How Worlds Thought in the 1960s to be Circling Barnard’s Star Turned out to be Illusions. Image via: http://www.wingmakers.co.nz/universe/extrasolar/Barnards.html. In this golden age of exoplanet discovery, it is hard to […]
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It’s been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang, but our observable Universe is much bigger than just 13.8 billion light years! Image credit: NASA; ESA; G. Illingworth, D. Magee, […]
There have been many supernovae in the Milky Way seen over the past 2,000 years, but nobody ever saw the most recent ones! Image credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/K.Borkowski et al. “When I […]
The incredible story of a single simple atom, that just happens to be in your body right now! Image credit: Richard Crisp, via http://www.narrowbandimaging.com/incoming/horse_ap155edf_pl39k_lrgb_15hrs.jpg. “The atoms come into my brain, […]
Every letter holds a special story for those who marvel at the Universe. “When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off.” –Vanna White […]
How the Solar Eclipse of 1919 changed our understanding of the Universe forever. “Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate. One thing at least is certain, light has weight. One […]
How the Cosmic Microwave Background — the Big Bang’s leftover radiation glow — continues to shed light on the birth of our Universe. Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration. The announcement of the […]
How to destroy an Alderaan-sized planet. “What’s that star?It’s the Death Star.What does it do?It does Death. It does Death, buddy. Get out of my way!” –Eddie Izzard It’s one […]
The last object in the entire Messier Catalogue is faint, elusive, and the most common type of galaxy in the Universe! Image credit: Adam Block / NOAO / AURA / […]
“I personally most fear the technology that allows invasion of our thoughts, our feelings, our aspirations, our intellectual achievements,” actor James Woods told Futurescape in this interview. “The notion of […]
It’s the greatest cosmic masquerade of all: a star that fakes its own death! “If you are a dreamer come inIf you are a dreamer a wisher a liarA hoper a […]
Look up after sunset for the most reliable meteor shower of the year: the Perseids, and learn where they come from! Image credit: Michael Menefee (Fort Photo on flickr), via […]
How we discovered what the Universe was made of when it first formed. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PSU/K. Getman et al.; IRL NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J. Wang et al. “The nitrogen in our DNA, […]
An ancient relic from the young Universe is covered in surprising riches near the galactic center. Image credit: Paul Chasse (astronewb11) of flickr, via https://www.flickr.com/photos/astronewb2011/7247070648/. “Ancients knew that you need […]
They’re one of the great undetected predictions of dark matter, and we may have just found the first ones! “Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest […]
One of the few supposedly silver linings to be found in the dark cloud of global warming is its effect on agriculture (at least in some regions). As optimists and […]
I’ve written a guest post over at Dean Burnett’s Guardian Science blog about an important piece of information that is not getting through to people who have had brain injuries. See […]
Even for city dwellers, the wonders of a dark, night sky might be closer than you imagine. “Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.” –Walt Whitman It was just […]
While this robot may provide security, some experts also fear its monitoring capabilities will further erode personal privacy.
Recently a good friend told me over a pint in our local pub that he hadn’t been able to sleep a wink for two nights. He’d been left traumatised by […]
Even at the speed of light, you’ll never reach these galaxies. “I realise now that I wanted to disappear. To get so lost that nobody ever found me. To go […]
Professor David Nutt who was recently awarded the Nature/Sense About Science prize for standing up for science, this month gave a short talk at Bristol TEDx which might make you […]
The way they form is amazing enough, but then the time-lapse video left me speechless. “Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There […]
When things don’t add up, it’s a great sign that something amazing is right around the corner. Every Thursday, we take an older post from the Starts With A Bang archives […]
What everyone should know about where our matter-and-radiation-filled Universe came from. “I don’t think at this point we have any way of knowing where the laws of physics came from. We […]
If we wanted to know how cold it is now and was in the distant past, how would we figure it out? “Science casts a long black shadow back over who […]
It’s one of the most bragged-about vehicle specs of any racing enthusiast. But what, exactly, does it mean? “Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car.Oversteer […]
Here’s what it would look like if we started dreaming again. “There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program — your tax-dollar will go further.” –Wernher von Braun […]
The brightest “planetary nebula” is actually a Sun-like star in its final death throes! “When he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face […]
The annual rite of February’s African-American History Month in America feels more and more like a mixed blessing with each passing year. On one hand, setting aside time to learn […]