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Astrophysics
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?
Why aliens might not “speak physics” the same way we do
Physicist Daniel Whiteson challenges the notion that all intelligent species would eventually uncover the same laws of nature. Do you agree?
Where does the expanding Universe begin?
The planet, the Solar System, and the galaxy aren't expanding. But the whole Universe is. So where does the dividing line begin?
5 undeniable, truthful facts about dark matter
Dark matter has never been directly detected, but the astronomical evidence for its existence is overwhelming. Here's what to know.
We still don’t know how “hot” the hot Big Bang was
We've long known we can't go back to infinite temperatures and densities. But the hottest part of the hot Big Bang remains a cosmic mystery.
Is our first “galaxy-quasar hybrid” also a Little Red Dot?
Found by Hubble before JWST's launch, GNz7q looked like a mix of a galaxy and a quasar. Was it actually our first known "little red dot"?
The true cost of “solar power at night” with Reflect Orbital
Solar power has the disadvantage that there's no Sun at night. Satellite startup Reflect Orbital wants to change that, but at what cost?
Starts With A Bang podcast #122 – Galaxy evolution and JWST
To learn how our Universe grew up, we have to look at large numbers of galaxies at all distances to find out. Good thing we have JWST!
Ask Ethan: How many generations of stars came before the Sun?
Our Sun only arose after 9.2 billion years of cosmic history: with many stars living and dying first. How many prior generations were there?
400 years later, astronomers finally understand Saturn’s rings
Since the time of Galileo, Saturn's rings have remained an unexplained mystery. A new idea may have finally solved the longstanding puzzle.
COSMOS-Web unveils JWST’s newest gravitational lenses
By deeply imaging a large volume of space, COSMOS-Web provides JWST's widest cosmic views. Its gravitational lenses reveal a big surprise.
Ask Ethan: How and when will the Universe die?
As the Universe ages, it continues to gravitate, form stars, and expand. And yet, all this will someday end. Do we finally understand how?
What do distant observers see when they look at Earth?
From here on Earth, looking farther away in space means looking farther back in time. So what are distant Earth-watchers seeing right now?
Thousands of NASA employees to bid farewell to the NASA they knew
As October begins, thousands of longtime NASA employees are leaving the agency. 4000+ will exit by January 9, 2026, changing NASA forever.
Ask Ethan: Where are we located relative to the Big Bang?
If you think of the Big Bang as an explosion, we can trace it back to a single point-of-origin. But what if it happened everywhere at once?
Even before the Big Bang, space wasn’t truly empty
All of the matter that we measure today originated in the hot Big Bang. But even before that, and far into the future, it'll never be empty.
Ask Ethan: Where does cosmic dust come from?
Dust is ubiquitous in the modern Universe, appearing in nearly all galaxies. But our cosmos was born dust-free. So where does it originate?
Centuries before Stephen Hawking, an isolated priest imagined black holes
In this excerpt from "Facing Infinity," Jonas Enander examines how John Michell conceived of "dark stars," or massive bodies with enough gravity to trap light, all the way back in 1783.
Starts With A Bang podcast #121 – Direct exoplanet imaging
Going back to 1990, we hadn't even found one planet outside of our Solar System. As we close in on 6000, we now see many of them directly.
The Sun is fainter than the Moon, at least in gamma-rays
Across all wavelengths of light, the Sun is brighter than the Moon. Until we went to the highest energies and saw a gamma-ray surprise.
NASA to needlessly kill Juno mission to Jupiter this month
The Juno spacecraft, orbiting and imaging Jupiter since 2016, is still succeeding. Without a further extension, the mission now faces death.
See the whole Universe at once in this unique logarithmic view
As we look to larger cosmic scales, we get a broader view of the expansive cosmic forest, eventually revealing the grandest views of all.
Mass misconception: The real reason we can’t outpace light speed
Explanations for the cosmic speed limit often conflate mass with inertia.
SPHEREx and JWST reveal what comet 3I/ATLAS is… and isn’t
Designed to map galaxies, the SPHEREx mission's first science result is instead about interstellar interloper 3I/ATLAS. No, it's not aliens.
How a dead star carved the “Hand of God” in space
In our own Milky Way, a recently deceased star creates a ghostly, hand-like shape in X-rays some 150 light-years wide. Here's how it's made.
Ask Ethan: Can “zero-point energy” power the world?
Throughout history, "free energy" has been a scammer's game, such as perpetual motion. But with zero-point energy, is it actually possible?
Mapped: The boundaries of human perception
Science helps us imagine the vastness of space and time — and our small but meaningful place within it.
See the best night sky images from Capture the Dark 2025
Across planet Earth, dark and pristine night skies are an increasingly rare resource. These photos showcase the best of what we still have.
Does the Universe expand faster than the speed of light?
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?
At 36 billion solar masses, is the heaviest black hole too massive?
At the center of Hubble's famous "cosmic horseshoe," a very heavy supermassive black hole has been robustly measured. How is it possible?