Blog — Educational Articles on Astronomy & Physics
Explore our collection of educational articles about the scale of the universe, from subatomic particles to the observable cosmos. Topics include astronomy, quantum physics, planetary science, and teaching resources.
- How Big Is the Observable Universe?
The observable universe stretches 93 billion light-years across, but what does that truly mean? Explore the staggering scale of everything we can see.
- From Quarks to Atoms: The Building Blocks of Matter
Everything around you is built from just a handful of fundamental particles. Discover how quarks combine to form protons, neutrons, and the atoms that make up our world.
- Why Are Planets Round? The Physics of Celestial Bodies
From tiny asteroids to gas giants, celestial bodies take on different shapes. Learn why gravity sculpts large objects into spheres and what determines the cutoff.
- The Life Cycle of Stars: From Nebula to Neutron Star
Stars are born in vast clouds of gas, burn for millions or billions of years, and die in spectacular fashion. Trace the full journey of a star's life.
- What Is the Planck Scale? The Smallest Meaningful Size
At the Planck scale, our understanding of space and time breaks down completely. Discover why there may be a fundamental limit to how small things can be.
- Teaching the Scale of the Universe: Guided Lesson Packs for the Classroom
Teachers can now use interactive guided lesson packs to teach scale and proportion across the cosmos. Explore our Solar System, Stars & Galaxies, and The Entire Scale packs designed for students of all ages.
- How Big Is Jupiter Compared to Earth? An Interactive Size Comparison Tool
Our interactive size comparison tool lets you place any two celestial bodies side by side at true scale, revealing the stunning differences in size across the cosmos.
- How Far Apart Are the Planets? Understanding Solar System Distances
The distances between planets are so enormous they defy everyday comprehension. Discover how our Space Travel mode helps you visualize the vast gulfs of empty space in our solar system.
- A Teacher's Guide to Interactive Astronomy Education
Discover how teachers can integrate interactive astronomy tools into their curriculum, from primary school explorations of the solar system to secondary school studies of stellar evolution and cosmic scale.
- Black Holes: The Universe's Most Extreme Objects
From stellar-mass remnants to supermassive giants billions of times heavier than the Sun, black holes are where physics reaches its absolute limits. Here's everything you need to know.
- Saturn's Rings: A Marvel of the Solar System
They stretch 282,000 km from edge to edge but are only 10 metres thick. Saturn's rings are one of the solar system's most striking features — and one of its greatest scientific puzzles.
- What Is a Light-Year? (And How Far Is It Really?)
A light-year isn't a measure of time — it's a distance so vast it redefines how we think about space. Here's exactly how far a light-year is, in kilometres you can picture.
- How Many Stars Are in the Milky Way?
Our galaxy holds somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars — but why can't astronomers give a single exact number? The answer reveals how galaxies are really measured.
- What Is the Smallest Thing in the Universe?
From atoms to quarks to the Planck length, the search for the smallest thing takes us to the very limits of physics — where 'size' itself may stop making sense.
- What Is the Biggest Star in the Universe?
Meet UY Scuti and Stephenson 2-18 — hypergiant stars so vast that light would take hours to travel around them. Here's how they compare to our Sun.
- How Many Atoms Are in the Observable Universe?
The observable universe contains roughly 10^80 atoms — a number so large it dwarfs every grain of sand, every star, and nearly every quantity humans ever count.
- How Far Is the Sun From Earth? (The Astronomical Unit)
The Sun sits about 150 million kilometres away — a distance so useful that astronomers turned it into their own ruler: the astronomical unit.
- Introducing the New Scale of the Universe: A Premium Redesign
We rebuilt the experience from the ground up — a refined new look, a more secure Horizon Pass, and the same wonder of the cosmos, now presented the way it deserves.