Ethan Siegel

Ethan Siegel

A theoretical astrophysicist and science writer, host of popular podcast “Starts with a Bang!”

Ethan Siegel Starts with a Bang!

Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of "Starts with a Bang!" He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His two books "Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive" and "Beyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe" are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on Twitter @startswithabang.

Giuseppe Donatiello Venus Jupiter
In our Solar System, even the two brightest planets frequently align in our skies. But only rarely is it spectacularly visible from Earth.
borexino
If you're a massless particle, you must always move at light speed. If you have mass, you must go slower. So why aren't any neutrinos slow?
universe bulk volume brane dimension
Unless you confront your theory with what's actually out there in the Universe, you're playing in the sandbox, not engaging in science.
NASA spitzer infrared
JWST's revolutionary views arrive in high-resolution at infrared wavelengths. Without NASA's Spitzer first, it wouldn't have been possible.
dark energy
Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there some way to avoid "having to live with it?"
qcd fields color anticolor
Protons and neutrons are held together by the strong force: with 3 colors and 3 anticolors. So why are there only 8 gluons, and not 9?
Roger Penrose conformal cyclic cosmology
Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose, famed for his work on black holes, claims we've seen evidence from a prior Universe. Only, we haven't.
UNCOVER NIRCam mosaic
An incredible composite image of Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744, simultaneously showcases both our impressive knowledge and vast ignorance.
JWST NIRCam Tarantula Nebula
The glorious sights that JWST keeps revealing are less than a millionth of the whole Universe. Just imagine what else is out there.
EHT event horizons
Since its observation discovery in the 1990s, dark energy has been one of science's biggest mysteries. Could black holes be the cause?
entanglement across space
Are quantum fields real, or are they simply calculational tools? These 3 experiments show that if energy is real, so are quantum fields.
Spy balloon myrtle beach feb 4 2023
Even if a balloon flies directly overhead, attempting to shoot it down with a conventional firearm is stupid, ineffective, and dangerous.
NASA cassini saturn rings shadow eclipse
The secret ingredient is violence, and it just might indicate that "moonmoons" aren't as uncommon as most astronomers think.
halo evolve cosmic time millennium II
Generations ago, cosmologists asserted that the Universe might not just be the same in all directions, but at all times. But is that true?
Ghosts of andromeda molecular clouds
A fascinating 90 minute podcast between Dr. Ivanna Escala and Ethan Siegel on Starts With A Bang!
timeline of the universe history
From the earliest stages of the hot Big Bang (and even before) to our dark energy-dominated present, how and when did the Universe grow up?
Standard Model particles symmetry
The combination of charge conjugation, parity, and time-reversal symmetry is known as CPT. And it must never be broken. Ever.
heavy neutral atom
If it weren't for the intricate rules of quantum physics, we wouldn't have formed neutral atoms "only" ~380,000 years after the Big Bang.
Earth exoplanet direct imaging degraded
NASA has finally chosen which flagship mission, like Hubble and JWST, will launch in ~2040. Detecting alien life is now a reachable goal.
Bullet Cluster separation mass gravity x-ray lensing
19 years ago, the Bullet Cluster provided an empirical proof for dark matter. Even today, modified gravity still can't explain it.