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Dark Matter
CERN's NA64 experiment used a high-energy muon beam technique to advance the elusive search for dark matter, offering new hope for solving one of astronomy's greatest mysteries.
There are two different ways to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, and they don't agree. And no, new measurements don't help.
The Universe is precisely dated at 13.8 billion years old, but astronomers claim the Methuselah star is 14.5 billion years old. What gives?
Predicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here's why it remains fascinating.
The expanding Universe, in many ways, is the ultimate out-of-equilibrium system. After enough time passes, will we eventually get there?
For nearly 25 years, we thought we knew how the Universe would end. Now, new measurements point to a profoundly different conclusion.
Scientists are searching for dark matter particles that are trillions or even quadrillion times lighter than the more traditional searches.
The mutual distance between well-separated galaxies increases with time as the Universe expands. What else expands, and what doesn't?
We normally think of dark matter as the "glue" that holds galaxies and larger structures together. But it's so much more than that.
There are many theories of gravity out there, and many interpretations of wide binary star data. What have we really learned from it all?
From the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang (and even before) to our dark energy-dominated present, how and when did the Universe grow up?
Our Universe requires dark matter in order to make sense of things, astrophysically. Could massive photons do the trick?
The majority of the matter in our Universe isn't made of any of the particles in the Standard Model. Could the axion save the day?
The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, going back to the hot Big Bang. But was that truly the beginning, and is that truly its age?
A great many cosmic puzzles still remain unsolved. By embracing a broad and varied approach, particle physics heads toward a bright future.
There are a wide variety of theoretical studies that call our Standard Model of cosmology into question. Here's what they really mean.
Ground-based facilities enable the greatest scientific production in all of astronomy. The NSF needs to be ambitious, and it's now or never.
Almost every large structure in the Universe displays a 5:1 dark matter-to-normal matter ratio. Here's how some galaxies defy that rule.
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is both completely normal and absolutely remarkable in a number of ways. Here's the story of our cosmic home.
Astronomers claim to have found structures so large, they shouldn't exist. With such biased, incomplete observations, perhaps they don't.
Observations of an enormous cosmic structure, dubbed the "Big Ring," seem to violate the Copernican principle.
For every proton, there were over a billion others that annihilated away with an antimatter counterpart. So where did all that energy go?
Finding it at all was a happy accident. Examining it further may help unlock the secrets hiding within the earliest galaxies of all.
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.
Even after the first stars form, those overdense regions gravitationally attract matter and also merge. Here's how they grow into galaxies.
The first stars in the Universe were made of pristine material: hydrogen and helium alone. Once they die, nothing escapes their pollution.
From how life emerged on Earth to why we dream, these unanswered questions continue to perplex scientists.
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!
Physicists have yet to pinpoint the hypothetical matter that keeps galaxies from flying apart. Now they have a new focus.
Misinformation was extremely popular in 2023, as bad science often made global headlines. Learn the truth behind these 10 dubious stories.