Mental Floss

NASA

NASA/Liaison/Hulton Archives, Getty Images

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon—and Buzz Aldrin became the first one to pee on it.

Vershinin-M, iStock/Getty Images Plus

A small island volcano that has been dormant since 1924 erupted this week. Astronauts photographed it from the International Space Station.

LEGO

The LEGO Creator Expert Apollo 11 Lunar Lander module set recreates many of the details of the original spacecraft in 1087 interlocking pieces.

Sally Ride

Sally Ride—the first American woman in space—paved the way for female astronauts, and proved there is such thing as a stupid question.

Phil Plait, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0

Neil Armstrong's iconic suit was pulled from the museum floor out of fear of deterioration, but after a conservation project, it's ready to go back on display.

TASCHEN

This July will mark the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. TASCHEN's book contains rare photos from NASA, magazine archives, and private collections.

NASA, Getty Images

Astronaut Scott Kelly used cotton swabs to take samples of his fecal matter. He then sealed it in tubes and sent it back to Earth via rocket.

NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann at an event in August 2018

The human-led mission isn't expected to happen until at least 2030, but when it does, a woman will likely be the first person to set foot on the Red Planet.

NASA

In 2004, the rover Opportunity landed on Mars. Originally intended to serve a mere 90-day mission, the rover instead beamed back scientific discoveries for more than a decade—and now its groundbreaking mission is over.

iStock.com/1971yes

Few space stations want a body stinking up the place. Fortunately, there's always the garbage room.

NASA, Getty Images

NASA technologies have dozens of applications outside of space exploration.

Noam Galai, Getty Images

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

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.

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.

From left: Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, Gus Grissom, Christopher Craft of the Mercury Operations Division, Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, and Alan Shepard.

Would you have been qualified to be an astronaut back in 1958?

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

From a 17-mile-long particle accelerator to a football field–sized space observatory, these machines are marvels.

NASA

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

NASA, YouTube

You can even see equipment left by Apollo 17 astronauts.

iStock

Warm temperatures mean that national parks are seeing plants emerge from winter earlier.

Nicholas Rougeux

Yes, they talked about sandwiches.