Smithsonian Magazine

NASA Report Reveals the Failures That Left Two Astronauts ‘Stranded’ on the International Space Station

As such, Starliner’s homecoming that September was in autonomous mode and the astronauts remained on the ISS. It wasn’t until ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Vincent van Gogh Adored the Color Yellow. A New Exhibition in Amsterdam Wants You to Fall In Love With the Hue, Too

“Exhibition Yellow: Beyond van Gogh’s Color,” on view now through mid-May, begins with a stunner: Sunflowers (1889). This ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Mark Your Calendar: March Happenings at the National Museum of American History

MALL ENTRANCE CLOSURE: Note: The museum’s Mall Entrance at Madison Drive, between 12th and 14th Streets, will remain closed ...
Smithsonian Magazine

The Sahara Desert Hasn’t Always Been a Dry, Desolate Landscape. Some Scientists See Signs It May Be Greening Again

Petroglyphs on sandstone at a national park in Chad bear witness to wildlife that once roamed the area before the continent’s ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Eating Challenges Are All the Rage. But When Was the Last Time You Saw Someone Eat a Mutton Shoulder Bone?

Even before the internet, overindulgence was something of a spectator sport for those who reveled in gastronomic glory ...
Smithsonian Magazine

You Can Buy One of History’s Rarest Baseball Cards—if You Have Several Million Dollars to Spare

The newly graded T206 Honus Wagner card has been in the same family for 116 years. It wasn't on experts' radar until last ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Giant Carnivore Ran on Hooves. Scientists Are Investigating Its Massive Skull and Crushing Teeth to Decipher the Beast’s True Nature

For more than a century, paleontologists have been piecing together how the mysterious predator Andrewsarchus is related to ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How Do Researchers Identify Individual Bears in the Wild? They Could Soon Do It Through A.I. Facial Recognition Technology

Such tools could help scientists track population sizes or recognize aggressive animals that have attacked humans ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Investigators Unravel $12 Million Ticket Fraud Scheme at the Louvre

Police have arrested nine individuals in connection with the crime, though they have not revealed their identities ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Scientists Still Have So Much to Learn About Archaeopteryx, the Dinosaur That May Have Flown Like a Bird

A new study suggests features in the prehistoric creature's mouth helped it eat more efficiently, giving the species the energy needed to go airborne ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Researchers Retrieve the Deepest-Ever Rock Core From Beneath Antarctica’s Ice. It Holds Clues About the Earth’s Past—and Future

The 748-foot-long sediment core contains a record of roughly the past 23 million years, including periods when the planet's surface temperature was hotter than it is today ...
Smithsonian Magazine

This Massive, Meat-Eating Dinosaur Was a ‘Hell Heron’ That Waded Into Shallow Waters to Nab Slippery Fish

Paleontologists unearthed a new species of Spinosaurus in the Sahara Desert in Niger, a discovery that adds to the debate over whether the prehistoric creatures were fully or semi-aquatic ...