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
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
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.
A wild, compelling idea without a direct, practical test, the Multiverse is highly controversial. But its supporting pillars sure are stable.
The surface and atmosphere is colored by ferric oxides. Beneath a very thin layer, mere millimeters deep in places, it’s not red anymore.
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It’s unlike anything ever seen.
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
Without a boost, they’ll all come crashing down. “I’m here for several reason, Mr. Pepin, first of all for aid. When something tragic happens in our skies, we do our utmost […]
A view that no one ever had — not even from space — until Astronaut Don Pettit changed everything with these stunning photographs. “This job is a great scientific adventure. But it’s also a […]
Should George Clooney’s character have floated away? Or do the laws of physics tell a different story? “You’ve got to learn to let go.” –Matt Kowalski, Gravity The movies play […]
And if relativity tells us there’s no such thing as “absolute motion,” how do we measure it? “The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less about […]
A stunning new image of ALMA’s protoplanetary disk sheds light on planetary formation. “TW Hydrae is quite special. It is the nearest known protoplanetary disc to Earth and it may […]
1604 is the last time a human saw one with their naked eyes, but that wasn’t the most recent one at all. “When a star goes supernova, the explosion emits enough […]
Geology rocks! “Nobility, without virtue, is a fine setting without a gem.” –Jane Porter There are plenty of people out there who’ll give you a rundown of what your birthstone […]
How colliding galaxy clusters emit the most spectacular fireworks, if only you look beyond what your eyes can see! “Every single time you make a merger, somebody is losing his identity. […]
Thanks to the generous contributions of our Patreon supporters (which includes many of you), Starts With A Bang has now been creating free-to-listen-and-download podcasts for the past six months, including […]
If they shoot out straight lines of high-energy particles, why do they carve bubble-like shapes? “When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up […]
Everything else has a 5:1 dark matter-to-normal matter ratio. But get a smaller and smaller galaxy, and dark matter skyrockets! “For the moment we might very well can them DUNNOS […]
It’s said to be the majority of matter in the Universe, but how sure are we of that? “For the moment we might very well call them DUNNOS (for Dark Unknown […]
Those white spots are still salt, but there’s so much more there! “Although impact processes dominate the surface geology on Ceres, we have identified specific color variations on the surface […]
There’s been a small but significant excess observed, and a new particle is one possible explanation. What will it mean? “I’m a fan of supersymmetry, largely because it seems to be […]
Including the most massive star ever discovered in the Universe. “The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one;Yet the light of the bright world dies with the […]
Our Universe is becoming colder, sparser and emptier. But is that its inevitable, ultimate fate? “Quintessence is a dynamic, time-evolving, and spatially dependent form of energy with negative pressure sufficient to […]
Some were kicked out of their Solar Systems at the beginning, while others never had a parent star at all. “The truth is you can be orphaned again and again and […]
It won’t mean that global warming has stopped, but that won’t stop the usual suspects from making their anti-science claims. “…as a scientist I was trained you always have to […]
Even most of the pros don’t know all 10. This post was contributed to Starts With A Bang by Sabine Hossenfelder. Sabine is a theoretical physicist specialized in quantum gravity […]
And it reveals the future of our galaxy’s unborn stars. “True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.” –Jean Cocteau Our atmosphere […]
And what would that mean if it were one? “It is in the theory of perception that we have established our bond, or the lie I should say, for which we […]
No. Not even if you violate the laws of physics in two fundamental ways. John Oliver: So, roughly speaking, what are the chances that the world is going to be […]
LIGO was just the beginning of this new field of science, but a different experiment will lead the quantum breakthrough! “If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you […]
Forget those WIMPy WIMPs, and move on up to WIMPzillas! “Eight solid light-years of lead…is the thickness of that metal in which you would need to encase yourself if you […]
No matter what the editorials in the Wall Street Journal say. “The fundamental choice is not whether humans will have faith, but rather what the objects of their faith will be, […]
Why are some areas redder than others? It’s what happens to methane ice in the Sun. “This is in a real sense the capstone of the initial missions to explore the […]
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, even if “science” is in the title. “Youth always tries to fill the void, an old man learns to live with it.” –Mark Z. […]
Hint: it doesn’t have anything to do with our blue skies. “Whenever I gaze up at the moon, I feel like I’m on a time machine. I am back to that […]
The new “most distant galaxy” is a shocker! “Our spectroscopic observations reveal the galaxy to be even farther away than we had originally thought, right at the distance limit of what […]
A live-blog event of a fabulous public lecture given by Katie Freese on the unseen components in our Universe. “If you take everything we know… it only adds up to […]