Astronomers worldwide got a special Christmas gift this past year with the liftoff of the James Webb Space Telescope. It has just arrived (as of January 24) at its destination. By summer, it will begin 10 years (or more) of probing the deepest regions of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration […]
Mars continues to fade a little bit each night now that Earth has overtaken it and is pulling away. However, it fades out gradually; Mars remains almost as bright as the stars around it in April 2021. And Mars is high in the west–well placed for observing right as night falls. Jupiter and Saturn are the morning […]
Lecture – Cultivating the Next Generation of Female Space Pioneers by Carolyn Sumners Women have played a vital role in the U.S. space program since its inception in the 1940’s. While women were once considered unfit for space travel, the most recent NASA class is 50 percent female. As we begin celebrating the 50th […]
This fall, in collaboration with Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Studies is offering Women in Space, a course (open to the general public) highlighting women who have played pivotal roles in the U.S. space program as astronauts, engineers, flight controllers, researchers and mentors for the next generation of space […]
HMNS is home to 11 permanent exhibit halls that house many wonderful and rare things. Even if you’ve visited our museum several times, we can guarantee you’ll always find something new to see! Next time you stop by HMNS, see if you can spot these five extremely rare items that are on display. Moon Rock Just […]
It only takes a few seconds of a stellar light show in this newly-renovated facility to recognize why the Houston Museum of Natural Science is calling the Burke Baker Planetarium “the best and brightest in the world.” The clarity, the detail, the movement, the science, the imagery, all come together to create one of the […]
Pluto has a heart. A big, icy heart surrounded by a sea of red. It was more of a fluke of photographic composition, a perfect angle for the shot that astronomers and engineers waited for more than nine years to receive, but nonetheless the image has served to anthropomorphize the dwarf planet enough to make […]
Editor’s Note: This post is the fourth in a series featuring influential women from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields in the lead up to HMNS’ annual GEMS (Girls Exploring Math and Science) event, February 21, 2015. Click here to get involved! We’ve seen some amazing women in STEM, but none are quite so out […]
In the history of mankind, there have been three major migrations: two of these happened a long time ago, and one (of the “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” type) happened in our own lifetime. About 1.8 million years ago, hominids we call Homo erectus ventured outside Africa, wandering into Europe […]
ATTENTION FUTURE SPACE EXPLORERS: NASA has just discovered 715 new planets for you to study and learn. But let’s back up a second. Launched in 2009, the Kepler space observatory has been scanning the heavens for earth-like exoplanets — planets existing outside our solar system. The observatory has been able to detect strong possibilities of […]
