Ethan Siegel
A theoretical astrophysicist and science writer, host of popular podcast “Starts with a Bang!”
Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of "Starts with a Bang!" He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His two books "Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive" and "Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe" are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on Twitter @startswithabang.
There are two fundamentally different ways of measuring the Universe’s expansion. They disagree. “Early dark energy” might save us.
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
The Solar System isn’t a vortex, but rather the sum of all our great cosmic motions. Here’s how we move through space.
Some stars burn through their fuel as expected, and die of natural causes. But others, instead, get murdered. Here’s their story.
With advanced laser technology and an appropriate sail, we could accelerate objects to ~20% the speed of light. But would they survive?
Particle physics needs a new collider to supersede the Large Hadron Collider. Muons, not electrons or protons, might hold the key.
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
Known as primordial black holes, they could thoroughly change our Universe’s history. But the evidence is strongly against them.
For many, it was just a successful launch like any other. But for scientists around the globe, it was a victory few dared to imagine.
Even with leap years and long-term planning, our calendar won’t be good forever. Here’s why, and how to fix it.
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
Developing an awareness of and an appreciation for science is what we all truly need, not what we’ve been doing.
We know it couldn’t have began from a singularity. So how small could it have been at the absolute minimum?
We don’t know with 100% certainty where SARS-CoV-2 first came from or how it first infected humans. But not all options are equally likely.
With launch, deployment, calibration, and science operations about to commence, here are 10 facts that are absolutely true.
The photometric filters for the Vera Rubin Observatory are complete and showcase why they are indispensable for astronomy.
Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where’s everyone else?
How can you “touch the Sun” if you’ve always been inside the solar corona, yet will never reach the Sun’s photosphere?
From exoplanets to supermassive black holes to the first stars and galaxies, Webb will show us the Universe as we’ve never seen it before.
After more than two decades of precision measurements, we’ve now reached the “gold standard” for how the pieces don’t fit.
After decades of development, whether NASA’s Webb succeeds or fails all comes down to five critical milestones that are only days away.
The same (former) NASA engineer who previously claimed to violate Newton’s laws is now claiming to have made a warp bubble. He didn’t.
Every December, the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak. Its 2021 show will be spectacular, but only if you do it right.
Even without the greatest individual scientist of all, every one of his great scientific advances would still have occurred. Eventually.
Binary black holes eventually inspiral and merge. That’s why the OJ 287 system is destined for the most energetic event in history.
Our Solar System’s outer reaches, and what’s in them, was predicted long before the first Oort Cloud object was ever discovered.
As particles travel through the Universe, there’s a speed limit to how fast they’re allowed to go. No, not the speed of light: below it.
Previously, only the brightest and most active galaxies could pierce the obscuring wall of cosmic dust. At last, normal galaxies break through.
No matter how controversial or politicized our world becomes, science remains humanity’s best tool for figuring out how things work.
The stars, planets, and many moons are extremely round. Why don’t they take other shapes?