The Well When neutron stars collide NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains what happens when the densest stars in the galaxy collide. ▸ 5 min — with Michelle Thaller
Hard Science Scientists rule out a popular alternative theory to dark matter The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
Starts With A Bang Who discovered dark matter: Fritz Zwicky or Vera Rubin? Back in the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky postulated the existence of dark matter. No one took it seriously until Vera Rubin's work: 40 years later.
Starts With A Bang Stars alone can’t explain black holes, JWST data reveals Today, supermassive black holes and their host galaxies tell a specific story in terms of mass. But JWST reveals a different story early on.
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: Is our Universe truly matter-dominated? The laws of physics don't prefer matter over antimatter. So how can we be certain that distant stars & galaxies aren't made of antimatter?
Starts With A Bang Space didn’t used to be a big place Today, our observable Universe extends for 46 billion light-years in all directions. But early on in our history, things were much smaller.
Starts With A Bang Are the “missing baryons” simply too hot to see? There are two types of missing, or "dark" matter: baryonic (made of normal matter) and non-baryonic. Have we finally found the normal stuff?
Starts With A Bang Giant ring? Giant arc? These “structures” may not even be real Astronomers claim to have found structures so large, they shouldn't exist. With such biased, incomplete observations, perhaps they don't.
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: Why will the Milky Way and Andromeda collide? The Universe isn't just expanding, the expansion is also accelerating. If that's true, how will the Milky Way and Andromeda eventually merge?
Starts With A Bang Yes, JWST caught a baby galaxy cluster being born! Finding out how the Universe grew up was the biggest science goal of JWST. This ultra-early proto-galaxy cluster is one amazing discovery.
Starts With A Bang Did the most distant galaxy “candidates” survive JWST’s ultimate test? Many galaxies really are ultra-distant, but some are just intrinsically red or dusty. Only with spectroscopy can JWST tell which is which.
Starts With A Bang JWST, at last, answers our biggest cosmic questions Hubble showed us what our modern day Universe looks like. JWST's big goal was to teach us how the Universe grew up. Here's where we are now.
Hard Science Have we gotten dark matter all wrong? Physicists have yet to pinpoint the hypothetical matter that keeps galaxies from flying apart. Now they have a new focus.
Starts With A Bang The Universe might never run out of hydrogen The most common element in the Universe, vital for forming new stars, is hydrogen. But there's a finite amount of it; what if we run out?
Starts With A Bang What was it like when supermassive black holes arose? As early as we've been able to identify them, the youngest galaxies seem to have large supermassive black holes. Here's how they were made.
Hard Science Solved: Astronomers identify origin of mysterious flares in galaxy OJ 287 In a distant galaxy, a cosmic dance between two supermassive black holes emits periodic flashes of light.
13.8 Some scientists speak of a “crisis in cosmology.” They have a good reason The standard model of cosmology has a big new problem: Some galaxies seem to be too old.
Starts With A Bang New JWST data confirms, worsens the Hubble tension How fast is the Universe expanding? Two major methods disagree. New JWST data, just released, strengthens this Hubble tension even further.
Starts With A Bang Most distant black hole raises a huge cosmic question With JWST, Chandra, and gravitational lensing combined, evidence has emerged for the earliest black hole ever. And wow, is it a surprise!
Starts With A Bang JWST’s early, massive galaxies agree with ΛCDM cosmology These high-mass, rapidly star-forming galaxies have called modern cosmology into question. But hi-res simulations show no tension at all.
Hard Science Surprising discovery challenges key principle of modern cosmology Observations of an enormous cosmic structure, dubbed the "Big Ring," seem to violate the Copernican principle.
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: What if the Sun were a grain of sand? The cosmic scales governing the Universe are almost unbelievably large. What if we shrunk the Sun down to be just a grain of sand?
Starts With A Bang Have we overestimated the number of stars in the Universe? With ~400 billion stars in the Milky Way and 6-20 trillion galaxies overall, that makes for a lot of stars. But not as many as you'd think.
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: Do JWST’s results contradict the Big Bang? JWST has brought us more distant views of the early Universe than ever before. Is the Big Bang, and all of modern cosmology, in trouble?
Starts With A Bang Ask Ethan: What explains the Fibonacci sequence? The pattern 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc., is the Fibonacci sequence. It shows up all over nature. But what's the full explanation behind it?
Starts With A Bang What was it like when the cosmic dark ages ended? For 550 million years, neutral atoms blocked the light made in stars from traveling freely through the Universe. Here's how it then changed.
Hard Science New paper argues that the Universe began with two Big Bangs Bang bang all over the Universe.
13.8 A cosmic coincidence: What eclipses tell us about Earth Total eclipses are a product of a strange and almost eerie cosmic coincidence — one that makes Earth an even rarer world in the galaxy and, by proxy, in the Universe.
Starts With A Bang Explore JWST’s deepest views ever for yourself JWST has already broken many of Hubble's cosmic records. Perhaps additional record-breakers already exist within this data-rich image?
Starts With A Bang Runaway supermassive black hole caught by Hubble Speeding through the Universe and leaving a wake of new stars, this runaway supermassive black hole is likely the first among thousands.