The universe is out there, waiting for you to discover it.
Our mission: to answer, scientifically, the biggest questions of all.
- What is our universe made of?
- How did it become the way it is today?
- Where did everything come from?
- What is the ultimate fate of the cosmos?
For countless generations, these were questions without resolutions. Now, for the first time in history, we have scientific answers. Starts With A Bang, written by Dr. Ethan Siegel, brings these stories — of what we know and how we know it — directly to you.
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Featured
Nuclear fusion explained
Why power generated through nuclear fusion will be the future, but not the present, solution to humanity’s energy needs.
It’s a strange idea to consider: that a tiny building block of matter, the atomic nucleus, holds the greatest potential for energy release.
And yet, it’s true; while electron transitions in atoms or molecules typically release energy on the order of ~1 electron-Volt, nuclear transitions between different configurations release energies a million times as great, on the order of ~1 Mega-electron-Volt.
Popular
The Universe is already in its sixth and final era
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
This is why physicists suspect the Multiverse very likely exists
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
The red color of Mars is only inches deep
The surface and atmosphere is colored by ferric oxides. Beneath a very thin layer, mere millimeters deep in places, it’s not red anymore.
Record-breaking supernova manages to “X-ray” the entire Universe
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
Does the expansion of the Universe break the speed of light?
Just 13.8 billion years after the hot Big Bang, we can see 46.1 billion light-years away in all directions. Doesn’t that violate…something?
All Stories
Ask Ethan: What would an antimatter black hole teach us?
Everything is made of matter, not antimatter, including black holes. If antimatter black holes existed, what would they do?
Why is the sky blue? Why is the ocean blue? The answers aren’t the same.
The sky is blue. The oceans are blue. While science can explain them both, the reasons for each are entirely different.
Did the Milky Way lose its black hole?
At four million solar masses, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole is quite small for a galaxy its size. Did we lose the original?
Einstein was right. Flying clocks around the world in opposite directions proved it.
Time isn't the same for everyone, even on Earth. Flying around the world gave Einstein the ultimate test. No one is immune from relativity.
Black hole science enters its golden age
The idea of black holes has been around for over 200 years. Today, we're seeing them in previously unimaginable ways.
Everything we now know about the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
After years of analysis, the Event Horizon Telescope team has finally revealed what the Milky Way's central black hole looks like.
Ask Ethan: Why is fusion in stars different than during the Big Bang?
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.
Sodium and water react, and quantum physics explains why
Drop sodium in water, and a violent, even explosive reaction will occur. But quantum physics is needed to explain why.
Can the new-and-improved Large Hadron Collider save particle physics?
The Standard Model may or may not be in trouble, but particle physics definitely needs saving. Here's what the new LHC can do.
What happens when the Universe turns up the heat?
Everything that gets heated up has to, somehow, radiate that energy away. Here's what we see when that happens in the Universe.
Starts With A Bang podcast #81: The 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.
Ask Ethan: Did all life begin from a single, ancient cell?
Probably not. Even though we're still investigating the origin of life, the evidence suggests that cells came much later.
Meet the one NASA mission that could save us from extinction
Most potentially hazardous asteroids remain unidentified. NEO surveyor could change that, but only if it's funded, and soon.
Is life possible on Mars?
Was there ever life on Mars? Is there life on Mars now? Did it originate there or here, on Earth? All possibilities are fascinating.
Why “distance” is not what it seems in the expanding Universe
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.
How the James Webb Space Telescope beat all expectations
It was supposed to have a 5.5-10 year lifetime, and take 6 months to calibrate. It's performing better than anyone anticipated.
Ask Ethan: Could a big enough telescope see aliens directly?
If there are human-sized creatures walking around on other planets, would we be able to view them directly?
Invisibility cloaks are not just possible, but are becoming reality
Two types of nanotechnology, metalenses and metamaterials, could soon make Harry Potter's invisibility cloak a reality.
I’m a PhD astrophysicist, and I once saw a UFO
It didn't look like anything I'd seen before, but I'd be a great fool to consider "aliens" as a reasonable possibility.
Does time really exist?
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?
What we’ve learned after 32 years of NASA’s Hubble
When the Hubble Space Telescope first launched in 1990, there was so much we didn't know. Here's how far we've come.
Ask Ethan: How can science PhDs succeed outside of academia?
You've spent almost a decade gaining extremely specialized skills. But that's ok; your value is greater than you realize.
Beyond solid, liquid, and gas: the 7 states of matter
At very high and very low temperatures, matter takes on properties that open up an entire Universe of remarkable new possibilities.
Ring galaxies, the rarest in the Universe, finally explained
Spirals, ellipticals, and irregulars are all more common than ring galaxies. At last, we know how these ultra-rare objects are made.
What happens if the Solar System’s largest comet collides with Earth?
The recently discovered Oort cloud comet, Bernardinelli–Bernstein, has the largest known nucleus: 119 km. Here's what it could do to Earth.
A quasar-galaxy hybrid could be astronomy’s “missing link”
Single objects rarely change the course of an entire scientific field. Distant object GNz7q, a galaxy-quasar hybrid, might do exactly that.
Ask Ethan: Why is the Universe electrically neutral?
For some reason, the charges on the electron and proton are equal and opposite, and their numbers are equal, too. But why?
Most distant laser ever found in a galaxy 6.6 billion light-years away
Forget about the terawatt lasers we're making on Earth. This natural one is thousands of times more powerful than the Sun.
Is the Universe 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?
Einstein wasn’t a “lone genius” after all
Even the most brilliant mind in history couldn't have achieved all he did without significant help from the minds of others.