Smithsonian Scientist Discovers the Moon is Shrinking
Smithsonian scientist Tom Watters explores the universe. His most recent discovery the moon is shrinking. Watch the video to learn more about his research. [...more]
Smithsonian scientist Tom Watters explores the universe. His most recent discovery the moon is shrinking. Watch the video to learn more about his research. [...more]
This 1911 photograph shows Kiddo, the first cat to attempt to cross the Atlantic by airship, and Melvin Vaniman, engineer of the airship America. Kiddo was the subject of the first ever wireless radio message sent from an aircraft. The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is donating the lifeboat used on two early attempted crossings [...] [...more]
The number and diversity of tectonic landforms in our solar system “is truly remarkable,” Watters and Schultz write. Photographs of these structures have stimulated a range of scholarly investigations. [...more]
Dr. Bruce Campbell, a geophysicist at the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, is at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W. Va., to make a radar map of the Moon. In this video, made in September 2009, Dr. Campbell explains some of the work involved in putting together a detailed radar map of the Moon and why he finds the geology of the Moon so fascinating. [...more]
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum recently obtained two monumental instruments on loan from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. [...more]
Julia Child cooks up a batch of primordial soup and explains how these simple ingredients produce amino acids - the building blocks of life. This video played in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Life in The Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed. [...more]
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum has opened a new Public Observatory that contains a 16-inch, 3,000-pound Boller and Chivens telescope, on loan from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Through this powerful telescope, museum visitors can now observe the sun (with a special filter), the moon and the brighter stars and planets, such as Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, during daylight hours. Funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation. [...more]
Yellow lady’s slippers, watercolor by Kathleen Garness, from the National Museum of Natural History exhibit “Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World,” opening Aug. 14. The exhibition, a collaborative effort between the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Natural History Museum, showcases botanical illustrations and features work from several renowned artists, including Alice Tangerini, one of the Smithsonian’s acclaimed scientific illustrators.