Smithsonian Magazine

The new observatory will complete three surveys of the universe in five years, although it’s designed to function at least twice as long. Its data could change scientists’ basic understanding of the cosmos Are we alone in the universe? How will the cosmos change over time—and meet its eventual end? NASA has just launched a massive observatory to help answer these questions and more in the coming years.

23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Travel Rainbow Over the Colosseum A rainbow arched over the Colosseum just after a passing shower, bringing unexpected color to one of Rome’s most historic landmarks. Locals and tourists paused along the street as the light shifted, and the moment felt like a brief mix of ancient history and everyday life in the city.

23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Wildlife Little Forest Spirit A northern pygmy owl perches on a branch, a small piece of moss dangling below her. No bigger than a deck of cards, these miniature owls are highly efficient predators, hunting prey 2-3x their size. Photo Detail Date Taken: 02.2024 Date Uploaded: 12.2025 Photo Location: Wyoming, United States of America Camera: Canon EOS R5 Copyright: © Chrissy Shammas Awards Photo of the Day: 08.29.26

Best known for its Paleolithic art, Valencia’s Cova de les Dones also contains a Roman sanctuary where researchers say women appear to have played an active role in the worship of a female deity Spain’s Cova de les Dones has surprised archaeologists time and again, revealing traces of human activity spanning thousands of years. In the 1960s, archaeologists identified Iron Age materials at the site, leading to its classification as an Iberian cave sanctuary.

An intense global warming event 56 million years ago caused a forest in modern-day Wyoming to lose around 60 percent of its canopy cover, and it took more than 100,000 years to bounce back, a study suggests About 56 million years ago, Earth experienced one of its most intense periods of global warming, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM.

Researchers say that past exposure to sulfur dioxide is likely to blame for the increased porosity of the Murujuga rock art created by the Ngarda-Ngarli people tens of thousands of years ago Industrial pollution has taken a greater toll on ancient rock art in the state of Western Australia than previously thought, but researchers say the damage likely occurred in the past. Current activity does not appear to be accelerating its deterioration.

As habitat fragmentation threatens Virginia’s wildlife, two retired neighbors are turning their farms into biodiversity havens backed by Smithsonian science. John Rice starts his morning early, trading an empty cup of coffee for a water bottle. It’s a summer day in rural Virginia, set to reach a high of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not the heat, but the humidity that’ll get you. Up the road, just as the pavement gives way to dirt, an old farmhouse sits on the edge of the dirt road.

The speedster travels at up to 56 million miles per hour, or about 8 percent the speed of light. It also gets very close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way At the center of our Milky Way galaxy, some 27,000 light-years from Earth, sits a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. Astronomers have long suspected that it’s spinning, but they’ve never been able to confirm it.

When “Torero” vanished from a Milwaukee art gallery in 2018, the owners didn’t know whether they’d ever see it again. The man who found the etching turned it over to the police earlier this month After his tenant moved out, Timothy Dertz noticed a curious artwork on the wall of his Milwaukee apartment. It was a print of a bullfighter, and a thick layer of dust had collected on the top of the frame. “It was in a back bedroom behind a door,” Dertz tells WISN-TV’s Stephen Cohn.

September 5–7, artists from the Circus Arts Conservatory bring the artistry, education, and labor of this uniquely American art form to the national museum. A common idiom in American English casts the circus in an unfavorable light: “It’s a circus over there!” tends to mean something messy and chaotic. Yet if you look at the inner workings of an actual circus, the level of skill, coordination, and execution necessary for such a production is immeasurable.