Universe

Building ‘Bigger and Better’ Has Pushed Cosmology Forward. Can It Take It Any Further?

Pedro G. Ferreira, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, addresses what he calls the ‘cosmological chasm’ between ‘the physics we know and love, and some of the phenomena that we observe, but simply can’t make head nor tail of.’

Aeon

Vast Strands in the Cosmic Web That Connects the Universe Are Spinning, Scientists Find

The largest spinning objects in the universe are filled with galaxies, and the finding hints that things in the cosmos may be far more dynamically connected than previously imagined.

Motherboard, VICE

Primordial Plasma From the Big Bang Recreated in Particle Accelerator Experiments

Offering a rare glimpse back in time when the universe was still in its infancy, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have recreated the enigmatic soupy matter that first emerged as a result of the Big Bang.

SyFy Wire

The Most Detailed 3D Map of the Universe Ever Made

Cosmologists have unveiled a trove of fresh data, but the measurements do not settle earlier questions about the Universe’s unexpected smoothness.

Nature

The Subatomic Keys to the Universe

Surprising new data from the Muon g-2 experiment are turning the classical model on its head.

Scientific American

How a Weird Theory of Gravity Could Break Cause-and-Effect

Could modified theories of gravity explain bizarre behavior of galaxies and even the universe as a whole?

Live Science

Finding From Particle Research Could Break Known Laws of Physics

It’s not the next Higgs boson — yet. But the best explanation, physicists say, involves forms of matter and energy not currently known to science.

The New York Times

When Did Life First Emerge in the Universe?

We don’t know, but we could try to find out by searching for it on planets orbiting the very oldest stars.

Scientific American

‘Probable Impossibilities’ Review: An Infinitely Curious Mind

From the origins of thought to the cause of the big bang, Alan Lightman takes on brain teasers of all sizes.

The Wall Street Journal

Scientists Have Proposed a New Particle That Is a Portal to a 5th Dimension

The path to dark matter and other fundamental enigmas may be through a warped extra dimension, according to a new study that proposes a new theory of the universe.

VICE

‘Fundamentals’ Review: The Simplicity of Abundance

The cosmos is so vast as to defy the imagination. So too the atomic realm, with its inner vastness. Yet the ‘ingredients’ are few.

The Wall Street Journal

Our Improbable Existence Is No Evidence for a Multiverse

Experts in probability have spotted a logical flaw in theorists’ reasoning.

Scientific American

Astronomers Home in on a Precise Date for the Universe’s Birthday

Here’s how astronomers were able to make a new, definitive estimate for the age of the universe.

Salon

Could Something Missing in the Universe Be Revealed by Ripples in Spacetime?

New research suggests that gravitational waves could help figure out more about the mysterious dark energy thought to be lurking in the void.

SYFY Wire

2020 Was a Time Warp

Was it a year, a day, or a millennium? Science offers clues to why it feels like all of the above.

Vox

Fragments of Energy — Not Waves or Particles — May Be the Fundamental Building Blocks of the Universe

Field theory describes the universe as energy flowing along unending lines. With this perspective, it is possible to define a new fundamental building block of matter.

The Conversation

Dark Matter Holds Our Universe Together. No One Knows What It Is

Dark matter, unexplained.

Unexplainable, Vox

Scientists Discover Outer Space Isn’t Pitch-Black After All

Scientists have used a NASA probe way out in space, beyond Pluto, to measure visible light that’s not connected to any known source such as stars or galaxies.

Morning Edition, NPR

To Explain Away Dark Matter, Gravity Would Have to Be Really Weird, Cosmologists Say

Analysis of early cosmic evolution points to dark matter’s importance and casts doubt on modified theories of gravity.

Science

Cosmic Bubbles May Have Forged Dark Matter, New Theory Suggests

New theory suggests cosmic bubbles during the birth of our universe are responsible for creating dark matter.

Live Science

What 50 Gravitational-Wave Events Reveal About the Universe

Astrophysicists now have enough black-hole mergers to map their frequency over the cosmos’s history.

Nature