Ethan Siegel

Ethan Siegel

A theoretical astrophysicist and science writer, host of popular podcast “Starts with a Bang!”

Ethan Siegel Starts with a Bang!

Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of "Starts with a Bang!" He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His two books "Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive" and "Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe" are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on Twitter @startswithabang.

Image of Pluto and its moon Charon in space. Pluto shows distinct surface features with areas of varying colors, while Charon appears smaller with a darker, smoother surface.
Here in our Solar System, terrestrial bodies get moons from gravitational capture or collisions. The Pluto-Charon system? It was both.
first contact
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?
Diagram illustrating how small fundamental particles are, showing scaling sizes from macroscopic matter to quarks. It details crystal, atom, atomic nucleus, and nucleon sizes in meters, ranging from 10^-9 m to
When we divide matter into its fundamental, indivisible components, are those particles truly point-like, or is there a finite minimum size?
World map showing temperature changes from 1880 to 2024, with warmer regions in red and cooler areas in blue. A timeline runs from 1880 to 2024 at the bottom.
The primary causes of global climate change are all due to human activity. Adding aerosols to our atmosphere only exacerbates the problem.
black hole merger
The ultimate multi-messenger astronomy event would have gravitational waves, particles, and light arriving all at once. Did that just occur?
Astronomical image of a young star system with labeled features: jet, conical outflow, dark lane, possible spiral, disk, tail, and a scale marking 300 astronomical units.
A young, nearby, massive star, whose protoplanetary disk appears perfectly edge-on, was just viewed by JWST, with staggering implications.
Five men, immersed in conversation, sit indoors on a blanket, eating from metal bowls. Despite the cloud of ignorance surrounding them about modern science, they share stories and laughter as a red bowl rests prominently at their center.
If we wish to tackle the very real problems society faces, we require expert-level knowledge. Valuing it starts earlier than we realize.