Articles tagged as NASA | Smithsonian Magazine

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

The bright spots of Occator Crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

New Research

New NASA Images Shed Light on Ceres’ Bright Spots

Yet the dwarf planet serves up fresh mysteries

March 23, 2016

What’s It Like in Space? Ariel Waldman Has the Answers

The NASA adviser and author of a new book gives some insight on living beyond the Earth’s atmosphere

April 2016

New Research

NASA Spies a Supernova’s First Shockwave

Astronomers spot the first flash of a distant supernova in visible light

March 22, 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

Aluminized suits are used to reflect heat at the Armed Forces Firefighting School. Chanute Field, Illinois, in 1977.

Trending Today

NASA’s Starting a Fire in Space

How will flames react in microgravity?

March 16, 2016

An artist's rendering of the ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter

Trending Today

Mission to Find Life on Mars Blasts Off

The European Space Agency kicks off its ExoMars project to look for methane and other signs of life in the Martian atmosphere

March 14, 2016

The northern lights glow over Castle Sands in Saint Andrews, Scotland at 10 P.M. Sunday, March 6, 2016. Captured by Aurorasaurus participant Alex Thompson

New Research

With Breathtaking Pictures, Citizen Scientists Help Map Auroras

Social media users help scientists figure out how to accurately forecast geomagnetic events

March 11, 2016

NASA's InSight lander inside a clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Originally scheduled for this month, NASA now plans to launch the probe in 2018

March 10, 2016

Meet GN-z11, the "newest" old galaxy discovered by Hubble.

Cool Finds

Hubble Spotted the Oldest Galaxy It Has Ever Seen

Look back in time with a glimpse at a galaxy that’s 13.4 billion light years away

March 4, 2016

New Research

Pluto’s North Pole Is Streaked With Canyons

Enormous pits and frozen valleys straddle Pluto’s northern hemisphere

February 26, 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

NASA's OSIRIS-REx project will send a craft to a near-Earth asteroid and take a sample to study back on Earth.

Cool Finds

NASA Wants You to Send Your Art to an Asteroid

The agency is looking for creative contributions as it readies its mission to study and sample a near-Earth asteroid

February 22, 2016

A newly-released poster in NASA's Visions of the Future series heralds a future "grand tour" using gravity assists.

Cool Finds

NASA Went Retro With Their New Space Travel Posters

Travel to the world of tomorrow—today!

February 10, 2016

A view of Earth from a replica of the Cupola Observation Module.

Cool Finds

Check Out This Scale Replica of The International Space Station

Pretend you’re in orbit without ever leaving the ground

February 4, 2016

Cool Finds

Adventure Through the Water Cycle With NASA’s New Comic Book

The comic brings whimsy and fun into the story of the Global Precipitation Measurement satellite mission

February 3, 2016

Christa McAuliffe received a preview of microgravity during a special flight aboard NASA's KC-135 "zero gravity" aircraft. She was to be the first in a series of civilians in space

The Challenger Disaster Put an End to NASA’s Plan to Send Civilians Into Space

On the 30th anniversary of the space shuttle tragedy, a look back at an ambitious plan to put the rest of us into orbit

January 27, 2016

Swirling magnetic waves triggered spectacular explosions on the sun’s surface

January 19, 2016

This flower isn't just a pretty face—its the first one ever grown in space.

Cool Finds

Check Out the First Flower Grown in Space

It was a close call for this brilliant orange zinnia

January 18, 2016

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches on Sunday, January 17. Though the launch went as planned, the craft's landing did not.

Jason-3 made it to orbit—but the company’s Falcon 9 rocket didn’t make it back to Earth in one piece

January 18, 2016