Understanding Our Universe (Second Edition)

Students learn astronomy by doing astronomy.

Influenced by astronomy education research, the Second Edition continues to lead the way by providing pedagogy and a learning package that facilitates learning by doing better than any other intro astronomy book.

Stacy Palen is an award-winning professor in the physics department at Weber State University. She received her BS in physics from Rutgers University and her PhD in physics from the University of Iowa. As a lecturer and postdoc at the University of Washington, she taught Introductory Astronomy more than 20 times over 4 years. Since joining Weber State, she has been very active in science outreach activities ranging from star parties to running the state Science Olympiad. Stacy does research in formal and informal astronomy education and the death of Sun-like stars. She spends much of her time thinking, teaching, and writing about the applications of science in everyday life. She then puts that science to use on her small farm in Ogden, Utah.


Laura Kay is Ann Whitney Olin professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, where she has taught since 1991. She received a BS degree in physics and an AB degree in feminist studies from Stanford University, and MS and PhD degrees in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of California–Santa Cruz. As a graduate student she spent 13 months at the Amundsen Scott station at the South Pole in Antarctica, and has had fellowships in Chile and Brazil. She studies active galactic nuclei using optical and X-ray telescopes. At Barnard she teaches courses on astronomy, astrobiology, women and science, and polar exploration.


Brad Smith is a retired professor of planetary science. He has served as an associate professor of astronomy at New Mexico State University, a professor of planetary sciences and astronomy at the University of Arizona, and as a research astronomer at the University of Hawaii. Through his interest in Solar System astronomy, he has participated as a team member or imaging team leader on several U.S. and international space missions, including Mars Mariners 6, 7, and 9; Viking; Voyagers 1 and 2; and the Soviet Vega and Phobos missions. He later turned his interest to extrasolar planetary systems, investigating circumstellar debris disks as a member of the Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS experiment team. Brad has four times been awarded the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He is a member of the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature and is Chair of the Task Group for Mars Nomenclature.

George Blumenthal is the director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2006 to 2019 he was chancellor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He joined the UC Santa Cruz faculty as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics in 1972. Chancellor Blumenthal received his BS degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and his PhD in physics from the University of California, San Diego. As a theoretical astrophysicist, Blumenthal's research encompasses several broad areas, including the nature of the dark matter that constitutes most of the mass in the universe, the origin of galaxies and other large structures in the universe, the earliest moments in the universe, astrophysical radiation processes, and the structure of active galactic nuclei such as quasars.