The Adler ‘Scope
Making Stellar Connections With Students and Teachers, One Field Trip At A Time
Header Image: Kids looking through a telescope outside at the Adler Planetarium. Author: Emilse Alvarado, Virtual Field Trips Educator and Sarah Smail Picture this: It’s a crisp Tuesday morning. Your class is happily singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ as you pull up to the Adler. You walk into the group entrance and you hear […]
Astronomy and Space Facts From A to Z
Header Image: The outside of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, IL at sunset in the fall. When you were a kid, you probably learned your ABC’s using stuff like, “A is for…apple” or “B is for…bee” or “C is for…cat” to represent each letter. While those options are all fine and good and cute, what if […]
Why The Adler Planetarium Will Only Ever Use The Initials JWST When Referencing The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Created
Header Image: The JWST is being lifted into a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center before it was launched in December 2021. Image Credit: NASA/Desiree Stover In July 2022, the first images from the JWST captivated people all over the world, including here at the Adler Planetarium. This massive, collaborative effort to explore […]
Behind-The-Scenes of NASA’s Roving with Perseverance Exhibit Installation at the Adler Planetarium
Image Header: NASA’s Roving with Perseverance traveling exhibit in the Adler Planetarium’s Our Solar System exhibit. If you work at the Adler Planetarium, you’ll be part of some pretty interesting things. But it’s not every day that you get to be part of a new exhibit installation, especially one from NASA! There is so much […]
JWST: The Most Powerful Infrared Space Telescope Humans Have Ever Created
Header Image: The Cosmic Cliffs in NGC 3324, also known as the Carina Nebula. This image was taken by the JWST and shows cosmic dust and gas a part of the nebula, but also previously obscured star nurseries and stars that we can now see with the space telescope’s infrared light. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, […]
NASA Research You Can Contribute To Right Now
Header Image: Person sitting at a desk with their laptop on Adler Zooniverse website homepage. 2022. As kids, some of us would look up at the Moon and hope one day we could step foot on it. Maybe you dreamed of blasting off into space on a rocketship as a NASA astronaut or becoming a […]
Aquarius Project Update: The Lab Results Are In
Header Image: Adler Teens venture onto Lake Michigan in 2019 looking for fragments of a meteorite! Listen. It’s been five years since a meteor crashed into Lake Michigan and a team of Adler teens, scientists, and other determined meteorite hunters decided to go after it. The odds were stacked against them at basically every turn. […]
A Passion for Scientific Instruments: Remembering Marjorie K. Webster
Header Image: Madge Webster in her element, surrounded by historical scientific instruments, and holding an astrolabe while wearing another one in a necklace (Adler archives). While to many the name “Webster” will evoke a famous dictionary, in the Adler family it resonates with collections, history of astronomy, a passion for scientific instruments, and generous support […]
Why Do All Aliens In Star Wars Have Faces?
Header Image: Three Tusken Raider cosplayers sitting on the steps outside the Adler Planetarium for the 2014 Adler After Dark: Geek Chic event. As we were preparing to celebrate Star Wars Day, Adler Astronomer Dr. Geza Gyuk raised a very interesting scientific question about the Star Wars universe: Why do all the aliens in Star Wars […]
What Is Home To You?
Header Image: The famous Earthrise photo from the Apollo 8 mission. Image Credit: NASA Ah, planet Earth—the spinning space rock we fondly call home! Our perception of home can change depending on our situation. For someone who moves a lot, home may be an object or a person. It could be a memory from their […]
