Astronomy, the oldest of natural sciences, has changed often throughout history depending on general knowledge, geographical region and culture. The earliest practitioners of astronomy were early ...

From the mundane to the iconic, the physical to the symbolic, the striking presence of chairs in the history of science begs to be acknowledged and understood. By Omar W. Nasim / MIT Press Published ...

Karl Ludwig Harding discovered the asteroid Juno on September 1, 1804, using a 5-centimeter refracting telescope. Harding's discovery was part of a larger effort by the "Celestial Police" to locate a ...

William Pickering discovered Phoebe, a moon of Saturn, in March 1899, based on photographic plates from August 1898. Phoebe's discovery marked the first instance of a moon being discovered ...

SETI’s ‘Noah’s Ark’ – a space historian explores how the advent of radio astronomy led to the USSR’s search for ...

Looking into space can be pretty daunting. How do we make sense of the vast expanse above our heads, the millions of stars we might be able to see, and the billions more we can’t? This new series ...

Behind-the-scenes of the upcoming U.S. National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe gallery Samantha Thompson Modern astronomy began with the invention of the telescope just over 400 years ago ...

Few presidents have been as intelligent and eclectically versed as John Quincy Adams. One of his favorite endeavors was viewing celestial objects and events in space. While European countries ...

A new book published by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) tells the story of the founding and early years of the Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia. “But it was Fun: the first ...

Astronomy has a bright future. The universe is being revealed in exquisite detail with the current generation of large optical telescopes, reaching back close to the big bang. There’s hope that the ...