The Supermoon is going to light up the evening sky tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's also going to block out an even more dazzling cosmic display—the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. more ›

On Saturday night, our nearest celestial neighbor is putting on what should be one helluva show. Get ready for the return of Supermoon! more ›

For the second time in a week, NASA announced it is delaying the launch of five suborbital rockets from Virginia that would be visible across the East Coast after cloudy weather in official viewing areas. more ›

So this is how we got to spy on Boris and Natasha. For today only, until 5:30 p.m., the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum will be hosting a free, public viewing of the newly declassified HEXAGON (KH-9) satellite in the parking lot of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The now hefty, ten-foot in diameter relic of the cold war took pictures of the Soviet Union and other targets from 1971 to the early 1980s during its lifespan. more ›

Our resident astronomy expert is out for the week, so you'll have to depend on the government for the technical explanation of what this huge explosion on the sun actually means. (It involves a Solar Radiation Storm and CME-driven shock, both of which sound, uh, kind of terrifying.) more ›

In 1962, then NASA Administrator James E. Webb began to invite artists to have special access to the astronauts, engineers and spacecraft during the tail-end of the Mercury program, just as Gemini was getting off the ground. NASA | ART includes over 70 artworks from the nearly 50 year span that has so far gathered 3000 pieces in both NASA and the Air and Space Museum's collections. As co-curator Burt Ulrich notes, the exhibit is meant to "see how far we've come as a nation, and as human beings." more ›

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of American human spaceflight with stargazing events, rocket challenges, planet "dances," and space shuttle launches. more ›

Early last year, we told you all about the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS). The launch grounds, run in cooperation with the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, is located on NASA's Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) on Wallops Island, Virginia, about three hours from D.C. on the Eastern Shore. Are you ready to watch some launches from D.C.? more ›

Arlington's David M. Brown Planetarium, whose attempts to raise $402,000 to avoid being closed down are frequently noted in our Look Up column, got some good New Year's news: they recently received a $100,000 donation. more ›

This photo was posted yesterday by Soichi Noguchi, a JAXA (Japanese space program) astronaut aboard the International Space Station. That, dear readers, is what the Potomac looks like after nearly three feet of snow melts into it, followed by several days of rain. Yum. Compare that to February's image (from the Terra satellite) and Google map's inclement-weather-free image. Anybody up for a swim? (Astronaut Soichi takes lots of awesome photos as he orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and posts them to his Twitter account.) more ›

Did you look up last Wednesday and Thursday to see two of the brightest objects in the sky -- the Moon and Jupiter -- trek ever so close to each other? It's tough to say that maxedaperture's photo above doesn't really do it justice (because it sure as hell does the Moon itself justice), but the real view was so bright to make even non-fans of astronomy look up and, as a friend told me later, make him nearly run his car into a ditch. (Please practice safe sky viewing and pull over!) more ›

Missed last weekend's shiny appearance of the International Space Station in the nighttime sky? No worries -- there's plenty more to tilt your head northward for in the next couple of weeks: namely, planets! The Post has the rundown, beginning with Jupiter -- which will really steal the show, hopping around the celestial canvas all month. D.C. residents can watch the largest planet in the Solar System ascend the eastern sky on the 14th, and find it dancing with a full moon on the 5th and 6th. Saturn also has some funky stuff going on: it is the halfway point for Saturn's orbit around the sun, and as such, its massive rings will appear totally flat from our vantage point on Earth. The report says that August 15th will probably be your best shot to see this transition (and hey, look for Mercury that night, while you're at it.) Venus and Mars are also highly visible this month. And if that's not enough, there will also be a meteor shower on the 11th. Got a nice, tranquil place to enjoy the movement of gigantic bodies through space? Let us know in the comments. more ›

Space Shuttle Endeavor -- which took off from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday, July 15 -- will be clearly visible to Washingtonians this weekend, as it hurtles through space with the International Space Station at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour and 220 miles above the Earth. Get out those cameras, folks, because the flybys will be "hard to miss" -- the Station and the Shuttle combined are bigger than a football field and reflect sunlight incredibly well. According to the Post, the view will be "like a very bright star passing with the apparent speed of an airliner crossing overhead." Sounds like a sight to behold. The best times for viewing, if clouds don't get in the way, will be between 9 and 9:30 this evening. more ›

Any fan of the space program should recognize quite a few faces roaming around D.C. this week. Last night, the biggest gathering of Apollo astronauts in years arrived at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum for the annual John H. Glenn Lecture featuring the Apollo 11 crew, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, along with NASA's first Flight Director, Chris Kraft, and of course, astronaut and Senator John Glenn himself. The audience was filled with other Apollo astronauts, as well as the STS-125 crew that flew the space shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Telescope in May. more ›

Forty years ago next month, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step foot on the Moon. The National Air and Space Museum is celebrating Apollo 11's historic journey throughout July, with book signings, presentations by experts on the Saturn V rocket, the Lunar Module, and even one on the "so-called Moon-landing hoax." The capstone lecture featuring the entire Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control creator Chris Kraft sold-out instantly through a free lottery last month, unfortunately. more ›

Space nerds, get ready: The relaunch isn't the only good news coming to the solar system this May. Cosmic correspondent Blaine Friedlander notes in the Washington Post that all five naked-eye planets will be out and about this month. Saturn can be found around 9 p.m. in the southern sky. Look for Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in the morning, and expect Mercury briefly after sunset in the early days of this month. Can some kind Taurus out there explain what this means in astrological terms? Specifically, will I ever find my winning Powerball ticket? more ›

There's a ton of stories this morning about some bright flashes of light and booming noises coming from the skies over eastern Virginia, parts of Maryland and North Carolina. The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that the National Weather Service’s Wakefield station's phone was "ringing off the hook" last night after around 9:45 p.m., as residents frantically called in to report flashing, bright lights and in some places, an explosion-like sound. No immediate explanation came from the NWS, but a team is now investigating what might have caused the fiery flashes. WTOP has a report that suggests that the phenomenon was most likely a fireball, which can occur when a piece of meteor rock enters the Earth's atmosphere. more ›

We mentioned last week that the two brightest planets in our sky would soon converge together with the crescent Moon in the early evening, making their final swoop towards each other tonight. Flickr user (and our reliable astro-photographer) philliefan99 took this image on Saturday night, when they were still fairly far apart, but knowing the rain would make it tough to photograph on Sunday. We're looking at partly to very cloudy skies tonight, but try to scope them out anyway. If it's clear, the three will be visible just after sunset -- as you can tell from the photo above -- so look up while you're leaving the office today. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will be huddled in the southwestern sky near the horizon and will be so close that you can cover all three with your thumb at arms length. Enjoy the show! more ›

Reader Mike Eisenhut sent us this photo yesterday (knowing this writer's predilection for space stuff) of Jupiter and Venus glowing brightly behind the Washington Monument. That's Venus just to the left, about halfway up the Monument, and Jupiter to its upper left. more ›