Space
Euclid spots a new comet
A galaxy-mapping telescope found a moving visitor close to home.
THE JOURNAL
Space
Eclipses, the Moon and space weather, explained through geometry, motion and evidence.
All topicsMind & BehaviourSpaceEarth & OceansPhysics & Everyday ScienceTechnology & EngineeringLife & NatureMedicine & the BodyHistory & Discovery
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The Periodic Landscape
Explore all 118 elements, rotate a 3D atom, look inside its nucleus and discover protons, neutrons and quarks. Start with the familiar table, then look closer one level at a time.
Explore the periodic tableFree to explore. Includes guided discoveries, comparison and a 2D alternative.
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Space
How starlight reveals what a star is made of
The dark lines in a star’s rainbow identify atoms. Working out how much of each element is there requires another clue: what heat has done to their electrons.
Space
Why pulsars seem to blink
A pulsar does not simply switch on and off. Its rotation sweeps a directional pattern of radiation past Earth, turning geometry into a remarkably regular pulse.
Space & Physics
How sunlight can push a spacecraft
Light carries momentum as well as energy. A large, lightweight mirror can turn that invisible delivery into a small push that keeps changing a spacecraft's motion.
Space & Physics
How separated radio dishes act like one giant telescope
Distant antennas do not stitch photographs together. They compare carefully timed wave signals, using the spaces between dishes to measure finer detail.
Space & Physics
Why astronauts float while gravity still pulls them down
The space station has not escaped Earth’s gravity. It stays aloft because gravity bends a fast sideways journey into a continuous fall around the planet.
Space
How four clocks turn time into a place
A GPS satellite does not watch your phone. It broadcasts a time, a position and a problem that your least trustworthy clock helps solve.
Space
Why the Moon is slowly moving away
The Moon is not simply escaping. Ocean tides take a little spin from Earth and pass angular momentum into the lunar orbit, while laser echoes reveal the change centimetre by centimetre.
Space
How auroras light Earth's upper atmosphere
A magnetic world, energetic electrons and a competition between light and collisions turn invisible space weather into curtains of colour.
Space
Why some eclipses leave a ring of fire
A nearly perfect alignment can still leave sunlight around the Moon. The deciding detail is not the Moon’s true size, but how large it appears from Earth.
Space
Why eclipses do not happen every month
New and full moons happen with clocklike regularity. Eclipses need one more coincidence: the Moon must also be crossing the plane of Earth’s orbit.
Space
How we learned to predict eclipses
Predicting a darkened Sun is one problem. Saying exactly where its shadow will fall requires a clock, a moving planet and even the mountains on the Moon.
Space
Why the eclipsed Moon can turn red
Earth blocks the Sun, yet a little sunlight finds a curved, colourful route through our atmosphere.
Space
How the Moon can hide the Sun
A small world can conceal a star when distance supplies the right perspective. The brief darkness can reveal what daylight hides.