Astrophysics

Astrophysics

cosmic inflation
Today, our observable Universe extends for 46 billion light-years in all directions. But early on in our history, things were much smaller.
The concept of the warp drive is currently at odds with everything we know to be true about physics.
young exoplanetary system PDS 70
The giant impact theory suggests our Moon was formed from proto-Earth getting a Mars-sized strike. An exoplanet system shows it's plausible.
JADES galaxies
For many years, cosmologists have claimed the Universe is 13.8 billion years old. A new paper says no, it's 26.7 billion. How do we decide?
string theory e(8)
If you've found yourself befuddled by extraordinary scientific-sounding claims, you're not alone. But this centuries-old lesson can help.
stephan's quintet miri JWST
What are supermassive black holes, how common are they, and how do they grow up throughout cosmic history? Listen and find out!
a painting of a group of people drinking in a room, depicting the extinction of gatherings.
The separation of pleasure from procreation may occur throughout the cosmos, providing an explanation for the Fermi Paradox.
breakthrough starshot
A Harvard astronomer went to the bottom of the ocean, claiming he recovered alien technology. But what does the science actually indicate?
an image of a nebula with TRAPPIST stars in it.
The space telescope's findings challenge the notion of a galaxy brimming with life.
flight through universe CEERS JWST NASA
From the present day all the way to less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, we're seeing how the Universe grew up like never before.
a large white dome in the middle of a city.
Get ready for the most peculiar road trip that will help you understand the vastness and emptiness of the solar system — and Sweden.
Black hole jet shadow M87
Some 55 million light-years away lies the giant galaxy Messier 87. Its supermassive black hole, inside and out, looks better than ever.
distant quasar
Headlines have blared that quasar ticking confirms that time passed more slowly in the early Universe. That's not how any of this works.
use lasers keep track of moon nasa
For thousands of years, we puzzled at how far away the Moon was. Today we know its distance, at any time, to within millimeters.
Saturn and Saturn's rings JWST
While Saturn and its moons all appear faint and cloudy to JWST, Saturn's rings are the star of the show. Here's the big scientific reason.
a group of rocks with blue light coming from them.
Lost in a building or underwater? A new muon-based navigation system could be your guide.
map with 68 millisecond pulsars
After 15 years of monitoring 68 objects known as millisecond pulsars, we've found the Universe's background gravitational wave signal!
a red planet with stars in the background.
In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.
big bang mirage
A cute mathematical trick can "rescale" the Universe so that it isn't actually expanding. But can that "trick" survive all our cosmic tests?
an artist's rendering of a black hole in the sky.
In a distant galaxy, a cosmic dance between two supermassive black holes emits periodic flashes of light.
blue marble not 24 hours apollo 17
As the Earth spins and wobbles on its axis and revolves elliptically around the Sun, each day changes from the last. "24 hours" isn't right.
JWST deep field vs hubble
The farther away they get, the smaller distant galaxies look. But only up to a point, and beyond that, they appear larger again. Here’s how.
a black and white photo with a yellow background.
From a photon's viewpoint, the Universe is timeless and dimensionless.
a drawing of a spiral with a space in the background.
The multiverse pushes beyond the limits of the scientific method. From our vantage point in the Universe, we cannot know if it's real.
a man in a lab coat looking at a machine.
The familiar terrain of solids, liquids, and gases gives way to the exotic realms of plasmas and degenerate matter.
a close up of two stars in the sky.
In many ways, we are still novices playing with toy models seeking to understand the stars. 
earth axis shift
Despite the enormous mass of the Earth, simply depleting our groundwater is changing our axial tilt. Simple Newtonian physics explains why.
atom quantum
In physics, we reduce things to their elementary, fundamental components, and build emergent things out of them. That's not the full story.
cold fuzzy dark matter simulations
In a far-reaching discovery with astrophysicist Karolina Garcia, we discuss what's in the Universe and how it grew up.
zelda depths reionization
What do the dark recesses of the early Universe and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom have in common? More than you could have ever hoped for.