How Space Works
Make sense of the night sky, journey through our solar system, and uncover the grand forces that shape stars, galaxies, and the universe itself.
Like Duolingo, but for How Space Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
29 levels across 4 sections, about 58 minutes end to end, roughly 12 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Reading the Night Sky, Touring Our Cosmic Backyard, The Lives and Deaths of Stars, and The Architecture of the Cosmos. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Space Works
- Stars appear as microscopic pinpoints of light easily disrupted by moving air pockets in Earth's atmosphere
- Planets are closer and show up as tiny visual disks, averaging out atmospheric disruption into a steady shine
- A steady, non-twinkling light in the night sky is usually a planet
- Half of the Moon is always illuminated by the Sun at any given time
- Moon phases are caused by our changing view of that sunlit half as the Moon circles Earth
- Earth's shadow only falls on the Moon during a rare lunar eclipse, not during normal monthly phases
- Shooting stars are not actual stars falling or dying, but tiny bits of space rock or dust entering Earth's air
- The bright streak is produced by extreme heat and friction as the grain vaporizes at high speed in the upper atmosphere
- Most meteors that create shooting stars are no bigger than a grain of sand or a pea
- Satellites glide steadily and silently across the sky without flashing strobe lights or making noise
- Satellites take a few minutes to cross the sky, unlike meteors which disappear in a fraction of a second
- A satellite can abruptly vanish mid-sky when it glides into Earth's shadow and loses direct sunlight
- The solar system formed from a flat, rotating disk of gas and dust
- Planets, the Sun, and the Moon all orbit along roughly the same flat geometric plane
- From Earth, this shared orbital plane appears as a single narrow track across the night sky called the ecliptic
- Constellations are 2D optical illusions created by Earth's vantage point
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Space Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Why doesn't the light from a planet flicker and dance the way starlight does?
Get it right to open this lesson and 28 more in the app.
Where How Space Works takes you
- 1
Reading the Night Sky
- Spotting the Sky's Moving Pieces
- Navigating by the Constellations
- 2
Touring Our Cosmic Backyard
- Rocky Worlds and Gas Giants
- The Wandering Debris of Space
- The Sun and Space Weather
- 3
The Lives and Deaths of Stars
- How Stars Live and Die
- Neutron Stars and Black Holes
- 4
The Architecture of the Cosmos
- Galaxies and Cosmic Distance
- The Expanding Universe
4 sections · 9 units · 29 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Space Works is taught in the The Pirate style: arr, learning be an adventure!. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Science on Tomo
How Space Works
Understand what you see when you look up at the night sky and how the cosmos functions. Learn the mechanics of orbits, the lifecycle of stars, and the vast architecture of the universe.
How the Cosmos Works
Unravel the mechanics of the universe from your own backyard to deep space. Discover why orbits work, how dying stars forged the elements in your blood, and what warped spacetime reveals about reality.
The Universe Above Us
Journey from your own backyard to the edge of the observable universe. Discover how stars are born, why time slows down near black holes, and how we are searching for life among the billions of galaxies.
The Night Sky and Beyond
Journey from your backyard to the edge of the observable universe. Learn to navigate the constellations, understand the lives of stars, and explore the mysteries of black holes and dark energy.
Stars, Planets, and the Cosmic Void
Journey from the familiar glow of our Moon to the crushing gravity of black holes. Master the life cycles of stars and discover the strange worlds orbiting distant suns.
The Universe as It Really Is
Unlearn the myths of the cosmos. This course dismantles common space misconceptions to reveal the mind-bending reality of how gravity, light, and the vacuum actually work.
Start How Space Works today.
Download Tomo, search How Space Works, and play your first lesson in under a minute.