Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Moon

A moth visits a male cone on Ephedra foeminea and feeds on a pollination droplet.

New Research

“Wereplant” Releases Its Pollen By the Light of the Full Moon

An unassuming shrub from the Mediterranean is the first documented case of a plant timing its reproduction to the lunar cycle

Our familiar, and only true, Moon -- the only photos of the 'second moon' are of a distant, blurry object

Cool Finds

Bet You Didn’t Know About the Earth’s ‘Second Moon’

Even astronomers didn’t realize it was following the Earth until 1997

A rover developed by Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and considered for use in the early 1970s, not a moon race competitor

Cool Finds

Forget the Race to the Moon. These Rovers Will Race on the Moon.

It’s going to be a pretty slow race, however

Ten years ago this week, the Huygens probe gave scientists a first look at the icy surface beneath the haze of Saturn's moon Titan.

Best Space Photos of the Week

Best Space Photos of the Week: From Solar Flares to Saturn’s Moons

A spitting sun, a well-loved lake and a happy accident on Mars star in this week’s best space images

One of many abstract images of the Moon collected by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Cool Finds

These Photos From a Lunar Orbiter Could Be Abstract Art

Our distant view of the Moon from Earth is nice, but these close-ups are amazing

Trending Today

This Company Is Crowdfunding a Mission to the Moon

Your reward: a spot in a digital time capsule buried beneath the lunar surface

The giant Herschel Crater gives Saturn’s moon Mimas an ominous look.

A Mysterious Force is Acting on Saturn’s “Death Star” Moon

Tiny, cratered Mimas is wobbling way more than it should be, hinting that it might contain either an oddly shaped core or a subsurface ocean

Fortunately the lava cooled before we got there.

New Research

The Man in the Moon Was Made By Radioactivity, Not Meteors

Differential cooling caused by radioactive material in the crust caused one of the Moon’s most distinctive features

Members of the Apollo 15 crew training at Cinder Lake.

Can’t Make It to the Moon? Head to Arizona Instead

In 1967, the United States Geological Survey turned an old volcano into a lunar training ground for astronauts

New Research

Saturn Is Making (And Destroying) Mini-Moons All The Time

Saturn’s F ring is a little moon factory

Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. stands with the U.S. flag on the lunar surface during the Apollo 12 mission.

Cool Finds

The Moon Smells Like Gunpowder

The smell of the Moon is not just the smell of space

The full moon is seen near Earth's horizon from the International Space Station.

Earth Is Making the Moon All Warm and Soft on the Inside

A new model boosts the notion that a layer of rock near the moon’s core is squishy and perhaps partially melted

A statue in front of the Holy Cross church in Warsaw, Poland, guides viewers toward the August 2014 supermoon.

Inspiring Photos of the Biggest, Brightest Supermoon of 2014

Feast your eyes on these snapshots from around the world

MOLAB in Hopi Buttes (1967)

Cool Finds

Looking Back at NASA’s Strange Mobile Lunar Laboratory

Unfortunately, the odd-looking MOLAB remained earthbound

The Gurranes — Moonlight, Castletownshend, Ireland, 2005

11 Photographs of Mysterious Megaliths

Photographer Barbara Yoshida traveled across the globe to capture prehistoric stone monuments shrouded in moonlight

An artist's rendering of the collision that created the moon

New Research

What Would the Planet That Smashed Into Earth and Created the Moon Have Been Like?

Scientists announced that they have found traces of Theia in moon rocks

Cool Finds

You Can Now Get High-Speed Internet on the Moon

Last fall NASA and MIT researchers demonstrated a new laser-based long-distance data transmission system

Cool Finds

In 2015, an Ad for a Sports Drink Will Land on the Moon

One giant leap for advertising

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

The Moon

Draw on the Moon (Virtually!)

Artists Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson collaborated on an online art project

Page 21 of 22