How Does a Spacecraft Navigate to Another Planet?
A spacecraft travelling to another planet is not aimed at a stationary target. Earth and the destination are both moving around the Sun, while the spacecraft follows its own path…
Browse Curiosmos
Cosmos
This category presents the reader with astronomical events that can be seen each week, and month.
Avi Loeb Proposes a Galileo Observatory at Carl Sagan’s Former Home
Avi Loeb has proposed a Galileo Observatory at Carl Sagan’s former Ithaca home, linking public astronomy with a transparent search for UAP evidence.
How Do We Know Earth Has a Core If No One Has Seen It?
No drill has come close to Earth’s centre. The deepest boreholes reach only a few kilometres, while the core begins roughly 2,900 kilometres below the surface. Our knowledge of the…
Why Is Venus So Hot? The Runaway Greenhouse Effect Explained
Why is Venus the hottest planet when Mercury is closer to the Sun? The answer is not distance alone but an atmosphere that traps heat so efficiently that the surface…
Perseverance Found the Mineral Behind Rubies in Strange Rocks on Mars
The rover did not find gemstones scattered across Mars. It detected tiny grains of corundum—the mineral that forms rubies and sapphires—inside pale, silica-rich rocks whose chemistry is difficult to explain.
Before the First Humans Land on Mars, Robots Will Have to Build Their First Outpost
Before astronauts land on Mars, autonomous robots may need to scout sites, prepare power, move soil and test life-support systems. Here is how a robot-first outpost could work.
Meteor, Meteoroid or Meteorite? The Difference Explained
What is the difference between a meteor, meteoroid and meteorite? They are three stages of one possible journey: a meteoroid travels through space, a meteor is the bright trail made…
The First Moon Base Will Be Built by Cargo Missions Before Astronauts Arrive
The first permanent foothold on the Moon will not begin with a crew stepping out of a lander and planting a flag beside a finished habitat. It will begin with…
Mars Has Auroras Like Earth—But NASA Found Them on a Much Smaller Scale
Mars can glow in ultraviolet light when energetic particles strike its upper atmosphere. The planet does not have Earth’s global magnetic field, so scientists have had to work out how…
NASA Photographed the New Crater a Falcon 9 Stage Blasted Into the Moon
Six days after a discarded Falcon 9 stage hit the Moon, NASA steered the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter toward the predicted impact site. Its images reveal an 18-metre crater, fresh material thrown from below the surface, and a remarkably accurate impact forecast.
Why Does Saturn Have Rings? What the Icy System Is Made Of
Saturn’s rings look like a solid disk from Earth, but they are closer to a vast, flat swarm of orbiting particles. Most of the material is water ice mixed with…
Curiosity Finds a Vast Honeycomb Landscape on Mars
Curiosity has photographed a broad field of polygonal fractures in a Martian valley, giving scientists another look at the water, sediment, and temperature changes that shaped the planet’s past.
What Happens When a Star Runs Out of Fuel?
A star does not switch off the instant its fuel runs low. The change begins in the core, where nuclear reactions have supported the star against gravity for most of…
NASA Is Extending GPS-Style Navigation to the Moon With a Tiny Receiver
Spacecraft near the Moon cannot simply open a map app and ask where they are. For decades, missions have relied on ground stations to measure their position, calculate a trajectory…
How Do Astronomers Find Exoplanets When They Cannot See Most of Them?
Planets are far dimmer than the stars they orbit, so taking a normal photograph of an Earth-sized world next to a Sun-like star is extraordinarily difficult. Astronomers usually find exoplanets…
Webb May Have Found the Family Tree of the Little Red Dots
What happens to Webb’s mysterious little red dots as the universe ages? The Saguaro galaxy’s red nucleus offers a way to explore their hidden surroundings.
Why Does the Moon Have Almost No Atmosphere?
The Moon does have an atmosphere, but calling it air would be misleading. Its outer envelope is an exosphere: a scatter of atoms so thin that particles can travel long…
Hubble Finds a Spiral Galaxy Being Pulled Out of Shape
Spiral galaxies are often drawn as graceful pinwheels, with arms that curl around a bright centre in something close to balance. NGC 4654 is a one-sided spiral galaxy that does…
MoM-BH*-1: Webb’s Possible “Black Hole Star” at Cosmic Dawn
What is MoM-BH*-1? Webb’s spectrum suggests a possible black hole star wrapped in dense gas at cosmic dawn. Here is what the evidence shows—and what remains uncertain.
How Do Telescopes See the Past? The Simple Reason Every Star Is History
When you look at the Moon, you see it as it was about 1.3 seconds ago. The delay is too short to notice, but the principle is the same for…
Betelgeuse Finally Reveals Its Companion After a Century of Searching
Betelgeuse has been watched for thousands of years, but the red star still had one secret that refused to give itself up. Astronomers had long suspected that a fainter companion…
Webb Finds Dust and Water Surviving Near the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole
The centre of the Milky Way is a difficult place for fragile molecules. Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy, is surrounded by intense radiation,…
What Is an Interstellar Object, and How Do Astronomers Know It Came From Another Star?
Most comets and asteroids that pass through the Solar System are permanent residents. The Sun’s gravity keeps them on closed orbits, even when those orbits take thousands of years to…
Could the Milky Way Eventually Look Like the Center of the Universe?
The Milky Way is not the center of the universe. No observation has placed Earth or our galaxy in a privileged position, and the large-scale universe looks broadly the same…