Articles tagged as Outer Space | Smithsonian Magazine

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

Cool Finds

Take 360-Degree Tours of Mars and the Moon

Earth’s neighbors have never seemed so tantalizingly close

February 10, 2016

An illustration of how gravitational waves ripple through the fabric of space-time.

The internet is abuzz with rumors of a big announcement—here are a few things you should know to decipher the news

February 9, 2016

An artist's rendering of the galaxies hiding beyond the veil of the Milky Way.

Think Big

Hundreds of Galaxies Were Found Hiding Behind Our Milky Way

The objects may help explain why our galaxy and its neighbors are hurtling towards a seemingly blank zone called the Great Attractor

February 9, 2016

When CO2 rises, wet and wild planets may lose their oceans to space.

New Research

Looking for Life Beyond Earth? Watch Out for Steam Bath Planets

Simulations show that water and CO2 can be a surprisingly deadly combo on some unfortunate worlds

February 9, 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

A picture snapped by Spirit near Home Plate shows silica formations poking out of the soil, which may have been formed by microbial life.

Mysterious Martian ‘Cauliflower’ May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life

Unusual silica formations spotted by a NASA rover look a lot like structures formed by microbes around geysers on Earth

February 1, 2016

Inside Infinite Harvest's 5,400 square-foot grow facility in Lakewood, Colorado.

Astronauts and Arugula: Using Space-Station Technology to Grow Food

Infinite Harvest, an indoor vertical farm in Lakewood, Colorado, provides a glimpse into the future of global large-scale food production

January 29, 2016

Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft.

The recent resurgence of this ancient idea reminds us that flat Earth believers have a long history

January 29, 2016

This visualization, built using data from the Planck satellite, shows the swirls of the Milky Way's magnetic field. The orange region represents the galactic plane.

Think Big

Where Are All the Aliens? Taking Shelter From the Universe’s Radiation

Earlier life-forms across the cosmos may have faced thousands to millions of times the cosmic ray dose that we do today

January 22, 2016

The Znamya 2 mirror-solar sail, deployed.

Cool Finds

How a Russian Space Mirror Briefly Lit Up the Night

In 1993, the 65-foot-diameter satellite, called Znamya, briefly lit the Earth like a giant orbiting night light

January 21, 2016

Rocky bodies that slammed into early Earth might have been integral in setting up the conditions for our magnetic field.

Journey to the Center of Earth

Humble Magnesium Could Be Powering Earth’s Magnetic Field

The common element could have been driving the planet’s dynamo for billions of years

January 20, 2016

Pictures? No problem. But don’t expect much information. A crew tends to the X-37B after it landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in October 2014, after 674 days in orbit.

What’s the Secretive X-37 Spaceplane Doing Up There?

The Air Force isn’t saying, so we asked other spaceplane experts

January 20, 2016

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

January 19, 2016

Half of NASA's astronaut class of 2013 are women.

Cool Finds

Half of NASA’s Newest Astronaut Class Are Women

38 years after NASA hired its first female astronauts, four women are training to go to Mars

January 18, 2016

An artist's rendition of Juno in orbit around Jupiter. The craft is powered entirely by the sun's rays.

Armed with over 18,000 solar cells, the Jupiter orbiter is taking solar-fueled space exploration to new lengths

January 15, 2016

An illustration shows the record-breaking supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet about 10,000 light-years away.

Think Big

Astronomers Have Found the Brightest Supernova Yet

The powerful blast is so weird that it could be a whole new kind of star explosion

January 14, 2016

Cool Finds

Star Light, Star Bright, Here’s Why the Heavens Look Brighter Tonight

It’s not just because the air is clearer

January 14, 2016

An artist's impression of Philae's landing on Comet 67P. Philae is the small craft beneath the Rosetta orbiter. It detached from Rosetta and landed on the comet on November 12, 2014. Now it may be out of contact forever.

As Comet 67P hurtles further and further away, it’s taking the ‘little lander that could’ along with it

January 11, 2016