St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: January 3, 2022

Today in 1999, NASA's Mars Polar Lander launched. This mission was supposed to land near the Martian south pole, but communication was l ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: January 2, 2022

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower peaks tomorrow. Your best chance to see this meteor shower occurs from roughly 1 am to 6 am. This is when t ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: January 1, 2022

Today is the first day of the year. The reason we celebrate the start of the year on January 1, has to do with a choice made in ancient ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 30, 2021

The Earth takes 365.242189 days to orbit the Sun. This is called a tropical year. The modern Gregorian calendar accommodates the extra q ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 28, 2021

The brightest star we see at night is called Sirius. It is found in the constellation Canis Major which is rising in the southeast aroun ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 26, 2021

If you look southeast tomorrow morning at 6:30 am, you will find two bright orangish-red objects. One will twinkle and the other will no ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 24, 2021

Tonight you will find the constellation Orion visible in the southeast at 8 pm. The three stars that form his famous belt are Alnitak, A ...

St. Louis Science Center: The James Webb Space Telescope – Ready To Launch

Learn more about the telescope before the launch on December 25.

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 22, 2021

The planet Venus can be found in the southwest after sunset. Venus is approaching inferior conjunction on January 8, 2022. If you grab b ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 20, 2021

Tomorrow marks the first day of winter or what is called the winter solstice. This is when the Sun appears lowest in the sky. From St. L ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 18, 2021

Full moon occurs tonight at 10:35 pm. December's full moon is often called the Full Cold Moon. This will be the last full moon of the year.

St. Louis Native Stars in “Wellesley Girl”

Caroline Kidwell stars in “Wellesley Girl” at Chicago's Compass Theatre, running January 7 – February 5

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 16, 2021

Tonight the Moon will appear between the Pleiades and the Hyades star clusters. The Hyades looks like a V-shape and the Pleiades looks l ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 15, 2021

Today in 1923, physicist John Dyson was born. Dyson is best known for his speculative work on extraterrestrial civilizations. One of his ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 14, 2021

Tonight you will find the Summer Triangle low in the west at 7 pm. This summer asterism is seen most of the year, but summer is when we ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 13, 2021

Today in 1962, the communications satellite Relay 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Relay 1 was used to transmit tel ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 12, 2021

The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks tomorrow night into the morning of December 14. The Geminids are caused as debris from asteroid 3200 Pha ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 11, 2021

Today in 1939, analytical chemist John W. Macklin was born. Macklin refined the technique of Raman spectrometry to test very small sampl ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 9, 2021

Today in 1978, NASA's Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (PVM) entered the atmosphere of Venus. The PVM contained one large and three small atmosp ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 8, 2021

Looking southwest tonight around 5:30 pm, you will find the Moon between the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The Moon will be exhibiting a w ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 7, 2021

Today 1995, the Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter and entered orbit after 6 years of travel including a flyby of Venus and two aster ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 6, 2021

The closest star to the Earth is the Sun which on average is 93 million miles away. The closest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri. Thi ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 5, 2021

Today in 1935, the first large hydroponicum was established in Montebello, California. The word hydroponics was coined in the early 1930 ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 4, 2021

Today the Moon reached new moon around 2 am. When the Moon passed between Earth and the Sun today it was in syzygy. When three or more a ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 3, 2021

Today in 1910, neon lighting, developed by French physicist Georges Claude, made its public debut at the Paris Motor Show. The colored l ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: December 2, 2021

The Earth is on average roughly 93 million miles from the Sun. This is called an astronomical unit (AU). By comparison, Saturn is 9.5 AU ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 30, 2021

Tonight the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be found rising in the east at 8 pm. It is thought to be 16 to 19 times the mass o ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 29, 2021

Today in 1962, the British Aircraft Corporation and French airline company, Sud Aviation, agreed to jointly design and manufacture a 100 ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 28, 2021

Tonight at 8 pm, you will find the familiar sight of Orion the Hunter rising in the east. Seeing Orion this early is a good reminder tha ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 27, 2021

Today in 2005, the Japanese probe Hayabusa grazed the surface of the asteroid Itokawa, retrieving material to return to Earth for study. ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 26, 2021

Tonight the dwarf planet Ceres reaches opposition. This occurs every year as Ceres appears near the antisolar point in the sky. From our ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 25, 2021

Today in 1960, the first atomic reactor for research and development began operation at Richland, Washington. The plant was built to det ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 24, 2021

Tonight you can find the constellation Andromeda overhead at 7:30 pm. The cone shaped constellation is home to the galaxy named Messier ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 23, 2021

Today in 1948, the first US patent for a lens to provide zoom effects for television cameras was issued to F.G. Back. His Zoomar lens wa ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 22, 2021

Looking south and west tonight at 5:30 pm will reveal five bright objects. Three of them are the planets Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. The ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 21, 2021

Today in 1783, the first free flight carrying a human occurred in Paris, France in a hot air balloon made of paper and silk. The balloon ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 20, 2021

The Moon reaches apogee tonight when the Earth and Moon will be separated by 406,279 km. Over a period of 27.5 days, the Moon reaches it ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 19, 2021

Today in 1956, American astronaut Eileen Collins was born. Collins served as the first woman shuttle pilot on STS-63 (Feb 3-11, 1995) wh ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 18, 2021

A partial lunar eclipse will be visible tonight starting just after midnight. The eclipse begins 12:02 am and ends at 6:03 am on Novembe ...

St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 17, 2021

Tonight into early tomorrow morning, the annual Leonid Meteor Shower will peak. The Leonids are produced by dust grains left behind by c ...