The Universe Above Us
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.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
91 levels across 9 sections, about 182 minutes end to end, roughly 36 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Eyes on the Sky, Our Solar Neighborhood, The Life of Stars, Gravity and Motion, Galaxies: Cities of Stars, The Human Journey, The Story of Everything, Life Among the Stars, and The Deep Mysteries. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Universe Above Us
- Earth rotates on an internal axis
- Stars in a constellation are at vastly different depths in space
- The North Star is positioned directly above the North Pole
- Constellations are 2D patterns seen from our specific perspective on Earth
- Stars appear to move because of Earth's rotation, except for the point at the center of the spin
- Stars in a pattern are not necessarily related or gravitationally bound
- Why the North Star remains a reliable reference point for navigation
- Understanding that constellations are visual coincidences rather than physical clusters
- Artificial light from cities 'washes out' the faint light of distant stars
- The Milky Way and thousands of stars are always present but hidden by glare
- Darker skies reveal more depth and detail in the night sky
- Star light travels through layers of moving air
- Temperature and density shifts in the air cause light to zig-zag
- Space itself is a vacuum where light travels steadily
- The cause of stellar scintillation (twinkling)
- The impact of artificial light on stargazing visibility
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.
If you could fly a spaceship to a constellation, would you find the stars sitting right next to each other?
Get it right to open this lesson and 90 more in the app.
Where The Universe Above Us takes you
Journey from your backyard to the edge of time. Discover how stars are born, why planets stay in orbit, and what lies within the deepest mysteries of the cosmos.
- 1
Eyes on the Sky
- Finding Your Way in the Dark
- Why the Sky Changes
- 2
Our Solar Neighborhood
- The Sun: Our Local Engine
- The Rocky Inner Worlds
- The Gas and Ice Giants
- The Small and Distant Stuff
- 3
The Life of Stars
- How Stars are Born
- The Stellar Lifecycle
- Spectacular Stellar Ends
- 4
Gravity and Motion
- The Invisible Glue
- Orbits and Weightlessness
- 5
Galaxies: Cities of Stars
- Our Home: The Milky Way
- The Wider Galactic Landscape
- 6
The Human Journey
- Leaving the Cradle
- Robotic Pioneers
- Living in the Void
- 7
The Story of Everything
- The Big Bang
- The Expanding Universe
- 8
Life Among the Stars
- Finding Other Earths
- The Search for Life
- 9
The Deep Mysteries
- Dark Matter and Dark Energy
- The Nature of Black Holes
- The End of Everything
9 sections · 23 units · 91 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Universe Above Us is taught in the The Storyteller style: every lesson is a story. 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 Universe Above Us
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The Universe Above Us
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The Universe as It Really Is
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Our Cosmic Neighborhood
Get to know the planets, stars, and the invisible forces that hold our universe together in this quick guide to the night sky.
Start The Universe Above Us today.
Download Tomo, search The Universe Above Us, and play your first lesson in under a minute.