tutorial

Humans aren’t designed to live in space, but that hasn’t stopped us. All we had to do was figure out what was needed to survive. A little oxygen, some protection from radiation, and suddenly we’re floating above Earth as if we had always been meant to do that. All this was made possible with...

Every point of light you see in the sky is an entire world sending out energy in the form of light. Your ability to perceive this light even across such vast distances says a lot about not just the nature of light, but how powerful the sources of that light really are. Here’s what it takes for...

Space shuttle technology marked a great leap forward in human innovation and space travel. Not only could we send humans off into space, we could bring them back safely and with a relatively smooth reentry. Soyuz capsules provide a far different experience, often described like a series of car...

Have you ever looked at Saturn through a telescope? The moment you see the rings, the actual rings of Saturn, is life changing. Knowing they’re there and seeing them for yourself are two very different things. This sight will undoubtedly raise the question of how: how did those rings form? What...

What would any of us do without the Internet? You wouldn’t be reading this right now if not for the Internet. There wouldn’t be any cat videos, or Youtube to watch them on. Our interconnected world wouldn’t be so interconnected. Yes, we love our Internet...but how does it work? There are many...

In 1985, the world was shocked to learn that human activities had depleted an area of the ozone layer so much, we began calling it the Ozone Hole. More than 30 years later, we’re still monitoring it to ensure it recovers and that the safety measures and restrictions put in place continue to...

Earth experiences some wild weather. We have hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, blizzards, and a range of other crazy phenomena. Much of this is due to our atmosphere and weather systems. Mars has a very thin atmosphere, so what kind of weather does it experience? Are there any storms? Let’s find...

Look at Mars in the night sky, and you’ll see a distinctive red glow. Through a telescope, it’s even more clear. And when both rovers and probes send back images of an alien red surface, we know for certain: Mars, for whatever reason, is red. So what’s behind this unique coloration? 1. Mars...

Humans once had a dream to send objects into space. Then we wanted to land on the moon. Next we wanted to explore the solar system. We’ve hit milestone after milestone, and with each mission we learn the necessary skills to move on to the next. Now, our dream is even more ambitious. Now, we want...

The red planet is an iconic feature in our lives today. The beautiful images of its surface sent back by probes and rovers inspire our imagination. It’s such an alien world and presents a striking image. Through research, observation, and rover missions, we’ve worked out what the surface is made...

If you’ve ever been somewhere like Death Valley, California or perhaps India, you know what hot is. The fry an egg on the sidewalk kind of hot that makes you wonder why we don’t all live in the tropics where it’s reasonable. Sure, we can experience extreme temperatures on Earth. The hottest...

You can thank the Earth’s atmosphere for quite a lot. Your ability to live and breathe, protection from UV rays, and our cozy climate are just a few things it gives us. So, what perfect mixture of gases do we owe all of this to? 1. The main four. The atmosphere consists of four main gases...

Some accomplishments of human history are so incredible, we begin to take them for granted once we become accustomed to them. The International Space Station, an idea early scientists would barely have been able to dream of, is one such accomplishment. We’re going to take some time to answer the...

Don’t worry, this isn’t some new fashion trend set to take over the youth of today. The asteroid belt is a very real and very interesting portion of our solar system. Now, you might be picturing an asteroid field densely packed together like in sci-fi movies, but that’s not quite how it shakes...

Sound is an integral part of our lives. It tells us when the kids have gotten into places they shouldn’t it alerts us that someone wants our attention, and it soothes us in the form of melody when we want to relax. Sound is everywhere on Earth - but what about away from Earth? In the vacuum of...

We’ve been sending probes to Mars for quite some time now, and each time we do it there’s tremendous news coverage, the general public gets excited, and then...it dies down. Why is that? Well, for one reason, it’s not exactly a hop, skip, and jump to get there. Launching is step 1. Navigation is...

What kid, at some point, hasn’t wanted to become an astronaut? It’s just real enough that we can dream, yet enough of a rarity that as we grow up we allow it to fade into the background behind more “practical” jobs. If you haven’t let go of the dream, though, and you want to know just how...

Out in the cosmos, there are stars of all colors and sizes. There are red, brown, and white dwarfs, the babies of the bunch. Then you have red giants and blue giants, and even supergiants. But did you know that some of these stars can be broken down further depending on where they are in their...

Einstein’s theory of general relativity showed us that time isn’t as straightforward as we once thought. Time can be experienced differently depending on the observer due to the constancy of the speed of light. Now, down here on Earth, we tend not to think about variations in time because...

We’re fairly familiar with typical galaxy shapes. We live in a spiral galaxy, the same type as our nearest neighbor Andromeda. There are also elliptical galaxies, barred spiral galaxies, and irregular galaxies. But did you know that, outside of the typical classifications, there is another type...