Universe

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

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

Do We Live in a Simulation? Chances Are About 50–50

Gauging whether or not we dwell inside someone else’s computer may come down to advanced AI research — or measurements at the frontiers of cosmology.

Scientific American

An Earlier Universe Existed Before the Big Bang, and Can Still Be Observed Today, Says Nobel Winner

Sir Roger Penrose: “The Big Bang was not the beginning. There was something before, and that something is what we will have in our future.”

The Telegraph

Dark Matter Warps Galaxy Clusters More Than Expected, Shaking Up Cosmic Theory

The leading model of how the universe is structured says the biggest clusters shouldn’t be as distorted as they appear through telescopes.

National Geographic

These Black Holes Shouldn’t Exist, but There They Are

On the far side of the universe, a collision of dark giants sheds light on an invisible process of cosmic growth.

The New York Times

Scientist Calculates the ‘Sad, Lonely’ End of the Universe

Stars will continue to explode long after the universe is cold and “dead,” one scientist determined in diving down the rabbit hole to find the last supernova that will ever happen.

Space.com

Could We Force the Universe to Crash?

If we’re all living in a simulation, as some have suggested, it would be a good, albeit risky, way to find out for sure.

Scientific American

This Is How It All Ends

In The End of Everything, the theoretical cosmologist Katie Mack takes a look at the ultimate doom and destruction of our universe. It’s not pretty.

The New York Times