Articles tagged as NASA | Smithsonian Magazine

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

An solar storm erupts on April 16, 2012, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in the 304 Angstrom wavelength.

New Research

The Solar Storm That Nearly Set the Cold War Ablaze

How radio interference from a 1967 solar storm spooked the U.S. military—and launched space weather forecasting

August 12, 2016

This crater with curious ridges in its center is a possible future site for exploration

Cool Finds

Explore Far Out Views From Mars’ Surface With Over 1,000 New Photos

It’s the Martian “magic hour”

August 10, 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

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 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

How to Visit the Florida Keys Like a NASA Aquanaut

To prepare for space, astronauts spend some time under the sea

August 3, 2016

A false-color image of the Great Red Spot of Jupiter from Voyager 1. The white oval storm directly below the Great Red Spot has approximately the same diameter as the Earth.

New Research

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Is Also Red Hot

The giant storm pipes out temperatures over 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit

July 28, 2016

Data from the Viking biology experiments, which is stored on microfilm, has to be accessed using a microfilm reader.

Cool Finds

NASA Is Finally Digitizing the Viking Mission’s 40-Year-Old Data

No more microfilm

July 25, 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 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

Cool Finds

The Code That Sent Apollo 11 to the Moon Just Resurfaced Online and Is Chock-Full of Jokes

Published on GitHub, the array of in-jokes, pop culture and Shakespeare asides in the comments on the code show the human side of the project

July 11, 2016

Jupiter's moon, Europa, is one of the most promising candidates for life elsewhere in the solar system.

Cool Finds

Juno Will Eventually Go Up in Flames to Protect Theoretical Alien Life

Juno, we hardly knew you

July 7, 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

Cool Finds

This Is What Jupiter Sounds Like

Listen as Juno bursts into the gas giant’s magnetosphere

July 5, 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

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

The "Mystic Mountain" image released for the Hubble's 20th anniversary showcases a three-light-year tall pillar of gas and dust stretching out of the Carina nebula. Mostly made of cool hydrogen, the structure is created by stars releasing jets of gas, which is worn away by radiation from other nearby stars, giving it its eroded shape.

These amazing views are just a selection of the beautiful images the craft has captured over the years

June 28, 2016

Perhaps it's best that this comet is billions of miles away from Earth.

Cool Finds

This Perfume Smells Like a Comet

Yum?

June 27, 2016