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.
Like Duolingo, but for The Universe Above Us. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
90 levels across 8 sections, about 180 minutes end to end, roughly 36 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Finding Your Way, Our Solar Neighborhood, The Life of Stars, Islands in the Dark, How We Explore, The Invisible Universe, Cosmic Events, and The Next Giant Leap. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Universe Above Us
- Artificial city lights wash out the faint glow of distant stars
- The chemical process in the eye for night vision takes about 20 minutes
- Only the handful of brightest stars and planets can cut through urban light pollution
- Looking at a phone screen or bright light instantly resets your night vision
- A truly dark sky reveals thousands of stars and the band of the Milky Way
- Initial 'darkness' is deceptive; more detail emerges as time passes
- The impact of urban light pollution on star visibility
- The time required for biological dark adaptation
- Stars are distant points of light easily distorted by Earth's turbulent atmosphere
- Planets are closer and appear as tiny disks, which makes their light more stable and 'steady'
- The North Star (Polaris) sits almost directly above Earth's northern axis
- Twinkling is an effect of the air, not the celestial object itself
- The North Star's fixed position makes it a constant reference for direction
- The hand held at arm's length provides a consistent scale for measuring the sky
- Distinguishing planets from stars by their light quality
- Angular distance is measured in degrees to describe how far apart objects appear from our perspective
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 The Universe Above Us 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.
How long should you wait in the dark for your eyes to fully adjust to the night sky?
Get it right to open this lesson and 89 more in the app.
Where The Universe Above Us takes you
- 1
Finding Your Way
- Your First Night Out
- Tracking the Moon
- Spotting the Planets
- 2
Our Solar Neighborhood
- The Sun: Our Local Powerhouse
- The Inner Rocky Worlds
- The Outer Gas Giants
- Moons, Rings, and Small Stuff
- 3
The Life of Stars
- How Stars are Born
- Stellar Endings
- Black Holes
- 4
Islands in the Dark
- The Milky Way
- The Variety of Galaxies
- 5
How We Explore
- Telescopes: Eyes on the Sky
- Rockets and Robots
- Living in Orbit
- 6
The Invisible Universe
- The Big Bang
- Dark Matter and Dark Energy
- The Search for Other Earths
- 7
Cosmic Events
- Eclipses and Alignments
- Meteors and Space Weather
- 8
The Next Giant Leap
- Returning to the Moon
- The Path to Mars
- Interstellar Dreams
8 sections · 23 units · 90 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
The Universe Above Us is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. 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
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.
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.
Exploring Our Solar System
Take a trip through space to meet our sun and the planets that circle it. Learn what makes each world special and how we explore the stars from Earth.
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.
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.
Start The Universe Above Us today.
Download Tomo, search The Universe Above Us, and play your first lesson in under a minute.