In the past, UFO programs have been more science fiction and less hard science. Now with better telescopes, brighter computers, and advances in theoretical physics, we can tackle the most profound questions in astronomy and perhaps in all of human history: Are UFOs real? and Are we really alone? Some theories we debunk. Aliens with […]
As we prepared to suspend our newest celestial installation Mars by Luke Jerram in the Glassell Hall, summer interns in the museum’s astronomy department set up a Martian Farm. With the farm, interns are conducting experiments to determine how different plants react to Mars soil compared with Earth soil. They planted different types of plants […]
The full moon of November 14, 2016 will be the closest Supermoon to Earth since January 26,1948. The full moon won’t come this close again until November 25, 2034. Thus the November 2016 full moon is the closest and largest Supermoon in a period of 86 years! The moon turns precisely full at 7:52 […]
In July of 1964, the Houston Museum of Natural Science opened its new museum in Hermann Park with modest exhibit space and the Burke Baker Planetarium. A state-of-the-art Spitz Space Transit Planetarium dominated the theater’s center with its flat floor and a few slide projectors. Two star balls connected by cages, swinging in a yoke, […]
I hope you saw the eclipse last night and didn’t lose too much sleep. The weather was perfect and the Moon performed as predicted. The press excitedly dubbed it a ‘blood Moon,’ but we didn’t know what color the Moon would actually be. Here’s the Moon entering eclipse and fully in the Earth’s shadow (taken […]
A total eclipse of the Moon will occur very early Tuesday morning, April 15. Houstonians will be able to see the whole event, which begins just before 1 a.m. You’ll be able to see the evening’s cosmic events unfold even under city lights, but if you’d like a more detailed (and dare I say captivating) […]
When you look up at the night sky, do you ever think you’re seeing other solar systems? Do you ever wonder if any of the stars you see have planets like Earth in orbit around them? We have discovered that seven planets and more than a hundred moons in our solar system are simply not […]
X-Planets: Discovering Other Earths — a full-dome show now playing in the Burke Baker Planetarium — introduces viewers to the most famous of the newly discovered exoplanets. The show first zooms the exoplanet’s star out of the star field before taking a closer look at the alien world, followed by an artist’s conception of how […]
As of this instant, we’ve found more than 800 planets orbiting other stars. We’ve also identified life forms on Earth that might survive on these alien worlds. Our discovery of life in Earth’s extreme environments has broadened our definition of the habitable zone where life might exist on a planet orbiting a distant star. Our […]
