Cosmology

Cosmology

particle accelerator
Giant particle accelerators aren't a waste of money. They are essential for understanding the Universe.
In all of science, no figures have changed the world more than Einstein and Newton. Will anyone ever be as revolutionary again?
infinity
And if it does, could we ever measure it?
standard model color
The Standard Model of elementary particles has three nearly identical copies of particles: generations. And nobody knows why.
multiverse
There is nothing more important to science than its ability to prove ideas wrong.
Illustration of a black hole in space with a glowing accretion disk and a stream of stars or gas being pulled toward it.
According to renowned physicist Christophe Galfard, physics can’t explain our universe - yet.
John Templeton Foundation
The observable Universe is 92 billion light-years in diameter. These pictures put just how large that is in perspective.
galaxy cluster colors
Over time, the Universe becomes less dominated by dark matter and more dominated by dark energy. Is one transforming into the other?
"The pulsar sort of consumes the thing that recycled it, just as the spider eats its mate.”
big crunch
13.8 billion years ago, the hot Big Bang gave rise to the Universe we know. Here's why the reverse, a Big Crunch, isn't how it will end.
Voyager 1
In all of human history, only 5 spacecraft have had the right trajectory to exit the Solar System. Will they ever catch Voyager 1?
black hole spacetime
Everything is made of matter, not antimatter, including black holes. If antimatter black holes existed, what would they do?
round
In Sun-like stars, hydrogen gets fused into helium. In the Big Bang, hydrogen fusion also makes helium. But they aren't close to the same.
standard model structure
The Standard Model may or may not be in trouble, but particle physics definitely needs saving. Here's what the new LHC can do.
local bubble
For a thousand light-years in all directions, there's a "bubble" that the Sun sits at the center of. Here's the story behind it.
James Webb Hubble
Look out at a distant object, and you're not seeing it as it is today. It's size, brightness, and actual distance are all different.
singularity
Singularities frustrate our understanding. But behind every singularity in physics hides a secret door to a new understanding of the world.
time
We take for granted that time is real. But what if it's only an illusion, and a relative illusion at that? Does time even exist?
helium 3
Ancient helium-3 from the dawn of time leaks from the Earth, offering clues to our planet’s formation. A key question is where it leaks from.
A surreal painting ponders is time travel possible, with melting clocks draped over a tree, ledge, and abstract form in a barren landscape against distant cliffs.
Theoretical physicist Brian Greene explores the potential particles of time and why we could, in theory, travel forward in time but not back.
John Templeton Foundation
finite or infinite
As far as we can tell, there's no limit to how far it goes on; only a limit to how far we can see. Could the Universe truly be infinite?
farthest galaxy
We've fooled ourselves before with galaxies that look just like this one. The evidence we have simply isn't strong enough.
In the latest edition of the Starts With A Bang podcast, we talk with soon-to-be Dr. Arianna Long about galaxies, from birth to today.
cosmic rays
Our Universe requires dark matter in order to make sense of things, astrophysically. Could massive photons do the trick?
Illustration of two hands touching or aligning a series of parallel lines and chevron patterns, all overlaid with a blue filter, evoking the precision and symmetry often found in mathematics.
5mins
Michio Kaku believes math is the mind of God.
John Templeton Foundation
The story of how Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were made isn't a universal one. Some gas giants were built different.
gravitational waves
To study the origin of the Universe, we could build a constellation of six expensive spacecraft — or we could just use the Moon.
how many planets
For some reason, when we talk about the age of stars, galaxies, and the Universe, we use "years" to measure time. Can we do better?
Galactic archaeology has uncovered a spectacular find: the Milky Way already existed more than 13 billion years ago.