12, 2016

NASA put a man on the moon, but it's been tricky to hold onto the bags used to bring back lunar samples.

A seemingly simple bag is at the center of multiple lawsuits

August 10, 2016

An artist's concept of Moon Express's MX-1 Micro Lander, which may head to the moon as soon as next year.

Moon Express will head to Earth’s nearest neighbor in 2017

August 3, 2016

A 3D view of the console of the Apollo 11 "Columbia" command module.

Cool Finds

Explore the Apollo 11 Command Module in 3D

For the first time, you can peek inside the craft that enabled “one giant leap for mankind”

July 20, 2016

An astrophysicist makes the case that it might be worthwhile to revisit the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to safeguard the practice of science on the lunar surface.

Can There Be Real Estate on the Moon?

A Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist thinks a legal crisis is waiting for us on the surface of the moon.

July 13, 2016

Cool Finds

Meet Three of Earth’s Tiny Celestial Buddies

A handful of quasi-satellites, mini-moons and Trojan asteroids tag along with Earth as it whizzes around the sun

June 20, 2016

Why Do Humans Have Canine Teeth and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

June 2016

This artist's concept shows the distant dwarf planet Makemake and its newly discovered moon. Makemake and its moon, nicknamed MK 2, are more than 50 times farther away than Earth is from the sun.

Think Big

Hubble Spies a Tiny Moon Orbiting Dwarf Planet Makemake

Our solar system still has plenty of surprises

April 27, 2016

Features like the Marius Hills pit could be skylights in lava tubes that could one day house underground moon bases.

New Research

Future Moon Bases Might Be Built in Underground Lava Tubes

Caverns carved out by ancient lava could shelter astronauts from the hazards of moon life

March 29, 2016

Volcanic activity in the moon billions of years ago may have caused its poles to shift.

New Research

Ancient Volcanoes May Have Shifted the Moon’s Poles

Ice deposits point to the moon’s old poles

March 24, 2016

New Research

Five New Things We Learned About Pluto This Week

A new set of studies paints Pluto as a weirder planet than scientists once thought

March 18, 2016

A view of the total solar eclipse captured from Donggala, Indonesia.

Parts of the pacific and Indonesia went dark last night as the moon moved directly between Earth and the sun

March 9, 2016

An annular solar eclipse is observed in Yantai, Shandong province, China, January 15, 2010.

Cool Finds

A Solar Eclipse Will Darken Pacific Skies This Week

Though the actual eclipse can only be seen from select locations, don’t miss the live stream of the event online

March 7, 2016

Explore the Magnificent and Mysterious Surface of the Moon in Pictures

At the National Air and Space Museum, beautiful images show how the moon’s pockmarked surface is rife with mystery

March 2, 2016

The Apollo 10 lunar module prepares for redocking.

Archival audio reveals eerie sounds heard by astronauts on the dark side of the moon

February 23, 2016

Cool Finds

Take 360-Degree Tours of Mars and the Moon

Earth’s neighbors have never seemed so tantalizingly close

February 10, 2016

New Research

The Moon’s Tidal Forces May Affect How Much It Rains

The higher the moon, the lower the chance of rain

February 1, 2016

The Postal Service honors NASA’s New Horizons Mission and Star Trek’s premiere

January 4, 2016

A copy of a photograph of a solar eclipse taken by the English astronomer Arthur Eddington in 1919.

Cool Finds

Long-Lost Photos of Eclipses and Stars Found in an Observatory Basement

The stash of old negatives includes a 97-year-old copy of the photo that helped confirm the Theory of Relativity

December 31, 2015

New Research

China’s Lunar Rover Discovered a New Kind of Moon Rock

The Yutu Rover has discovered a type of basalt unlike anything else ever found on the moon

December 24, 2015