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.
How a telescope 100 times the size of Hubble is going to change everything. “For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like […]
Is it conserved? Destroyed? Radiated away? 40+ years on, we still don’t have answers. This article was contributed by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity and […]
Why do the asteroids that fall to Earth have the composition they do? A giant space collision 466 million years ago may be to blame. “Men of genius are often dull […]
It’s been going on ever since we first discovered the expansion, and there’s no resolution in sight. The discovery almost 100 years ago that the Universe was expanding was a revolution […]
Why weightlessness is possible, even if there’s no place you can hide from the Universe’s longest-range force. “It was a strange lightness, a drifting feeling. Zero gravity. I understood that […]
What it means that 2016 is the hottest year on record. “There are now dozens of hockey sticks and the all come to the same basic conclusion. The recent warming does […]
How the James Webb Space Telescope was made. “One way or another the first stars must have influenced our own history, beginning with stirring up everything and producing the other chemical […]
What caused the incredible eruption that Hubble caught on film? A predicted merger in 5 years might show us. “We have chased away the clouds, the sky is all ‘rose.’” –Francois […]
How to turn a galaxy on, once and for all. “Speculating and predicting what lies beyond the boundary is fascinating. Finding out is even more fascinating.” –Wallace H. Tucker When two […]
And when you demand ‘perfectly identical,’ just how high of a bar are you setting? “Lives are snowflakes — unique in detail, forming patterns we have seen before, but as like one another […]
Science, pictures, and a revolution in what we know is out there. “The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” –Edwin Hubble The Hubble Space Telescope took its first […]
Nearly 100 years after Hubble first showed us the Universe is expanding, we still don’t know its rate. “In the far, far future, essentially all matter will have returned to […]
If you think you can just take a test and demonstrate your scientific literacy, think again. “Through basic science literacy, people can understand the policy choices we need to be making. […]
Why it’s not “the next Hubble,” but “the first James Webb.” “…because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is […]
Only a few galaxies exhibit this green glow in the nearby Universe. At early times, it’s practically all of the brightest ones. “The discovery that young galaxies are so unexpectedly […]
And just what did come before — way before — the Big Bang? “We are part of the universe that has developed a remarkable ability: We can hold an image of the world in our […]
You’ve never seen a rogue planet like this. “Other galaxies like Andromeda are shooting these ‘spitballs’ at us all the time.” –James Guillochon, coauthor on the new study Black holes don’t […]
But not every location was created equal. “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. […]
Want the speed of light, the fine-structure constant or others to change? There’s a new obstacle to overcome. “The mystery about α is actually a double mystery. The first mystery — the […]
How sure are we that what we’re looking at is cosmic, rather than galactic? “Every philosophy also conceals a philosophy; every opinion is also a hideout, every word also a […]
If you “know” the answer before you ever begin, you might as well not even try. “I have difficulty to believe it, because nothing in Italy arrives ahead of time.” –Sergio […]
Just because we know it’s real doesn’t mean it’s easy to create in a lab. “For me the best answer is not in words but in measurements.” –Elena Aprile Atoms, molecules, […]
You don’t have to detect a particle to know that dark matter is real. “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.” –Clayton Christensen In the 1970s, Vera Rubin’s observations showed […]
If a prism can do it, why not the air? “It’s a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more […]
And even with them all in place, what do we still not know? “The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of […]
No one is right 100% of the time. Even the greatest genius of all. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” –Theodore Roosevelt […]
How Vera Rubin changed the Universe. “Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.” –Vera Rubin Look out at the night sky, and what do you see? […]
LIGO’s world-changing announcement was the beginning. The best is what comes next. “It’s the first time the universe has spoken to us through gravitational waves, up to now we’ve been deaf […]
The first ultra-deep, ultra-wide field view of the Universe heralded what the 2010s would bring. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal […]
If we left on New Years Day, how close could we get if we kept accelerating every second of every day? “The very closest stars would require many years to visit, […]