Emporia State STEM Outreach

05/14/2026

🚨Attention!🚨Here's an engaging, hands-on experience where campers will dive into robotics, coding, engineering design and science experiments while strengthening essential math skills through fun and real-world applications. Limited to 15 students. Deadline to register is July 7. Register at emporia.edu/stemoutreach.

05/05/2026

🚨 May Program Update 🚨

Please note that the Peterson Planetarium will not be offering public planetarium shows during the month of May. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We look forward to welcoming everyone this summer. Please stay tuned for updates and upcoming programs! emporia.edu/planetarium

04/19/2026

🌙When the sun set this evening, Peterson Planetarium Director, Mark Brown, stepped outside and looked west. There, he spied the 4% crescent Moon in conjunction with Venus. An astronomical conjunction occurs when two celestial bodies, such as planets, the Moon, or stars, appear very close together in the night sky as seen from Earth. Also visible is Earthshine - the faint, ashen glow illuminating the dark portion of the Moon when it is in a crescent phase. This is caused by sunlight reflecting off Earth’s clouds and surface and back onto the Moon. Venus-Moon conjunctions framed by twilight blue and/or some other foreground object are out of this world.🌙📷🔭

04/10/2026

🚀🌕Orion and the NASA Artemis II crew are coming home! The spacecraft is scheduled to splash down this evening (Friday, April 10) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California. The return trajectory correction burns have taken place so to fine-tune the Orion spacecraft on its path back towards Earth. Earth is growing larger from the crew's perspective. Splashdown is expected at approximately 7:07 p.m. CDT. The crewed capsule will complete its mission with a parachute assisted landing after re-entering the atmosphere at nearly 24,000 mph.

You can watch live coverage of the Artemis II mission on NASA's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs

Most of the major television networks will begin landing coverage approximately 30 minutes prior to splashdown. 🚀🌕

04/09/2026

The NASA Artemis display at the Peterson Planetarium on the Emporia State University campus has been updated to reflect some memorabilia from the 1968 mission to the Moon. Come and check it out!

04/08/2026

🌟It's contact day! 🌟

Join our live-stream coverage at 830am CDT as we prepare to connect our Lyon County students with Sophie Adenot on the International Space Station. We expect to make contact at 910am. emporia.edu/ariss

You can also attend in person at the WAW Library on the Emporia State University campus, Radius Brewing on 4th and Merchant St., or at the Lyon County History Center on Commercial St.
ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

04/07/2026

04/07/2026

How do we track the International Space Station? Ask this guy... 🤷‍♂️ ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

04/07/2026

Reminder! We are very excited for our ARISS - Amateur Radio on the International Space Station contact with ESA - European Space Agency Astronaut Sophie Adenot on Wednesday, April 8, at 9:10 am CDT! Our live-stream event with informational slides and opening remarks will begin at approximately 8:30 am CDT. You can watch our stream live at emporia.edu/ariss or on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/live/URawvy7_VfM?feature=share
The public is invited to watch online or at a partner venue including:

William Allen White Library, located on the Emporia State University campus, featuring a display of space and communication books for all ages.

Radius Brewing Company, 17 W. Fourth Ave., featuring a virtual reality space station and a VR spacewalk experience.

Lyon County History Center, 711 Commercial St., featuring child-friendly information and activities in the children's area on the contact day and throughout April.

All venues open for guests at 8:30 a.m., with the livestream concluding at approximately 9:30 a.m. International Space Station