Ethan Siegel
A theoretical astrophysicist and science writer, host of popular podcast “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.
Nearly 100 years after Hubble first showed us the Universe is expanding, we still don’t know its rate. “In the far, far future, essentially all matter will have returned to […]
If you think you can just take a test and demonstrate your scientific literacy, think again. “Through basic science literacy, people can understand the policy choices we need to be making. […]
Why it’s not “the next Hubble,” but “the first James Webb.” “…because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is […]
Only a few galaxies exhibit this green glow in the nearby Universe. At early times, it’s practically all of the brightest ones. “The discovery that young galaxies are so unexpectedly […]
And just what did come before — way before — the Big Bang? “We are part of the universe that has developed a remarkable ability: We can hold an image of the world in our […]
You’ve never seen a rogue planet like this. “Other galaxies like Andromeda are shooting these ‘spitballs’ at us all the time.” –James Guillochon, coauthor on the new study Black holes don’t […]
But not every location was created equal. “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. […]
Want the speed of light, the fine-structure constant or others to change? There’s a new obstacle to overcome. “The mystery about α is actually a double mystery. The first mystery — the […]
How sure are we that what we’re looking at is cosmic, rather than galactic? “Every philosophy also conceals a philosophy; every opinion is also a hideout, every word also a […]
If you “know” the answer before you ever begin, you might as well not even try. “I have difficulty to believe it, because nothing in Italy arrives ahead of time.” –Sergio […]
Just because we know it’s real doesn’t mean it’s easy to create in a lab. “For me the best answer is not in words but in measurements.” –Elena Aprile Atoms, molecules, […]
You don’t have to detect a particle to know that dark matter is real. “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.” –Clayton Christensen In the 1970s, Vera Rubin’s observations showed […]
If a prism can do it, why not the air? “It’s a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more […]
And even with them all in place, what do we still not know? “The joy of life consists in the exercise of one’s energies, continual growth, constant change, the enjoyment of […]
No one is right 100% of the time. Even the greatest genius of all. “The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.” –Theodore Roosevelt […]
How Vera Rubin changed the Universe. “Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.” –Vera Rubin Look out at the night sky, and what do you see? […]
LIGO’s world-changing announcement was the beginning. The best is what comes next. “It’s the first time the universe has spoken to us through gravitational waves, up to now we’ve been deaf […]
The first ultra-deep, ultra-wide field view of the Universe heralded what the 2010s would bring. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal […]
If we left on New Years Day, how close could we get if we kept accelerating every second of every day? “The very closest stars would require many years to visit, […]
Where liquids are impossible, science gets really interesting! “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” –Rabindranath Tagore If you brought liquid water into outer space, […]
The laws of physics are symmetric, but the Universe isn’t. Something’s gotta give. “If antimatter and matter make contact, both are destroyed instantly. Physicists call the process ‘annihilation.” –Dan Brown When […]
I’m not saying it isn’t aliens… but it’s not aliens. “Just to clarify, neither Jason or myself … are advocating that it is an alien megastructure, but we also can’t completely rule […]
How a little knowledge can bring about some huge misconceptions… and how to fix it. “Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover […]
Something not so different from these will be our ultimate fate. “A bit of mould is a pleiad of flowers; a nebula is an ant-hill of stars.” –Victor Hugo Nothing lives […]
An incredible question to consider, answered in the latest Starts With A Bang podcast! Black holes are incredibly massive objects that are so dense that, from within a given region of […]
Three simple questions; an amazing story that goes way beyond Einstein! “Each ray of light moves in the coordinate system ‘at rest’ with the definite, constant velocity V independent of […]
Could the Universe have been born completely uniform and still given rise to us? “First, you should check out my house. It’s, like, kinda lame, but way less lame than, like, […]
And what you can do to fight it. “October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every […]
That’s not how probability works. Or asteroids, for that matter. “Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What’s that have to do with space exploration? If we were moving outward from there, […]
And, in the process, surpasses every supernova ever seen in terms of brightness. “Even with all the collected data we cannot say with 100% certainty that the ASASSN-15lh event was […]