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Shenzhou-15 spacecraft debris streaked across the sky above California in April 2024. 

Sonic Booms and Earthquake Sensors Can Help Researchers Track Space Junk as It Plummets to Earth

Falling debris can travel at about 30 times the speed of sound, creating sonic booms that shake the ground

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is finally set to open in L.A.’s Exposition Park on September 22.

These Are the Top Ten Most Anticipated Museums Opening Around the World in 2026

New institutions dedicated to digital art, exploration, hip-hop, conservation and more are expected to welcome visitors this year

Naked mole-rats are unusual for their long lives and resistance to cancer. Now, researchers suggest the rodents not only tolerate but prefer to be in low-oxygen air.

Naked Mole-Rats Prefer Low-Oxygen Air That Would Kill Most Mammals, Adding to Their List of Death-Defying Superpowers

These underground rodents are the first mammals found to actively choose air with lower-than-normal oxygen levels. Their remarkable ability to survive these conditions could offer a key model for researchers studying new treatments for stroke or lung diseases in humans

A stellar snowflake photomicrographed by Wilson Bentley, circa 1890

These 15 Stunning Microscopic Snowflake Images Helped Change the Way We See the World

Farmer Wilson Bentley was the first to photograph the tiny snow crystals individually, and his collection reveals that each has its own pattern

Bao Li (pictured on January 4, 2025) and Qing Bao, who are both 4 years old, are still considered teenagers in panda years.

Pandamonium

See 14 of the National Zoo’s Most Adorable Giant Panda Photos From 2025

These snapshots of Bao Li and Qing Bao capture the pair’s cutest moments, from playing in the snow to celebrating their 4th birthdays

The Hayli Gubbi volcano in the rural northeast of Ethiopia erupted November 23.

Ethiopian Volcano Erupts for the First Time in Nearly 12,000 Years of Scientific Records

The plume from the Hayli Gubbi volcano drifted east over the Arabian Sea and extended roughly 2,200 miles

This vase, made by Salviati & Company around 1960, shows how well Murano glass accommodated itself to modernism. To create the concentric colors, the glassmakers used successive layers of molten glass—first purple, then blue, then clear. The staggered color effect emphasizes and echoes the gourd-like shape of the whole.

Just as the Italian Art of Glassblowing Was on the Verge of Shattering, a Talented Craftsman in Murano Emerged to Revive It

Antonio Salviati opened his glass factory in 1859 to help restore a local landmark to its former glory. A vase at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum tells its story

For his roaring comeback, Knievel jumps 14 Greyhound buses at the Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, in October 1975.

After Motorcycle Daredevil Evel Knievel Failed to Clear 13 Buses on a Jump Attempt, There Was Only One Thing to Do: Try 14

A wreck in London broke his bones but not his spirit. So he got back on his two-wheeled horse and sailed through the Ohio sky, with half the country watching

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A Chance for Healing, 170 Years After a Lakota Massacre

Dozens of personal belongings from the Rosebud Sioux tribe find their way home after spending decades in the Smithsonian collections

Jane Goodall visiting a chimpanzee rescue center in 2018 in Entebbe, Uganda

Jane Goodall, Legendary Primatologist and Anthropologist, Dies at 91

She was considered the world’s leading expert on chimpanzees and was renowned for her global conservation efforts

Yunxian 1 (left) and Yunxian 2 (right) are skulls unearthed in China that had been badly crushed. Scientists digitally reconstructed Yunxian 2 (center) and analyzed its relationship to other early human fossils.

Scientists Reconstruct a Million-Year-Old Skull and Suggest It Could Rewrite Our Timeline of Human Evolution

A recent study dramatically pushes back the date for the emergence of our species, though some researchers call for further evidence

The images, captured with the Event Horizon Telescope, show the magnetic field of the supermassive black hole M87* completely reversing.

Astronomers Watched a Black Hole Unexpectedly Flip Its Magnetic Field, Challenging Theoretical Models

A series of observations between 2017 and 2021 suggest the supermassive structure’s magnetized plasma is more dynamic than thought

The National Archives is the permanent home of the United States Constitution.

America's 250th Anniversary

See the Entire U.S. Constitution on Display for the Very First Time in History

The National Archives in Washington, D.C. will be showcasing the four pages of the historic document, plus a rarely shown “fifth page,” the Bill of Rights and the 17 other amendments

Joseph McNeil speaks about the Woolworth’s sit-in in a 2023 interview.

Joseph McNeil, Member of ‘Greensboro Four’ Who Protested Segregation at Lunch Counters, Dies at 83

McNeil and three other Black freshmen held a famous sit-in at Woolworth’s in 1960, which inspired peaceful protests across the country

Two of Frank Kameny’s notebooks. In one, Kameny notes that the owners of the Tides Hotel are “non-members” but “sympathetic.”

Frank Kameny Helped Chart a Path to Liberation for Millions of Gay Americans

Personal notebooks reveal what life was like for the Washington activist who spent decades advocating for equal rights in the federal government and elsewhere

The New York Public Library has one of Thomas Jefferson's handwritten copies of the Declaration of Independence in its collection.

America's 250th Anniversary

See Thomas Jefferson’s Handwritten Copy of the Declaration of Independence

The rare document will be on view for just three days at the New York Public Library next year in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary

People line up for rations of beans and water in Japan following the country's defeat in World War II, in September 1945.

A Batch of Undelivered WWII Letters Intended for Japanese Soldiers Ended Up in an Oregon Museum Decades Later. Now, Experts Are Returning the Lost Correspondence to Their Families

An organization devoted to returning artifacts as a way to heal the emotional wounds left by the war is helping the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum send these deeply personal items to the writers’ descendants

The Nyayanga excavation site in Kenya, in July 2025. Fossils and Oldowan tools have been excavated from the tan and reddish-brown sediments, which date to more than 2.6 million years old.

Early Humans Moved Stones Long Distances to Make Tools 600,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

A new study takes another look at some of the oldest known stone tools and suggests their makers transported materials for up to eight miles

An artist's rendition of CHIME and its Outriggers across North America localizing the radio burst.

Astronomers Spot the Brightest Fast Radio Burst Ever Detected and Observe Stars Around Its Origin for the First Time

Using two telescopes, scientists were able to pinpoint the location of the fleeting phenomenon with surprising accuracy

The vessel's timbers are shrinking and its iron fittings are disintegrating.

America's 250th Anniversary

Watch as Experts Preserve a 249-Year-Old Gunboat That Sank During the American Revolution

Badly damaged during the Battle of Valcour Island, the “Philadelphia” is now the focus of a new exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

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