The Adler ‘Scope

“Chicago’s Black Women in STEAM” is a new series on The Adler ’Scope that highlights the awesome women of Chicago who are doing amazing things in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields here in our own community. Meet women of varying ages, backgrounds, and interests and learn their unique stories. Rayne Bozeman, PhDDoctor of […]

Who’s that guy sitting on a pedestal greeting you as you walk up to the Adler Planetarium? It’s one the most prominent astronomers in the history of modern science, Nicolaus Copernicus! In honor of his 545th birthday, let’s dive into the history behind this statue & this astronomer’s legacy. When you approach the Adler Planetarium […]

On Wednesday, February 13, 2019, NASA officially announced the “death” of Opportunity (2003-2018), a rover sent to Mars by NASA in 2003 for a 90-day mission that turned into a staggering fifteen years. Opportunity landed on Mars on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its companion rover, Spirit, touched down on the other side of […]

“Chicago’s Black Women in STEAM” is a new series on The Adler ’Scope that highlights the awesome women of Chicago who are doing amazing things in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields here in our own community. Meet women of varying ages, backgrounds, and interests and learn their unique stories. Katrina MillerUniversity of Chicago, […]

Header Image: A tour group going up into the Atwood Sphere at the 2019 Adler After Dark: A Night in the Afrofuture event. Update: This blog was revised in February 2024 to include information about Niyah and the Multiverse. What’s Afrofuturism? Great question! We asked leading Afrofuturism expert, Ytasha Womack, to fill us in! Womack […]

The Adler Planetarium was established in Chicago in 1930. That means that we have 89 years worth of collections objects that have made their way into our midst. From astrolabes to works on paper, these objects are wrapped in inspiring stories, mysterious histories, and have fascinating origins. In the summer of 2018, the Adler Planetarium […]

“Chicago’s Black Women in STEAM” is a new series on The Adler ’Scope that highlights the awesome women of Chicago who are doing amazing things in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields here in our own community. Meet women of varying ages, backgrounds, and interests and learn their unique stories. Ashley L. Walker Chicago […]

The Adler Planetarium opened to the public on May 12, 1930, forming a triumvirate of museums with the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium in what is nowadays known as Chicago Museum Campus, a beautiful park by Lake Michigan. In 1932 the Adler’s first director, Philip Fox, wrote: “the three [museums] are fittingly closely associated […]

Thanks to a unique partnership between the Adler and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, 1.7 million people around the world are participating in frontier research, digitizing vast archives of historical documents, and even helping route supplies to hurricane survivors. Zooniverse was born more than a decade ago from a desire to make […]

Growing up in Cicero—a Chicago suburb that shares a border with the city’s Lawndale neighborhood—Theresa Melo never really thought about going to college. Now, she’s a senior at Agnes Scott College, just outside Atlanta, using radio waves to see through the murky parts of our galaxy. Of course, this change of heart didn’t happen overnight. […]