About

PX stands for Parallax

Move your head and the world shifts. Astronomers used that trick to measure the distance to the stars. We use it to look at the biggest questions from angles you didn't expect.

Try it

Hold a finger in front of your face. Close your left eye, then your right. Your finger jumps; the wall behind it doesn't. Nothing moved except where you were looking from.

Astronomers do the same with the whole Earth. They look at a nearby star in January and again in July, from opposite sides of Earth's orbit, and watch it shift against stars much farther away. The smaller the shift, the farther away the star.

Watch Earth go around the Sun, or drag the slider to move it yourself.

Parallax diagram: as Earth moves around the Sun, a nearby star appears to shift against distant background stars. what you see: distant stars, far far awaynearby starSunJanuary
Not to scale. Real stellar shifts are tiny, smaller than the width of a coin seen from miles away.
Dr. PX, the channel's stick-figure scientist: round glasses, a red cap with a PX patch and a curious smirk, with red and cyan copies of him on either side like a 3D picture.

Your guide

Meet Dr. PX

Dr. PX is the stick-figure scientist who hosts every video: round glasses, dark hair, easily amazed, never makes things up. When something truly surprises him, he grabs his head. That's his “mind blown”.

On special episodes he wears a red cap with a PX patch, like in the channel picture, where a red and a cyan copy of him sit on either side. That's parallax again: two eyes, two views, one Dr. PX in 3D.

Dr. PX is a cartoon, and the narration is a synthetic voice. Each video's credits say so.

How we research

“Every fact is checked, every source is listed.”

  1. Every claim gets a source

    Each fact in a script is traced to a primary or reputable source: space agencies, research papers, museums, science journalists. Every video has its own page here with those sources, grouped by claim.

  2. Specific, never vague

    Names, dates, places and numbers. Not “scientists say”.

  3. Uncertainty, said out loud

    When something is “not proof” or “we don't know yet”, the video says exactly that.

  4. Real pictures for real things

    Real objects, places and events are shown with real, licensed photos (public domain or Creative Commons). Cartoons are for ideas. No AI “photos” of real events.

  5. Credits for everything

    Photos, music and licences are listed on each video page, and the synthetic narration voice is disclosed.

Found something we got wrong? Tell Dr. PX or say so in the comments under the video. See every video's sources →

Subscribe