Most of us have heard of black holes and supernovas, galaxies and the Big Bang. But few of us understand more than the bare facts about the universe we call home. What is really out there? How did it all begin? Where are we going? Jo Dunkley begins in Earth's neighborhood, explaining the nature of the Solar System, the stars in our night sky, and the Milky Way. She then moves out past nearby galaxies and back in time to the horizon of the observable universe, which contains over a hundred billion galaxies, each with billions of stars, many orbited by planets, some of which may host life. Dunkley traces the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang fourteen billion years ago, past the birth of the Sun and our planets, to today and beyond.

Jo Dunkley is a Professor of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and author of the book Our Universe: An Astronomer’s Guide. Her research is in cosmology, studying the origins and evolution of the Universe. Jo has received awards and honors including the Maxwell Medal and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award. She shared the Gruber Cosmology Prize and the Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe team. She appears frequently in the media and has given numerous public lectures.

Photo credit: Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd