Space & Aviation

Explore Space & Aviation across the Smithsonian through stories, events, and exhibitions. Use the filters to browse by format, then bookmark events and exhibitions to keep track of what you want to visit or attend.

377 results
WR124 is an extremely bright, short-lived massive star known as a Wolf-Rayet at a distance of about 28,000 light-years from Earth. These stars fling their outer layers out into space, creating spectacular arrangements seen in an image in infrared . Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
WR124 is an extremely bright, short-lived massive star known as a Wolf-Rayet at a distance of about 28,000 light-years from Earth. These stars fling their outer layers out into space, creating spectacular arrangements seen in an image in infrared . Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is sending out a holiday card with four new images of cosmic wonders. Each of the quartet of objects evokes the winter season or one of its celebratory days, either in its name or shape.
Here are four new “winter” space images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each image contains X-rays from Chandra and data from other telescopes. These images resemble a snowman, Christmas tree, winter landscape, and a partridge. Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
To explore, we need to keep our senses open. By developing new “eyesˮ for both the very big and the very small, scientists have opened windows of discovery via technology, science, and engineering. A new collaboration celebrates this spirit of . Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
Smaller galaxies may have fewer giant black holes than larger galaxies. A new study looked at 1,600 galaxies observed over two decades by NASA’s Chandra. Chandra’s X-rays showed the presence — or lack — of giant black holes in the sample. Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
This image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows a star formation region in molecular cloud NGC 6334
Cambridge, MA (October 8, 2025)— In the largest and most detailed survey of its kind, astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured the clearest picture yet of how massive stars are born. By zooming in to . Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.
Simulated image of the birth of a primordial quasar
Cambridge, MA (December 9, 2025)— For two decades, astronomers have puzzled over how supermassive black holes, which are some of the brightest objects in the universe, could exist less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Normal stars simply . Shortened snippet. View full page for more details.