History & Culture
From the Archives: An Interview with Carl Sagan
In a conversation five decades ago, former Mercury editor Richard Reis discussed with Carl Sagan the problems of both interstellar and interhuman communication, the need for a greater reliance on rationality, the anti-science movement at that time, and his own research efforts in planetary science.
Astro News
NASA Revising Its Mars Sample Return Plan
The space agency has reached out to industry partners and individual NASA centers to investigate innovative technologies that could reduce costs and speed up the timeline.
Science & Discovery
Feature: Vatican Astronomers Aid the Search for Solar System Origins
To measure the physical properties of asteroid Bennu's sample material, NASA is using an instrument provided by a scientist who is employed by a different government: the Vatican.
Welcome to Mercury, an online magazine focusing on the various ways astronomy intersects with science, education, culture, history, and art.
Education & Outreach
Column: Education Matters: Science as a Creative Endeavour
Incorporating the arts into science curricula promotes deeper relationships with the natural world.
Science & Discovery
Feature: Satellite Constellations are a Colossal Threat to Astronomy
The problem of light pollution isn’t a new concept. Now, however, even the most remote night skies are getting brighter and murkier, threatening our ability to learn about and connect with the cosmos.
Astro News
New Horizons Mission Has Led to Discovery of 89 Kuiper Belt Objects
A new paper describes the discovery of dozens of objects in the Kuiper Belt, thanks to the New Horizons mission and its related searches to better understand this region in the outer solar system.
Education & Outreach
Feature: The Sun, Moon, and You
This guide will help you prepare yourself, students, friends, and neighbors — and provide tips on running events — for the April 2024 solar eclipse.
Astro News
A Commercial Craft Sticks Its Landing
The Odysseus spacecraft, built and operated by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines, successfully touched down at the lunar south polar region on February 22.
History & Culture
Column: Our Island Universe: History’s Most Profound Total Solar Eclipses
Eclipses are an opportunity to do clever scientific research that can yield profound consequences about our understanding of the cosmos. Perhaps the most famous example was in 1919.
Education & Inspiration
Column: A Little Learning: Poetry in Motion
Poets have long conveyed the ethereal experience of witnessing a total solar eclipse. Perhaps it’s time to give students something beyond diagrams and demonstrations, and let poetry accompany them.
Astro News
Solar Gamma Ray Oddities
The solar polar regions emitted more gamma rays at times that seemed to coincide with the Sun’s 11-year magnetic cycle.
Science & Discovery
From the Archives: Observing the Sun During Eclipses
It is rare for the track of a total eclipse to pass over sizable townships, and it is even more rare when it passes over a working observatory. Yet both of these circumstances came together February 16, 1980.
History & Culture
Column: Our Island Universe: Two Small Pieces of Glass Ushered in a Revolution in Science
In January 1610, Galileo Galilei made a series of observations that would forever change how humanity views the cosmos.
Education & Inspiration
Column: Education Matters: Standing in the Shadow of the Moon
We are familiar with many types of shadows, but two of the most rare and exciting relate to the Moon’s and Earth’s shadows.
Science & Discovery
Feature: Discovering the Dark Universe
Most of the universe is undetectable, and yet astronomers have learned an incredible amount about this invisible and mysterious part of the cosmos in the past five decades.
Art & Imagination
From the Archives: Approaching the Universe Through Art
In an attempt to explore the philosophical relationship between art and astronomy, artist Iris Reis talks with prominent California artists whose works echoes their cosmic concern.
Astro News
New Views from Old Images
In a new paper, planetary scientists used modern computational techniques to reprocess images of the largest Uranian moon, Titania. They were able to map several geologic surface features.
Science & Discovery
Feature: Searching Hubble’s Archive for Hidden Gems
Because of its data collection and archival system, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed how — and who — can do science.
Education & Inspiration
Column: A Little Learning: Radio Frequency Interference
How should you monitor cell phone use in the classroom?
Astro News
Satellites Streak Hubble Images
Astronomers found 2.7 percent of Hubble Space Telescope exposures captured between 2002 and 2021 have satellites streaking across their view.
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