The Universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Our mission: to answer, scientifically, the biggest questions of all.
- What is our Universe made of?
- How did it become the way it is today?
- Where did everything come from?
- What is the ultimate fate of the cosmos?
For countless generations, these were questions without resolutions. Now, for the first time in history, we have scientific answers. Starts With A Bang, written by Dr. Ethan Siegel, brings these stories — of what we know and how we know it — directly to you.
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Featured
Why power generated through nuclear fusion will be the future, but not the present, solution to humanity’s energy needs.
It’s a strange idea to consider: that a tiny building block of matter, the atomic nucleus, holds the greatest potential for energy release.
And yet, it’s true; while electron transitions in atoms or molecules typically release energy on the order of ~1 electron-Volt, nuclear transitions between different configurations release energies a million times as great, on the order of ~1 Mega-electron-Volt.
Popular
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
The surface and atmosphere is colored by ferric oxides. Beneath a very thin layer, mere millimeters deep in places, it’s not red anymore.
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
Just 13.8 billion years after the hot Big Bang, we can see 46.1 billion light-years away in all directions. Doesn’t that violate…something?
All Stories
An incredible story, the current controversy, and the hope for the future. Our Universe was born pristine, with no stars, galaxies, molecules or even stable atoms, some 13.8 billion years […]
If Scotty beams you up for a trip around the Sun, here’s how to handle it. “I really didn’t have to work, shall we say, with Star Trek. It was a […]
Hydrogen is #1, Helium is #2. Who’s number 3? Hint: it’s not #3 in the periodic table! “It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign […]
Earth is pretty much the limit of how large you can get and still be rocky. Anything much larger, and you’re a gas giant. “How vast those Orbs must be, and […]
The physics of why popping off a few rounds in celebration can quickly turn deadly. “I’ve heard it said that God made all men, but Samuel Colt made all men equal. […]
The Earth is round, Kyrie Irving. But not every world needs to be. “‘I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth,’ she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn’t have […]
How gravitational magnification allows us to see what we’ve never seen before. “The problem is, you’re trying to find these really faint things, but you’re looking behind these really bright things. […]
If the Big Bang happened and everything is moving away from us, where’s the center? “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out […]
There is so much we’ve discovered and so far that we’ve come. But there’s a limit to knowledge we’ll never be able to overcome. “To know that we know what […]
We haven’t found the truly “first” ones yet, but we’re not just on our way; we’re almost there. “For the first time we can learn about individual stars from near the […]
Sometimes science is stranger than fiction. “To morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the […]
Last week, an asteroid fell from the sky and struck the Lake Michigan area. What if it had been a city-killer instead? “By preventing dangerous asteroid strikes, we can save […]
It’s the longest feast we’ve ever seen, and it’s still going on! But why? “Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come […]
Is gravitational repulsion a real thing? “For the first time, astronomers have outlined and named the network of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, adding a line to our cosmic address […]
Why Saturn’s Iapetus has three great mysteries… and we’ve only solved one of them. “The dance between darkness and light will always remain — the stars and the moon will always need the […]
One of the most famous quantum physicists of all makes his mark in space, 80 years after first predicting it. “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed […]
Before you even look through your telescope, you need to know where to begin. “If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control […]
It may be the only way to save the USA — and the world — from alternative facts. “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” –Ernest Rutherford There […]
The outer three can even be seen with a small, 1.5 meter telescope. This 2010 picture of three of the four known exoplanets orbiting HR 8799 represents the first time […]
It’s the most fundamental fabric of the Universe itself. But how does it work? “‘Space-time’ — that hideous hybrid whose very hyphen looks phoney.” –Vladimir Nabokov When it comes to understanding the Universe, there […]
Beyond climate change, ice ages or even the death of our Sun, the cosmic dance continues for ages. Here’s how it will truly end. “The way to love anything is to […]
There’s useful science to be gotten out of it, but most science that mentions it is anything but. “There is a voice inside of youThat whispers all day long,‘I feel this […]
How a telescope 100 times the size of Hubble is going to change everything. “For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like […]
Is it conserved? Destroyed? Radiated away? 40+ years on, we still don’t have answers. This article was contributed by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity and […]
Why do the asteroids that fall to Earth have the composition they do? A giant space collision 466 million years ago may be to blame. “Men of genius are often dull […]
It’s been going on ever since we first discovered the expansion, and there’s no resolution in sight. The discovery almost 100 years ago that the Universe was expanding was a revolution […]
Why weightlessness is possible, even if there’s no place you can hide from the Universe’s longest-range force. “It was a strange lightness, a drifting feeling. Zero gravity. I understood that […]
What it means that 2016 is the hottest year on record. “There are now dozens of hockey sticks and the all come to the same basic conclusion. The recent warming does […]
How the James Webb Space Telescope was made. “One way or another the first stars must have influenced our own history, beginning with stirring up everything and producing the other chemical […]
What caused the incredible eruption that Hubble caught on film? A predicted merger in 5 years might show us. “We have chased away the clouds, the sky is all ‘rose.’” –Francois […]