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.
Get Starts With A Bang in your inbox
Featured
Nuclear fusion explained
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
The Universe is already in its sixth and final era
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
This is why physicists suspect the Multiverse very likely exists
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
The red color of Mars is only inches deep
The surface and atmosphere is colored by ferric oxides. Beneath a very thin layer, mere millimeters deep in places, it’s not red anymore.
Record-breaking supernova manages to “X-ray” the entire Universe
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
Does the expansion of the Universe break the speed of light?
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
So, you’ve learned that the Sun is going to explode
Image credit: Kevin of deviantART, via http://arisechicken117.deviantart.com/. It’s a scientific truth of the Universe, one that many people — children especially — have trouble coming to terms with. But it doesn’t have to be […]
Breaking the Speed of Light
Image credit: Matt Howard, Idaho National Laboratory / Argonne. It’s easier than you might think, and we’ve been doing it for over a century. “The doctors realized in retrospect that even […]
What is the Speed of Gravity?
Image credit: European Gravitational Observatory, Lionel BRET/EUROLIOS. Do changes in a gravitational field propagate instantaneously, at the speed of light, or at a different speed altogether? “The only problem with […]
Messier Monday: Messier’s Last Original Open Cluster, M93
Image credit: Bill Longo of http://billlongo.com/messier93.php. How the last open cluster ever discovered by Messier himself still holds some amazing secrets and wonder more than 200 years after its discovery. […]
How the Earth moves, and how do we know?
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user Tauʻolunga. More than 400 years after Galileo’s first telescopic observations, we’re more certain than ever that the Earth is moving through space. How do we know? […]
Weekend Diversion: Fruit Ninja in Real Life!
Image credit: official Fruit Ninja website, via http://fruitninja.com/. The best cinematic live-action adaptation of one of the silliest, most addictive mobile games I’ve ever seen! “My name is Robert and I […]
Weekend Diversion: How did I miss Mr. T doing this?
How an iconic athlete, actor and role model took the world by storm in a way you’ve probably never seen before! “I’m going to fight if you touch me or hurt […]
Why can hot water freeze faster than cold?
Image credit: Karen Stray Nolting of Princeton Landing News. It’s known as the Mpemba effect, and it’s been observed as far back as Aristotle. But hot water really can sometimes […]
Water in Space: What Happens?
Image credit: NASA / ESA, of Pedro Duque aboard the International Space Station. How one of the most interesting molecules on Earth behaves in the zero-gravity, zero-pressure environment of outer space. […]
Throwback Thursday: Are Parallel Universes Real?
Image credit: Alexander Kirillov of the Mandelbrot Set, of SigmaCamp, via http://sigmacamp.org/2012/lectures/day1. It’s the most fantastic idea ever bandied about: that there are an infinite number of Universes identical to […]
Why we think there’s a Multiverse, not just our Universe
Image credit: Paul Mortfield and Dietmar Kupke/Flynn Haase/NOAO/AURA/NSF. How our best physical understanding of the early stages of the Universe — that set up the hot Big Bang — inevitably leads us to conclude […]
The Stellar Story of Us
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech, Hubble/Spitzer/Chandra composite; O. Krause et al. How the Universe made the elements and atoms that make up you and me, and everything else on Earth. “Things […]
Why did the Universe start off with Hydrogen, Helium, and not much else?
Image credit: ESA (image by AOES Medialab), via http://spaceinimages.esa.int/Images/2008/06/Formation_of_the_first_atoms. Where the first atoms in the Universe — the progenitors of all the normal matter that makes up everything we know — came from. “I see […]
Messier Monday: The Sunflower Galaxy, M63
Image credit: Doug H., via http://www.telescope.com/Image-Gallery/Deep-Sky/Galaxies/M63-Sunflower-Galaxy/pc/189/c/200/sc/204/p/102062.uts A beautiful spiral just outside the Big Dipper holds many secrets that can teach us about our own Milky Way! “If I were a flower.. […]
Weekend Diversion: Space Cats!
Image credit: Space Cats on twitter; https://twitter.com/SpaceCatPics. The internet is really, really great… for cats. In space. “There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”-Albert […]
The Most Abused Principle in all of Science
Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle; Spitzer Space Telescope. How the mis-application of the Anthropic Principle has led factions of scientists away from the search for a natural, […]
The Far Future of our Solar System
Image credit: NASA, International Space Station, 2008. If we scaled the entire Universe’s history from the Big Bang until now to be “one Universe year,” what would our future look like? […]
Welcome to the all-new Starts With A Bang!
Image credit: Jim Misti at Misti Mountain Observatory, via http://www.mistisoftware.com/astronomy/. How a new year, a new platform, and the same core cosmic principles are coming together to bring you the […]
All the Universe in one year
Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss. What the entire natural history of everything would look like compressed down into a single calendar year. “[D]on’t forget to make some art — write […]