Mental Floss

SPACE

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NASA was officially established in October 1958. Just two years later, the agency started what would become one of the defining programs of the 20th century—Apollo, which put humans on the moon in 1969.

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Some insects act differently during an eclipse. Bees are one of them.

Noam Galai, Getty Images

America's preeminent badass astrophysicist turns 60 years old today.

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It's a question scientists have been asking for more than 400 years.

Galileo Before The Papal Tribunal by Robert Henry. Hulton Archive, Getty Images

The letter may solve a centuries-long mystery.

Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images

Joe Barnard is the Elon Musk of model rockets.

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In the 1980s and well into the 1990s, everything associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger was big. Big biceps (22 inches during his bodybuilding heyday).

NASA's Perserverance rover takes a photo of Mars.

Few celestial objects have fascinated humankind throughout history more than the Red Planet. Here's what you need to know about Mars.

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The hapless dwarf planet got demoted in 2006, but some stubborn scientists are still lobbying for reinstatement.

ESA/Hubble, NASA, A. Simon (GSFC) and the OPAL Team, J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Lamy (Observatoire de Paris)

The phenomenon is not limited to our planet.

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Plastic is surprisingly hard to preserve.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The spacecraft will use a robotic arm to scoop up a sample of Bennu and then return it to Earth.

NASA

Huge news for future Moon explorers.

Earth as captured from near the lunar horizon by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2015.

Let's review why and how we've known for at least 2300 years that the Earth is round.

Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11

Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969, on its way to the moon.

Public Domain, Flickr

One technological breakthrough left the common pencil in the dust.

satellite

Not everyone agrees.

NASA

At the heart of this nebula lies a star that's larger and brighter than our Sun.

NASA, JPL-Caltech

The planet's putrid atmosphere is a clue to where it first formed.

NASA, YouTube

You can even see equipment left by Apollo 17 astronauts.