Articles tagged as Outer Space | Smithsonian Magazine

Dale A. Gardner, Space Shuttle Mission 51-A, George D. Guzzi Jr. This watercolor shows Dale Gardner tethered to the exterior of Space Shuttle Discovery. During that mission, Gardner and Joseph Allen donned jet-propelled maneuvering units on spacewalks to recover two malfunctioning satellites.

Space Exploration Would Be Nothing If We Didn’t Know How to Spacewalk

The Air and Space Museum brings the privileged experience to the public in an exhibit that chronicles 50 years of technology

January 8, 2015

An artist's rendition of Kepler, on the hunt for planets like our own.

Cool Finds

Visit Kepler’s Exoplanets—And Don’t Worry About the Natives (At Least for Now)

NASA has made a set of travel posters themed to exoplanets while a nonprofit searches for life among them

January 8, 2015

This artist's depiction shows a gas giant planet akin to Jupiter rising over an alien ocean.

New Super-Earths Double the Number of Life-Friendly Worlds

Three studies looking at small, rocky planets are helping astronomers figure out how common worlds like ours are in the galaxy

January 6, 2015

This image, created by a telescope called NuSTAR, is the most detailed of the sun using high-energy rays to date, according to NASA.

New Research

NASA Uses X-Rays to Find Out Why the Sun Is So Hot

The image will help scientists decide whether mini-flares make the sun’s atmosphere hotter than the surface itself

January 5, 2015

A composite image made in Payson, Arizona, on December 28 shows Comet Lovejoy as it seemed to pass a globular cluster of stars called Messier 79.

How to See This Green Comet With the Naked Eye

The “New Year’s Comet” is taking astronomers by storm with an unexpected showing, and it should only get brighter through early January

December 30, 2014

Our Answers to the Most Burning Questions of 2014

Here are the ten most popular installments of “Ask Smithsonian” this year

December 30, 2014

Cool Finds

Scientifically Accurate ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ Is Still Charming

Stars aren’t diamonds at all—they’re giant balls of gas

December 26, 2014

One of the line items in the new budget is funding for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.

The pending budget will give NASA even more money than they asked for

December 12, 2014

Enthusiasts examining the patch for NROL-35 think the trident, fire and breeze through the character’s hair might represent the elements—water, fire and wind. “What that has to do with the actual payload, however, is anyone’s guess,” says space historian Robert Pearlman.

The Creepy, Kitschy and Geeky Patches of US Spy Satellite Launches

There may be method to the madness behind the outlandish designs of the National Reconnaissance Office mission patches

December 9, 2014

The Orion capsule idles on the pad atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket just minutes after the launch was canceled.

Orion’s quest for space will have to wait until tomorrow

December 4, 2014

A still under construction Orion space capsule at the Michoud Assembly Facility in 2012.

NASA’s long-distance crew capsule, Orion, will get its first test flight tomorrow

December 3, 2014

The quantum realm can seem to defy common sense.

Five Practical Uses for “Spooky” Quantum Mechanics

Fifty years after Bell’s Theorem, tools that harness the weird properties of quantum mechanics are at work all around you

December 1, 2014

You can't spend your way out of this one, America

Because, in the end, even great savings won’t save you from a singularity

November 28, 2014

Cool Finds

This New Video of the Earth Is the Best Ever Made

The video was made with images taken by a Russian satellite

November 21, 2014

New Research

Now a Person Can Scramble Up a Wall Just Like a Gecko

Or use the same material to catch wayward space trash

November 20, 2014

An artist's interpretation of the Philae lander separating from Rosetta and landing on the comet.

Researchers hope the finding sheds light on how organic molecules might have first arrived on Earth

November 19, 2014

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

November 19, 2014

One of the Philae Lander's feet is visible in this snapshot from the comet's surface.

Trending Today

Philae Is Now Asleep

The lander’s solar panels aren’t getting enough light and the batteries will die, but we already have some fantastic images and data

November 14, 2014

Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation and before touchdown.

A successful touchdown after the comet chase is just the herald of more discoveries to come, including the cause of the comet’s strange song

November 12, 2014

The action starts bright and early

November 11, 2014