Space

A Bumpy Road to Mars

The president envisions a future human mission to Mars, but medical researchers say surviving the journey is no spacewalk

This image of the Sun's outermost layer, or corona, was taken June 10, 1998, by TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer). The Earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft, launched two months earlier, has an unobstructed view of the Sun eight months of the year. It is helping to solve the mystery of why the Sun's corona is so much hotter (3.6 million degrees Farenheit) than its surface (11,000 degrees Farenheit). TRACE is also shedding light on solar storms, which damage satellites and disrupt power transmissions.

Celestial Sightseeing

From Triton's active geysers to the Sun's seething flares, newly enhanced images from U.S. and foreign space probes depict the solar system as never before

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To Touch the Heavens

Noreen Grice has given the visually impaired a feel for the universe

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Lighthouse of the Skies

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory probes the universe for the unimaginable

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Just Looking: Sweet Sorrow

9-planet solar system

Caution, Planets Ahead

The world's largest (maybe) 9-planet solar system model goes up along Route 1 in northern Maine

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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

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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

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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

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Painted Ladies in Space

High schoolers ask: would metamorphosis aboard a space shuttle mission yield normal butterflies?

Chandra X-ray space observatory of the NASA

A Stellar Imagemaker

Smithsonian and NASA's Chandra x-ray observatory sheds new light on the mysteries of the universe

The Ant planetary nebula. Ejecting gas from the dying central star shows symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns of ordinary explosions.

A Celestial News Bureau

Three Smithsonian astronomers run a worldwide news service about what is happening overhead

Jack Dailey

A New Man at Air and Space

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Space Art Blasts Off Around the World

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NASA Goes Ballistic

The space agency crashed a satellite on the moon in a search for water. It wants to "shoot" a comet.

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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

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Mining for Meteorites

As prices skyrocket, gonzo collectors are combing the globe for these celestial fragments—and riling researchers

A computer-generated image representing space debris

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

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Scoping Out the Sky

For everyday folks and presidents, too, the Naval Observatory is a fascinating place to study the stars

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A Space Invader Is Here

An intergalactic war is going on, but not the kind we used to read about in science fiction magazines

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