Smithsonian Magazine

A SpaceX Rocket Part Just Slammed Into the Moon, Creating a Dust Plume and Crater. Here’s What Some Scientific Instruments Saw

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute captured before-and-after images of the impact site, and a telescope in Chile detected ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Amazing Archive of Animal Photography Reveals 18,000 Species and Counting. Here’s How Joel Sartore Built His ‘Photo Ark’

For 20 years, the National Geographic photographer has showcased Earth’s animals in a series of striking images that make ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A British Museum Is Searching for a Rare 1940s Housecoat From a Fashion Brand That Dressed the Queen—and, on Special Occasions, Ordinary Women Too

Patterned with a map of the British Isles, the housecoat was an early design by the pioneering brand Horrockses, which turned ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Butterflies Around the World Are Moving to New Habitats, Largely Because of Climate Change, a Study Suggests

Researchers examined data on 1,758 butterfly species—about ten percent of all those known—from 105 countries and estimated ...
Smithsonian Magazine

First a Volcanic Eruption, Now a Crustacean Invasion? See the Giant Lobsters Taking Over the Ancient City of Pompeii

A pop art installation featuring more than 30 sculptures from artist Philip Colbert is the first contemporary sculpture ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Marine-Life Mosaic Discovered Near the Colosseum Offers a Surprising Clue—Its Building May Have Housed Firefighters in Ancient Rome

At the time of the structure's construction in the second century C.E., firefighting in ancient Rome was a formalized ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Big Waves Meet Biodiversity: Why Surfing Paradises Could Offer a Key Opportunity for Marine Conservation

A recent mapping study examines places in northwestern Africa where coastal ecosystems overlap with surf breaks, highlighting ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Danube River Has Fallen to Record-Low Water Levels, Revealing Nazi Warships, Bombs and Woolly Mammoth Bones In Its Channel

Residents and researchers are finding historic and prehistoric relics of the past as Europe's second-longest river dries ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This High Schooler Invented a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades

Eighteen-year-old Arya Satheesh created her award-winning Eco Purge to help address the global problem of plastic pollution ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This World War II Submarine Noted for Sinking Enemy Ships Just Journeyed Across Lake Michigan for a Multimillion-Dollar Makeover

The USS 'Silversides' earned a dozen battle stars for its work patrolling the Pacific Ocean. The Gato-class sub is now the ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Traces of Two Extinct ‘Ghost’ Ancestors Were Found Hiding in Modern Human DNA, Hinting at Our Extremely Complex Family Tree

Researchers used a new method to investigate past interbreeding with Homo sapiens that doesn't require ancient DNA. The ...
Smithsonian Magazine

A New Study Points to Two Origins of Life on Earth by Tracing Early Chemical Reactions in Single-Celled Organisms

The work challenges the assumption that all life descended from one free-living cell. Instead, it suggests that two microbial ...