Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels [...] [...more]
Roy Clarke, curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, is shown in 1977 with the Old Woman Meteorite, the second largest meteorite ever discovered in the United States. It was found in March 1976 in the Mojave Desert some 167 miles east of Los Angeles, by two prospectors searching for a lost [...] [...more]
According to the weekly report of the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program, gas-and-ash plumes rose nearly one mile above the crater of Mexico’s Popocatépetl volcano from April 25 to 27. On April 28 incandescent fragments ejected from the crater and landed on the east flank of the volcano, traveling as far as one-half mile. On May [...] [...more]
To celebrate its 22nd anniversary in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has released a dramatic new image of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula because its glowing filaments resemble spider legs. 30 Doradus is located in the neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, and is one of the largest [...] [...more]
NASA transferred the space shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum during a ceremony on Thursday, April 19, at the museum’s Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The keynote address was given by astronaut John Glenn, who is the oldest member of a Discovery crew. Shown here: The start of Discovery’s [...] [...more]
Two IMAX cameras were recently donated to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum by NASA. From 1984 to 1998, the two-dimensional IMAX cameras traveled to space with NASA astronauts on 17 different space shuttle missions. A series of six giant-screen films were produced as a result of footage obtained on the missions, including “The [...] [...more]
Between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 17, the space shuttle Discovery will make its final flight over the Washington, D.C. area, resting atop a specially outfitted 747. Discovery will fly near a variety of landmarks such as the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Reagan National Airport, National Harbor and the Smithsonian’s Steven [...] [...more]
Restless volcano. This Feb. 10 satellite radar image shows the summit of Alaska’s Cleveland Volcano and a new lava dome within the volcano’s summit crater (which is about 200 meters across). The weekly bulletin of the Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program reports elevated surface temperatures consistent with such a lava dome were detected in the crater [...] [...more]
Scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center have found that fledgling catbirds living in the suburbs are extremely vulnerable. Almost 80 percent are killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Nearly half of the deaths are connected to domestic cats. The team studied catbird nests in 3 suburban neighborhoods in Maryland: Spring Park, Opal Daniels Park, and Bethesda. Learn more about this 2011 study by clicking here. (Catbird photo by Gerhard Hofmann)
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