Quantum Physics Is on the Wrong Track, Says Breakthrough Prize Winner Gerard ’t Hooft
After netting the world’s highest-paying science award, preeminent theoretical physicist Gerard ’t Hooft reflects on his legacy and the future of physics
Is the Universe inside a Black Hole?
The spins of some early galaxies could be a clue that the entire observable universe exists within a black hole—except, that is, for all the evidence to the contrary
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The Hubble Tension Is Becoming a Hubble Crisis
A long-simmering disagreement over the universe’s present-day expansion rate shows no signs of resolution, leaving experts increasingly vexed
Best-Yet ‘Baby Pictures’ of the Universe Unveiled
The final results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope offer the sharpest, most sensitive view of the early cosmos that anyone has ever seen
Are the Colors in Astronomical Images ‘Real’?
In colorful photographs of galaxies, stars, planets, and more, what you see isn’t necessarily what you get
Life May Have Emerged a Cosmic Eyeblink after the Big Bang
New simulations suggest that habitable worlds could have begun forming only 200 million years after the big bang
Einstein’s General Relativity with a Twist: Teleparallelism
A nearly century-old offshoot of Einstein’s general theory of relativity may hold promise for solving the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy and more
JWST Spies a Giant Space Hamburger—and Maybe Planetary Origins, Too
It’s neither fast nor food, but a spectacular object called HH 30 looks appetizing for astronomers in a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope
This Supermassive Black Hole May Harbor a Bizarre Star That Refuses to Die
Strange x-ray pulses hint at a surprisingly long-lived white dwarf orbiting precariously close to a supermassive black hole
Do We Live in a Special Part of the Universe?
According to a tenet scientists call the cosmological principle, our place in space is in no way exceptional. But recent observations could overturn this long-held assumption
How Do Astronomers Navigate the Sky?
The celestial equivalent to latitude and longitude lets astronomers find their way across the heavens
The Dawn of ‘Dark Ages’ Astronomy
The universe’s light-starved early epochs, as well as the first stars and galaxies, lie beyond the reach of conventional observatories but could be revealed by a new generation of radio telescope arrays