universe

A representation of the evolution of the universe over 13.77 billion years.

James Webb Telescope Confirms the Universe Is Expanding Faster Than We Thought—and Scientists Still Don’t Know Why

The findings suggest that astronomers’ widely accepted cosmology models might be missing something—meaning the longstanding mystery known as the “Hubble tension” continues

The universe will die before chimpanzees have a chance to type the complete works of Shakespeare, researchers found.

Chimpanzees Could Never Randomly Type the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Study Finds

While testing the "infinite monkey theorem," mathematicians found that the odds of a chimpanzee typing even a short phrase like "I chimp, therefore I am" before the death of the universe are 1 in 10 million billion billion

An area of the mosaic released by ESA’s Euclid space telescope on October 15, 2024, which is zoomed in 36 times compared to the large mosaic.

See the First Section of the Largest-Ever Cosmic Map, Revealed in Stunning Detail by the Euclid Space Telescope

The final 3D atlas of the sky will help scientists study dark matter and dark energy, which make up 96 percent of the universe but remain mysterious

An artist’s illustration of the Porphyrion jet pair escaping a black hole and passing through voids in the cosmic web.

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking Jets Escaping a Black Hole, the Longest Ever Seen

The energetic streams are together 23 million light-years in length—roughly as long as 140 Milky Way galaxies lined end to end

Astronomers released 25 new images to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory's launch.

See 25 Stunning Images of the Cosmos From the Chandra X-Ray Observatory as It Celebrates 25 Years in Space

Chandra, the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope, has been peering at black holes, stellar explosions and dark energy for a quarter-century

The environment surrounding the galaxy system where the two black holes are merging. The event is occurring in the distant universe, around 13 billion years ago.

James Webb Telescope Detects Earliest Known Black Hole Merger, Just 740 Million Years After the Big Bang

The new observations could help explain how black holes became so massive in the early universe

Peter Higgs stands in front of a photograph of the Large Hadron Collider at the Science Museum in London in 2013. The year before, researchers smashing protons together at the collidor had discovered evidence of a fundamental particle, which Higgs had proposed nearly 50 years prior.

Physicist Peter Higgs, Who Prompted a Decades-Long Search for a Tiny Particle, Dies at 94

The Nobel Prize winner predicted the Higgs boson, a fundamental particle that scientists successfully discovered in 2012, explaining how particles get their mass and underlying a key theory of the universe

A slice of the largest 3D map of the universe ever made, depicting 600,000 galaxies across the cosmos—less than 0.1 percent of the map's total. Earth is at the tip in the lower center, and the most distant galaxies represented are 11 billion light-years away.

Dark Energy Could Be Evolving Over Time, Raising Questions About the Nature of the Cosmos

The largest 3D map of the universe ever made hints that dark energy might not be a constant, though the findings must be backed up with more data

An artist's rendering of the quasar that set the record for the universe's brightest object, with its black hole at its center.

Astronomers Discover the Brightest Known Object in the Universe, Shining 500 Trillion Times as Bright as the Sun

The quasar—a glowing, active core of a galaxy—has a black hole at its center that consumes more than a sun’s-worth of mass each day

The galaxy cluster Abell 2744, which lies in front of the galaxy containing the newly discovered black hole

Astronomers Spot the Oldest Black Hole Ever Seen, Shedding Light on the Early Universe

Dating to just 470 million years after the Big Bang, the ancient cosmic structure could help researchers understand how the first black holes formed

Euclid's image of the Perseus Cluster, a group of galaxies 240 million light-years from Earth. The view includes about 1,000 galaxies in the cluster, with more than 100,000 additional ones in the background.

See the First Dazzling Images From the Euclid Space Telescope

The European Space Agency's observatory will map one-third of the sky over six years in a mission to understand the universe's dark matter and dark energy

The four telescopes of the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Researchers used them to search for the source of the fast radio burst.

Astronomers Find Powerful 'Fast Radio Burst' That Traveled for Eight Billion Years

The strong blast of radio waves is the oldest known, and it could tell scientists more about the mysterious matter that lies between galaxies

From left to right: actor Stephanie Hsu, director Daniel Kwan, actor Jamie Lee Curtis, director Daniel Scheinert, actor Michelle Yeoh, producer Jonathan Wang and actor Ke Huy Quan at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

The Science Behind the Multiverse in 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'

The movie that won Best Picture imagines a reality composed of an uncountable number of universes

Astronomers and musicians have developed “sonifications” to bring the symphony of the cosmos to a wider audience.

What Does the Universe Sound Like?

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and other researchers have melded astronomy and music to offer a new oeuvre

Images of the six objects thought to be massive galaxies from the early universe

Webb Telescope Finds Evidence of Massive Galaxies That Defy Theories of the Early Universe

The six “universe breakers” appear much larger than what scientists thought was possible at that time

An illustration of the event horizon of a black hole

A Space Flash Detected in February Was a Black Hole Devouring an Unassuming Star

The bright light was the result of a rare cosmic occurrence known as a tidal disruption event

A cluster of galaxies that Slayton created in Minecraft

This 18-Year-Old Recreated the ‘Entire Universe’ in Minecraft

From the video game's blocks, he built galaxies, a nebula, a black hole and the solar system

The Cartwheel Galaxy

See the James Webb Space Telescope's Dazzling New Photo of the Cartwheel Galaxy

Located 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation, the galaxy got its unique wagon wheel-like shape from a cosmic collision

DESI will analyze light collected by the four-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

New Project Aims to Create Most Detailed 3-D Map of the Universe

An instrument named “DESI” will chart up to 40 million galaxies, ten times more than any previous survey

Astronomers have discovered the oldest and most distant quasar in the universe. The quasar, named J0313-1806, formed just 670 million years after the Big Bang some 13 billion light years away.

This 13-Billion-Year-Old Supermassive Black Hole Is the Oldest Ever Found

Huge black hole is so old it offers a glimpse into the early universe, and so big it challenges ideas of how black holes form

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