Starts With A Bang

A dense starfield, with various colored stars shimmering through a dark cloud-like formation, lies against a deep black background in the mysterious zone of avoidance.
The Universe is out there, waiting to be discovered

Our mission is to answer the biggest questions of all, scientifically.

What is the 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 most of human history, these questions had no clear answers. Today, they do. Starts With a Bang, written by Dr. Ethan Siegel, explores what we know about the universe and how we came to know it, bringing the latest discoveries in cosmology and astrophysics directly to you.

with

Ethan Siegel is an award-winning PhD astrophysicist and the author of four books, including The Grand Cosmic Story, published by National Geographic.

Full Profile
A bald man with a long beard and handlebar mustache gestures with his hands against a backdrop of an upside-down cityscape wearing a purple shirt.
Groupthink in science isn’t a problem; it’s a myth
Scientists are notoriously resistant to new ideas. Are they falling prey to groupthink? Or are our current theories just that successful?

Ethan Siegel

solar system model
anitmatter annihilation
From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic structures of all, everything that exists depends on two things: charge and mass.
A spacecraft with a large reflective dish orbits above Earth, exploring the starry galaxy and cosmic backdrop. Its mission? To map galaxies and teach us what the CMB can't, unlocking cosmic mysteries.
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.
A galaxy with bright stars and swirling clouds of dust creates the largest galactic mosaic, set against a dark space backdrop.
The full extent of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to our own, has been entirely imaged with Hubble's exquisite cameras.
MACS J0717 galaxy cluster dark matter
Dark matter doesn't absorb or emit light, but it gravitates. Instead of something exotic and novel, could it just be dark, normal matter?
Group of people in a formal setting, with a man holding a large book, others standing nearby, and photographers capturing the scene. There is a large portrait and flags in the background.
We're all entitled to our own opinions, no matter how ill-informed they are. But facts are facts; we can't just choose the ones we prefer.
jwst
Asteroid 2024 YR4, which could devastate a city's worth of humans, has gone from 1.2% to 2.3% to 2.6% to 3.1% chances of impact. Here's why.
Illustration of a fiery star with a rocky exoplanet transiting in front, set against a starry background—a scene reminiscent of what the JWST might reveal as the exoplanet begins to vaporize from intense heat.
At extremely close distances to their stars, even rocky planets can be completely disintegrated. We've just caught our first one in action.