Navigating the Cosmos
Move beyond the names of planets and dive into the mechanics of space travel, the life cycles of stars, and the strange behavior of time and gravity in the deep universe.
Like Duolingo, but for Navigating the Cosmos. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
54 levels across 4 sections, about 108 minutes end to end, roughly 22 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Living and Moving in Orbit, The Secret Lives of Stars, Extreme Environments and Strange Physics, and Mapping the Deep Universe. It assumes you already know the basics.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Navigating the Cosmos
- Gravity pulls the satellite in a curve
- Slowing down reduces sideways distance
- Sideways speed prevents hitting the ground
- The fundamental mechanism of orbit
- Losing speed causes a steeper fall
- The effect of atmospheric drag
- Gravity pulls harder on objects that are closer to Earth
- Closer objects must move faster to 'miss' the ground during their fall
- The fundamental mechanism of orbit as a balance of falling and moving sideways
- Specific speeds are required to match the curve of the Earth
- Excessive speed allows an object to overcome Earth's pull entirely
- The relationship between altitude and required orbital speed
- The effect of atmospheric drag on orbital stability
- Predicting outcomes based on changes in sideways velocity
- Orbit is a constant state of falling toward the ground
- Sideways motion must match the rate of the fall
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 Navigating the Cosmos 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.
If a satellite hits a pocket of thin air and loses speed, what happens to its path?
Get it right to open this lesson and 53 more in the app.
Where Navigating the Cosmos takes you
- 1
Living and Moving in Orbit
- The Constant Fall: How Satellites Stay Up
- Life in Zero Gravity: What Happens to the Body
- Orbital Maneuvers: Changing Lanes in Space
- The Challenge of Re-entry: Managing Heat and Speed
- 2
The Secret Lives of Stars
- Star Nurseries: How Gas Becomes a Sun
- The Balancing Act: Gravity vs. Nuclear Pressure
- Color and Temperature: Reading a Star's Signature
- Supernovas: The Violent End of Massive Stars
- White Dwarfs and Pulsars: What Remains After the Blast
- Stellar Recycling: How We Are Made of Dead Stars
- 3
Extreme Environments and Strange Physics
- Black Holes: The Point of No Return
- Time Dilation: Why Clocks Tick Slower in Space
- Spacetime: The Fabric That Bends and Stretches
- 4
Mapping the Deep Universe
- Galactic Neighborhoods: Clusters and Superclusters
- The Expanding Balloon: How the Universe Grows
- Dark Matter: The Invisible Glue of Galaxies
- Cosmic Background: The Echo of the Beginning
- The Great Filter: Why We Haven't Found Neighbors Yet
4 sections · 18 units · 54 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
Navigating the Cosmos is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. 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
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.
Cosmic Navigator: Beyond the Basics
Move beyond naming planets and start understanding the mechanics of the universe. Learn to track orbital dances, decode the life cycles of stars, and navigate the invisible forces that shape our galaxy.
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.
The Mechanics of Space
Move beyond basic planet trivia to understand orbital dynamics, stellar engines, and the geometry of the cosmos. Discover how spacecraft navigate the void, how stars forge matter, and what drives cosmic expansion.
The Architecture of the Cosmos
Go beyond the basics of stargazing to master the mechanics of galactic structures, the physics of singularities, and the ultimate fate of the universe.
Astronomy: Reading the Night Sky
Learn to read the sky like an astronomer, from locating planets with the naked eye to decoding the lifecycles of stars and distant galaxies. This course equips you with a solid working knowledge of how our solar system moves, how cosmic matter evolves, and how light reveals the shape of our expanding universe.
Start Navigating the Cosmos today.
Download Tomo, search Navigating the Cosmos, and play your first lesson in under a minute.