Lighthouse of the Skies
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory probes the universe for the unimaginable
Caution, Planets Ahead
The world’s largest (maybe) 9-planet solar system model goes up along Route 1 in northern Maine
Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Planet. It’s a Very Large Ball of Ice!
It’s Pluto, with its moon, Charon
Stars in Their Eyes
The exquisite telescopes crafted by Alvan Clark and his sons helped make the last half of the 19th century a golden age of astronomy
Mapping Galactic Foam
Smithsonian astronomer Margaret Geller plotted the bubble structure of the universe. Now she’s working to find out how it got that way
Painted Ladies in Space
High schoolers ask: would metamorphosis aboard a space shuttle mission yield normal butterflies?
A Stellar Imagemaker
Smithsonian and NASA’s Chandra x-ray observatory sheds new light on the mysteries of the universe
A Celestial News Bureau
Three Smithsonian astronomers run a worldwide news service about what is happening overhead
NASA Goes Ballistic
The space agency crashed a satellite on the moon in a search for water. It wants to “shoot” a comet.
Putting the Brakes on Light
Light travels 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum; in Lene Hau’s lab, it ambles at 38 miles an hour
Mining for Meteorites
As prices skyrocket, gonzo collectors are combing the globe for these celestial fragments—and riling researchers
Casting a High-Tech Net for Space Trash
A cloud of spacecraft parts and debris envelops the earth. Keeping track of it takes the best we have
Scoping Out the Sky
For everyday folks and presidents, too, the Naval Observatory is a fascinating place to study the stars
A Space Invader Is Here
An intergalactic war is going on, but not the kind we used to read about in science fiction magazines
More Violence Overhead
Bursts of gamma rays have been a mystery for 30 years; Now, with new satellites, we have some clues
Planets Around Other Stars Are Hot Hot Hot
Suddenly we find that lots of nearby stars have their own planets, even though so far we can “see” only the giants
Page 38 of 39