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.

proton internal structure
A proton is the only stable example of a particle composed of three quarks. But inside the proton, gluons, not quarks, dominate.
Six mesmerizing images, bathed in red hues, reveal distant galaxies—JWST's little red dots. Each is precisely labeled: CEERS 14448, NGDEEP 4321, PRIMER-COS 10539, CEERS 20320, JADES 9186, and PRIMER-UDS 17818—alongside their corresponding redshift values.
The discovery of ultra-bright, ultra-distant galaxies was JWST's first big surprise. They didn't "break the Universe," and now we know why.
A supermassive black hole caught turning on reveals a mesmerizing cosmic dance, with bright streams of light and colorful gases swirling around it against a starry backdrop.
Seven years ago, an outburst in a distant galaxy brightened and faded away. Afterward, a new supermassive black hole jet emerged, but how?
A vibrant cosmic scene reveals a galaxy with bright jets of energy, hottest stars twinkling vividly amidst scattered stars against a dark backdrop.
Here in our Universe, stars shine brightly, providing light and heat to planets, moons, and more. But some objects get even hotter, by far.
A bright star emits light in a field of smaller, scattered stars against a dark sky.
Most stars shine with properties, like brightness, that barely change at all with time. The ones that do vary help us unlock the Universe.
Diagram of particle interactions with wavy and straight lines, illustrating how photons mediate attraction and repulsion in various Feynman diagrams in particle physics.
The electromagnetic force can be attractive, repulsive, or "bendy," but is always mediated by the photon. How does one particle do it all?
A swirling black hole, prepared to suck in surrounding matter, features a glowing, distorted ring of light against a starry backdrop.
Many of us look at black holes as cosmic vacuum cleaners: sucking in everything in their vicinity. But it turns out they don't suck at all.