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
It’s bigger than anything on Earth. Hell, it’s bigger than Earth! “More days to come / new places to goI’ve got to leave / it’s time for a showHere I am […]
The answer is larger than you might think, and applies in some shocking ways! “The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way […]
They’re judged to be “standard candles” and the greatest cosmic distance indicators. What if they’re not so standard? “It’s everywhere, really. It’s between the galaxies. It is in this room. […]
If we look to the distant future, with unlimited technology, how far could we reach? “Even if I stumble on to the absolute truth of any aspect of the universe, I […]
The periodic table offers up so many possibilities, but some things are off-limits in our Solar System. “There’s no god, it’s the elements that control this world and everything on it.” […]
Could finding a planet capable of supporting humans already be within our reach? “The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so vast and the treasures hidden in the heavens so […]
Ultra-deep field? Move over; there’s a new deepest-view of all! “In other words, theory attempts to segregate the minimum number of possible worlds which must include the actual world we inhabit. […]
If black holes suck everything in and nothing can get out, what does that mean for dark matter? “A single day is enough to make us a little larger or, another […]
And, at a fundamental level, it can never be one. “Even when Darwin’s teaching first made its appearance, it became clear at once that its scientific, materialist core, its teaching concerning […]
Not the show, the actual scientific theory itself! “Gamow was fantastic in his ideas. He was right, he was wrong. More often wrong than right. Always interesting; … and when his idea […]
Everything depends on it, and yet we don’t know it as well as we’d like! “Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have […]
And the story of how the greatest act of WWII sabotage stopped it. “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer In the 1930s, as Europe stood on […]
If you expected them to be like Earth’s dunes, prepare to be surprised! “Actually I think Art lies in both directions — the broad strokes, big picture but on the other hand […]
Einstein called it spooky, but if we figure it out right, can we learn about distant star systems instantaneously? “Trying to understand the way nature works involves a most terrible […]
13.8 billion years is a great number. But how sure are we of this, and how did we get there? “Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We […]
Newton thought it was instantaneous, but the story is much richer than that! “The fact that gravitational damping is measured at all is a strong indication that the propagation speed of […]
Think we’d never do better from the ground than from space? This adaptive optics system is proving this wrong! “This event marks the culmination of many years of hard work on […]
The answer depends on what scales you’re looking at. “The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.” –Swami Vivekananda When it comes to the fundamental laws […]
Think Saturn is the only ringed world? The story is far better than that! “The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be […]
If we’re going to send a probe to another star at 20% the speed of light, what hope do we have of slowing it down? “Yes, now there is this technological […]
Earth day may have been last week, but the lessons we learned about Earth from space are with us always. “We are not learning to view ourselves as an advanced, evolving […]
“Where did it come from” is pretty high up there! “Space is certainly something more complicated than the average person would probably realize. Space is not just an empty background in […]
From Space, in HD. “You cannot rob me of free nature’s grace,You cannot shut the windows of the skyThrough which Aurora shows her brightening face.” –James Thomson Ever since humanity first […]
Gamma rays from black holes? It’s an incredible idea… and it’s probably wrong. “That’s the next step: to simultaneously see [gravitational waves] with three, four or five interferometers, localize it quickly, […]
You’ll get another good chance in two years, and then not again until the 2030s! “This is the plan. Get your ass to Mars, and go to the Hilton Hotel and […]
And why you shouldn’t even be asking a question like that. “If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” –John F. […]
With $100 million invested towards it and an incredible concept behind it, could this be the start of interstellar travel? “Fundamental physics is like an art more or less. It’s […]
When they ask, will you tell them the truth, or something comforting? Why not do both! “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, […]
A live blog event from Nobel Prizewinner Art McDonald. “It’s ironic: in order to observe the Sun, you need to go kilometers underground.” –Art McDonald In the 1960s, a huge […]