Now out in space for more than two years, the James Webb Space Telescope is a stunningly sophisticated instrument.
The universe is expanding faster than physicists would expect. To figure out what processes underlie this fast expansion rate, some researchers are first trying to rule out what processes can’t.
A book-length thought experiment uses math to investigate some of life’s big questions.
The universe used to be filled with a hydrogen fog, before early stars and galaxies burned through the haze. Astronomers are studying galaxies that tell them about this period in the early universe.
The way particles interacted while the universe was forming seconds after the Big Bang could explain why the universe exists the way it does – a physicist explains matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Astronomers have for the first time detected the background hum of gravitational waves likely caused by merging black holes.
It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope could gaze back 13.4 billion years, and with the JWST we expect to improve on this possibly to 13.55 billion years.
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