Universe Expansion

Universe Expansion

A digital illustration of a stereotypical alien figure, inspired by concepts of extraterrestrial life, featuring a large bald head, big dark eyes, and a small mouth on a pale yellow background.
5mins
Dr. Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist, who is questioning the very nature of life and how we’re attempting to find it elsewhere.
John Templeton Foundation
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?
earendel
The Hubble Space Telescope, 32 years after its launch, broke the all-time record for most distant star. It won't do better.
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.
earendel
The light from Earendel took 12.9 billion years to reach Hubble. The star is millions of times brighter than our Sun and 50 times as massive.
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.
dark energy
To answer any physical question, you must ask the Universe itself. But what happens when the answers aren't around anymore?
every square degree
Even a tiny sliver of the Universe can reveal the cosmic story of what's out there and how it came to be the way it is today.
cosmic dark ages
The James Webb Space Telescope could help scientists learn about the cosmic dark ages and how they ended.
round
In 1990, we only knew of the planets in our own Solar System. Today, the exoplanet count is more than 5000. Here's what we've learned.
coldest place in the universe
Empty, intergalactic space is just 2.725 K: not even three degrees above absolute zero. But the Boomerang Nebula is even colder.
james webb spikes
When we started imaging the Universe with Hubble, every star had four "spikes" coming from it. Here's why Webb will have more.
The far infrared reveals both the coldest and hottest gas in the Universe, and can teach us what no other wavelength range can.
planets march 2022
In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.
existence of God
Despite all that we've learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could "God" be the answer?
how much dark matter
If dark matter exists in a large halo in our galaxy, made up of particles, then it's passing through us constantly. But how much?
hot big bang
When we look out at the Universe, even with Hubble, we're only seeing the closest, biggest, brightest galaxies. Here's where the rest are.
largest planet
There's a limit to how large planets can be, and it's only about double the radius of Jupiter. At least, so far.
amateur astronomy
Professional astronomy images are the gold standard. But this Large Magellanic Cloud composite is the amateur community's best image ever.
is the multiverse real
Is the multiverse real? It's one of the hottest questions in all of theoretical physics. We invited two astrophysicists to join the debate.
chirality
Life is possible because of asymmetries, such as an imbalance between matter and antimatter and the "handedness" (chirality) of molecules.
galaxies without dark matter
Out of all the galaxies we know, only a few little ones are missing dark matter. At last, we finally understand why.
black hole hit Earth
The odds are slim, but the consequences would be devastating. Here's what would happen, plus how to avoid it.
symmetric
If the electromagnetic and weak forces unify to make the electroweak force, maybe, at even higher energies, something even greater happens?
A rocket launching into space.
Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022.