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.

zeno's paradox
Travel half the distance to your destination, and there's always another half to go. Despite Zeno's Paradox, you always arrive right on time.
CMB cold spot
The Universe is supposed to be the same everywhere and in all directions. So what's that giant "cold spot" doing out there?
m81 group
Just 12 million light-years away, the galaxies Messier 81 and 82 offer a nearby preview of the Milky Way-Andromeda merger.
travel straight line
Is the Universe finite or infinite? Does it go on forever or loop back on itself? Here's what would happen if you traveled forever.
baby universe
The inside of every black hole leads to the birth of a new Universe. Could our Universe have arisen from one?
big bang
There are an estimated two trillion galaxies within the observable Universe. Most are already unreachable, and the situation only gets worse.
James Webb Hubble
Hubble's deepest views of space revealed fewer than 10% of the Universe's galaxies. James Webb will change that forever.
super-Earth
In terms of the planets we've discovered, super-Earths are by far the most common. What does that mean for the Universe?
astrophysics ALMA
If you want to understand what the Universe is, how it began, evolved, and will eventually end, astrophysics is the only way to go.
quantum gravity
At a fundamental level, nobody knows whether gravity is truly quantum in nature. A novel experiment strongly hints that it is.
how many planets
In 1990, we only knew of the ones in our Solar System. Today, we know of thousands, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
universe temperature
We frequently say it's 2.725 K: from the light left over all the way from the Big Bang. But that's not all that's in the Universe.
moon landing Apollo 11
Even though no human has stepped foot on the Moon's surface in 50 years, the evidence of our presence there remains unambiguous.
redshift distance raisin bread
There are two fundamentally different ways of measuring the Universe's expansion. They disagree. "Early dark energy" might save us.
supernova X-ray
The first supernova ever discovered through its X-rays has an enormously powerful engine at its core. It's unlike anything ever seen.
Earth move
The Solar System isn't a vortex, but rather the sum of all our great cosmic motions. Here's how we move through space.
Some stars burn through their fuel as expected, and die of natural causes. But others, instead, get murdered. Here's their story.
Breakthrough Starshot
With advanced laser technology and an appropriate sail, we could accelerate objects to ~20% the speed of light. But would they survive?
Standard Model
Particle physics needs a new collider to supersede the Large Hadron Collider. Muons, not electrons or protons, might hold the key.
Friedmann equation
From before the Big Bang to the present day, the Universe goes through many eras. Dark energy heralds the final one.