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
If String Theory has nothing to do with reality, what are our options? “I just think too many nice things have happened in string theory for it to be all […]
Would there be only blackness past the event horizon? Or something more? They say ‘A flat ocean is an ocean of trouble. And an ocean of waves… can also be […]
Pluto’s moons, Nix and Hydra, are the first with irregular rotations, and hence unpredictable sunsets and sunrises. “Movin’ right along.You take it, you know best.Hey, I’ve never seen the Sun […]
The simple sights of sunrises and sunsets, spectacularly but seldom seem. “Lost — yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, […]
Be a Patron for Starts With A Bang and bring the Universe to everyone. “The universe is big, its vast and complicated, and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things […]
How one of the first tests of special relativity might lead to the greatest particle accelerator of all-time. “One feels that the past stays the way you left it, whereas […]
How the Solar Eclipse of 1919 spelled the end for Newton. “Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One thing […]
What the first American woman in space meant for people everywhere. “Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You […]
How tides, gravity and lava give Io the youngest surface in the Solar System. “The crust, being so thin, must bend, if, over wide areas, it becomes loaded with glacial […]
A galaxy cluster that’s been actively devouring matter for hundreds of millions of years blows all the records away. “The world exploded into billions of atoms, and when it rearranged […]
The most famous logic puzzle from the best police comedy on television, and how to (finally) solve it! “I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most […]
After the CMB, before the first stars, there was nothing to see. Or was there? “[I]f there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we […]
Sure, they wiped out the dinosaurs, but do they really pose a risk to humans? “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind […]
Image credit: © 2015 MotorTrend Magazine, via http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/suvs/1110_mopar_underground_jeep_and_ram_run_wild_at_moab/photo_06.html. How gravity teaches us that the mountains we see extend far underground. “Journalists often ask me when I go to the field, […]
A series of mysterious white features lurk at the bottom of one of its most massive craters. Here’s what they could be, and how we’ll find out! “One of the […]
The unique sight of a comet only scratches the surface of an amazing story. “Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes […]
How food, art, and design come together to display a beauty rarely seen. “That’s what you get for being food.” –Margaret Atwood As anyone who’s ever played the classic arcade […]
It’s the oldest, most distant light we’ve ever seen. But where, exactly, is it? “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won’t need to […]
Whether or not you believe there’s a problem, we’re all part of the solution. “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on […]
Sometimes, it’s the most unexpected ingredients that give rise to the greatest results in the end. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” –Joseph Campbell When you […]
The story of our neck of the woods, on the most cosmic of all scales. “We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened […]
NASA’s great observatories combine to give us a unique view of a sight no human ever saw the first time around. “And no one showed us to the landAnd no […]
What do you get when the Death Star meets LEGO friends? “The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear […]
With three spatial dimensions, the possibilities are tremendous. But only one answer fits what we see. “Never erase your past. It shapes who you are today and will help you […]
These cosmic monsters make the LHC look like child’s play, and yet even they have their limits. “Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.” –Bill Bryson You […]
Can the world’s most fantastic and speculative “theory of everything” candidate shed light on the Universe’s most invisible objects? “I just think too many nice things have happened in string […]
The most powerful telescope in history will never see the farthest galaxy. “No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded […]
See as far back in the Universe as our greatest telescope’s eyes will take us. “It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. […]
If winter is coming, this epic artwork is the spring thaw. “When I was a kid, my world was five streets long. I never got away, except in books. I […]
Can failed stars, or stellar corpses, give light to the Universe once again? “A single tiny light creates a space where darkness cannot exist. The light vanquishes the darkness. Try […]