Cosmology

Cosmology

An image of an e - ring in space.
Here's why the answer may forever elude scientists.
A vibrant, high-resolution image of a spiral galaxy with rich clusters of stars and interstellar dust, where most stars formed.
Today, the star-formation rate across the Universe is a mere trickle: just 3% of what it was at its peak. Here's what it was like back then.
An artist's illustration of a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk and relativistic jets.
As early as we've been able to identify them, the youngest galaxies seem to have large supermassive black holes. Here's how they were made.
A stylized illustration of the timeline of the universe, depicting major events from the big bang through the cosmic dark ages to the modern era.
For 550 million years, neutral atoms blocked the light made in stars from traveling freely through the Universe. Here's how it then changed.
A digitally rendered image of a black hole with surrounding accretion disk and stars, depicting the era of the first galaxies.
Even after the first stars form, those overdense regions gravitationally attract matter and also merge. Here's how they grow into galaxies.
Four different images of supernova remnants from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory
The first stars took tens or even hundreds of millions of years to form, and then died in the cosmic blink of an eye. Here's how.
An artist's impression of a cluster of stars.
The Big Bang's hot glow faded away after only a few million years, leaving the Universe dark until the first stars formed. Oh, the changes!
The ring nebula in space.
The Universe is an amazing place. Under the incredible, infrared gaze of JWST, it's coming into focus better than ever before.
An image of a spiral galaxy in the night sky.
Physicists have yet to pinpoint the hypothetical matter that keeps galaxies from flying apart. Now they have a new focus.
This description features an image of a black hole and an image of a spiral galaxy, breaking the barriers of 10 biggest physics astronomy lies.
Misinformation was extremely popular in 2023, as bad science often made global headlines. Learn the truth behind these 10 dubious stories.
fusion power
In our Universe, matter is made of particles, while antimatter is made of antiparticles. But sometimes, the physical lines get real blurry.
Digital artwork of celestial nebula texture applied to a tessellated shape on a purple grid background, where no stars existed.
Atomic nuclei form in minutes. Atoms form in hundreds of thousands of years. But the "dark ages" rule thereafter, until stars finally form.
An aerial view of a river.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, matter can escape the center of the Earth.
Illustration of a spacecraft, an astronaut, and a planet against a dark purple background.
35mins
Kmele talked with a planetary scientist, a physicist, and a futurist, to understand how visionaries across disciplines are thinking about the future of our planet and humankind.
Image of a JWST deep field, showing a lensed cluster of galaxies containing the early black hole CEERS 1019
Since JWST first glimpsed the Universe, we've entered a new era in understanding the earliest objects in the Universe. What have we learned?
A diagram of a galaxy with a blue circle representing the first atoms in the middle.
The first elements in the Universe formed just minutes after the Big Bang, but it took hundreds of thousands of years before atoms formed.
A mesmerizing starry sky with shooting stars and a majestic tree.
Each December, the Geminid meteor shower puts on a show for skywatchers across Earth. With a new Moon at 2023's peak, it'll be outstanding!
a visualization showing the view from inside the inner event horizon of a Kerr black hole
The brilliant mind who discovered the spacetime solution for rotating black holes claims singularities don't physically exist. Is he right?
An image of an ancient black hole
The Big Bang theory is not threatened, but astrophysicists have some explaining to do.
An visualization of dark matter across the universe
The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
A composite image showing the sun in two different wavelengths of light, highlighting its dynamic surface, magnetic activity, and the first elements formed.
In the early stages of the hot Big Bang, there were only free protons and neutrons: no atomic nuclei. How did the first elements form from them?
A digital abstract composition with dynamic white lines and swirls on a black background, incorporating some blue rectangular shapes that appear to disappear like antimatter.
In the early stages of the hot Big Bang, matter and antimatter were (almost) balanced. After a brief while, matter won out. Here's how.
JADES galaxies
In 2022, Hubble owned the record for most distant galaxy. Today, that galaxy is down to the 9th most distant object. Thanks, JWST.
Diagram illustrating the phase transition between hadronic matter, where protons and neutrons are formed, and quark-gluon plasma as a function of temperature and density.
For a substantial fraction of a second after the Big Bang, there was only a quark-gluon plasma. Here's how protons and neutrons arose.
higgs event atlas detector CERN LHC
In the very early Universe, practically all particles were massless. Then the Higgs symmetry broke, and suddenly everything was different.
A diagram showing the difference between matter and antimatter.
In the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang, equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have existed. Why aren't they equal today?
A graphical representation illustrating the concept of the big bang and the subsequent expansion of the universe, depicted by a transition from a singular point of energy to a wide, grid-like spread of galaxies and celestial elements
When the hot Big Bang first occurred, the Universe reached a maximum temperature never recreated since. What was it like back then?
Visualization of the timeline of the universe, from the beginning big bang to the present.
Some 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe became hot, dense, and filled with high-energy quanta all at once. Here's what it was like.
Diagram of the expanding universe concept with cosmic inflation, light cone, and time axis.
Cosmic inflation is the state that preceded and set up the hot Big Bang. Here's what the Universe was like during that time period.
An image of a nebula surrounded by stars, fine-tuned for life within its cosmic expanse.
Two of the answers add a dimension to physics that doesn’t belong there. Maybe we could call it "astrotheology."