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"Mapping the Heavens: Art, Astronomy and Exchange Between the Islamic Lands and Europe" features paintings from the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, rare books from the Linda Hall Library and other sources to tell the story of how scientists across time, place and religion expanded early knowledge of astronomy.

We’ve dug into a lot of fascinating topics this past year on Seeking a Scientist, but they’re all so complicated! That means there are a lot of lingering questions that we haven’t had a chance to tackle yet. As we close out 2024, we’re celebrating our favorite science stories of the year and answering the weirdest, wackiest, and most surprising science questions you all submitted — including space trash, immortal jellyfish, and why cats like to sit on puzzles.

Friday's Beaver Moon — which appears larger and brighter than a regular full moon due to its proximity to Earth — is projected to rise at 4:43 p.m. CT in the Kansas City area, with mostly clear skies projected. The next one will not be visible for nearly a year.

"Life Beyond Earth?", which runs through June 2025 at the Linda Hall Library, documents the scientific search for extraterrestrial life and features talks with experts in the field.

This month's harvest moon will not only coincide with a supermoon, but also with a blood moon and partial lunar eclipse. For viewers in Missouri and Kansas, the eclipse will peak at 9:44 p.m. CT, according to NASA.

The blue supermoon is scheduled to rise above Kansas City, Missouri, around 8:28 p.m. Monday evening. The next blue supermoon will not happen until 2032.

An out-of-this-world discovery led by University of Kansas grad student Alex Polanski found 15 new exoplanets and determined the mass of more than 100 others, in what is the largest one-time survey of exoplanets to date. The survey of planets contextualizes how common Earth's solar system is — which turns out, is not as common as once thought.

Kansas City native Edward J. Dwight Jr. is set to be on the next Blue Origin rocket into space. The rare opportunity comes more than six decades after he was passed over to become a NASA astronaut.

Asteroids heading straight for planet Earth aren’t just a scenario out of a Hollywood thriller. Luckily, scientists around the world have long been preparing for such an “Armageddon” scenario.Kate The Chemist speaks with Nancy Chabot, one of the leaders behind NASA’s planetary defense missions, about destroying asteroids in space before they reach our atmosphere.

Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from St. Louis to Houston took turns craning their necks for a midair view of the total solar eclipse.

Total solar eclipses occur every year or two, but it is exceedingly rare for the paths of two of them to intersect only a handful of years apart, as it has in a swath of southern Missouri and Illinois.

The April 8 solar eclipse sweeping across the U.S. hit 89% coverage at its peak in Kansas City, just before 2 p.m. Cities along the path of totality saw a boom in tourism from out-of-towners trying to catch the last North American solar eclipse until 2044, but residents around the metro found ways to watch closer to home, too.