SpaceExplained
Why the aurora changes color
Green, red, blue and pink are clues to the gases above us — and to what happens when those gases receive energy from space.
Read the storyA little curiosity goes a long way
Small stories.
A wonderfully
big world.
From the sky above us to the depths below. Follow a question, watch a short, and stay for the story.
Explore the storiesSpace, science & the unexpected.
Beyond the short
There’s more to the story.
SpaceExplained
The engineering behind the Apollo–Soyuz handshake
Before two crews could greet each other in orbit, engineers had to connect different docking systems, different cabin atmospheres and different ways of working.
Read the story
Beyond SpaceExplained
What a plastic bag in the Mariana Trench can tell us
A 1998 observation put plastic almost 11 kilometers below the surface. The evidence is striking — but the bag’s journey remains unknown.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Apollo 8 and Earthrise: the journey behind the photograph
Why NASA sent three people around the Moon, how Earth rose into their window, and what it took to bring the crew and their photographs home.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Astronaut Training: Why the Freezing Forest?
Winter camps, underwater rehearsals and cave expeditions prepare astronauts for different parts of a mission. The key is knowing what each exercise can teach—and what it cannot reproduce.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Why NASA ended Cassini’s mission at Saturn
Cassini still worked when it entered Saturn’s atmosphere. Its planned ending protected the moons, used a dwindling resource, and opened a final window into the planet.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Gemini 8: the first docking, the dangerous spin, and the engineering behind both
How Armstrong and Scott met Agena in orbit, why a faulty thruster made separation dangerous, and what the original flight report reveals about the rescue.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
How a tiny mirror flaw blurred Hubble—and how it was fixed
The mirror stayed in orbit. Corrective optics restored a sharp view. Here is what went wrong, how the repair worked, and how to read the before-and-after images.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Why did spaceships lose their wings?
Shuttle, Dragon and Orion solve different problems. Explore how mission design, heat shields, lift, launch escape and recovery determine the shape of a spacecraft.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
How the Sun Can Disrupt a Railway Telegraph
A Victorian train delay, a disputed date, and the invisible electrical chain that connects solar storms to signals on Earth.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
Voyager’s Golden Record: What We Sent and How It Works
A child’s greeting, music from Earth, and pictures stored in a groove. Explore the real record, its playback instructions, and the gap between decoding a signal and understanding a world.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
How Voyager 1 took the Pale Blue Dot photograph
A tiny Earth, a television camera in deep space, and sunlight scattered through the optics. Follow the physics behind the photograph with four explanatory diagrams.
Read the story
SpaceExplained
How do X-37B and Buran land without a pilot?
From orbital energy to the final flare: how sensors, guidance, ground teams and years of testing make an automatic runway return possible.
Read the storyA note on curiosity
One good question
can change the way
you see the world.
We make short videos about things that catch our attention. Here, we give those stories more room—with context, sources, and somewhere to go next.
Meet Draw to KnowThe story shelf
Something new to wonder about.
Why NASA ended Cassini’s mission at Saturn
Cassini still worked when it entered Saturn’s atmosphere. Its planned ending protected the moons, used a dwindling resource, and opened a final window into the planet.
Apollo–Soyuz: When Cold War Rivals Opened the Hatch
The handshake in orbit depended on years of cooperation and hardware designed to meet in the middle.
Gemini 8: Docking, Then a Dangerous Spin
Follow a pioneering orbital docking and the emergency that cut the mission short.
The Tiny Mirror Flaw That Blurred Hubble
A telescope, an optical mistake and the mission to correct its view.
Voyager 1 and the Pale Blue Dot
Look back at Earth through Voyager's camera and consider what a tiny point of light can show.