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Universe Expansion
It's difficult to project a sphere onto a flat, two-dimensional surface. All maps of the Earth have flaws; the same is true for the cosmos.
We understand many things about our Universe, and our home within it, extremely well. The number of stars in the Milky Way isn't among them.
Common knowledge says the maximum size of a PDF is as big as 40% of Germany — but that’s a gross underestimate.
The Multiverse isn't just a staple of science fiction; there's real-life science behind it, too. Here are 10 facts to expand your mind.
Large, massive, rotating galaxies like the Milky Way are common today. So how could one form a mere ~2 billion years after the Big Bang?
Over a century after we first unlocked the secrets of the quantum universe, people find it more puzzling than ever. Can we make sense of it?
DESI, by mapping galaxies, has claimed they see evidence for dark energy evolving by getting weaker. But that's only one interpretation.
Someday, we'll look back and see a young galaxy forming stars for the first time. JADES-GS-z14-0, the farthest ever, isn't early enough.
Einstein's general relativity has reigned supreme as our theory of gravity for over a century. Could we reduce it back down to Newton's law?
Our scientific instruments are constantly improving, revealing nature's workings as never before. Without them, we'll remain in the dark.
Some nebulae emit their own light, some reflect the light from stars around them, and some only absorb light. But that's just the beginning.
When we see spiral galaxies, some are face-on, others are edge-on, but most are tipped at an angle. But which side is closest to us?
The tiniest galaxies of all are the most susceptible to violence by their larger, bullying siblings. That's why we need them in isolation.
The Universe is expanding, and individual, bound structures are all receding away from one another. How, then, are galaxies still colliding?
Since the dawn of history, humans have pondered our ultimate cosmic origins. Now in the 21st century, science has gone beyond the Big Bang.
Just 165,000 light-years away, the Large Magellanic Cloud is suspected to house a supermassive black hole. At last, evidence has arrived.
There are some 26 fundamental constants in nature, and their values enable our Universe to exist as it does. But where do they come from?
One of the most promising dark matter candidates is light particles, like axions. With JWST, we can rule out many of those options already.
Astronomers see spiral and elliptical nebulae nearly everywhere, except by the Milky Way's plane. We didn't know why until the 20th century.
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic structures of all, everything that exists depends on two things: charge and mass.
The CMB gives us critical information about our cosmic past. But it doesn't give us everything, and galaxy mapping can fill in a key gap.
The full extent of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our own, has been entirely imaged with Hubble's exquisite cameras.
Dark matter doesn't absorb or emit light, but it gravitates. Instead of something exotic and novel, could it just be dark, normal matter?
Ring galaxies are rare, but we think we know how they form. A new, early-stage version, the Bullseye galaxy, provides a new testing ground.
Only 5% of the Universe is made of normal "stuff" like we are. Could there be dark matter or dark energy life, or even aliens, out there?
A young, nearby, massive star, whose protoplanetary disk appears perfectly edge-on, was just viewed by JWST, with staggering implications.
Seeking life beyond the Solar System, we first look to the closest star systems with Earth-like planets. Here's why that's not good enough.
There are only four super star clusters in all the Local Group: rarities today. Here's what the youngest, the just-discovered N79, shows us.
Here in our Universe, both normal and dark matter can be measured astrophysically. But only normal matter can collapse. Why is that?
First discovered in the mid-1960s, no cosmic signal has taught us more about the Universe, or spurred more controversy, than the CMB.