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- Why is there something rather than nothing? The concept of the big bang revolutionised 20th-century cosmology. But the idea that the universe began from this point, a case of something from nothing, seems increasingly unlikely.
- Why do we exist? We are tiny specks of life in a vast, indifferent cosmos – but to say that decreases the value of our existence is to measure ourselves against the wrong thing.
- Why does evolution happen? Dig down, and evolution by natural selection is just about spontaneous, sustained accumulation of complexity – if life elsewhere exists, it’s likely to develop in the same way.
- Why does time only move forward? The one-way flow of time is one of the great mysteries of physics. It might be that we see causes and effects just because our information about reality is incomplete.
- What Is Dark Matter?
- What Is Dark Energy?
- What Came Before The Big Bang?
- What’s Inside A Black Hole?
- Are We Alone?
At the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, deep beneath the Apennine Mountains of central Italy, scientists are keeping watch over a giant tank filled with 3.5 metric tons of liquid xenon. Their hope is that exotic particles from deep space will whiz through the liquid, emitting a telltale signal. So far, that hasn’t happened. But scientists hunting...
In the 1990s, data from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that distant galaxies aren’t just moving away from our home galaxy, the Milky Way, they’re speeding away from us (and from each other) at an accelerating rate. That came as a big surprise — one that scientists have been struggling to explain ever since. What mysterious force is giving the ...
Whenever a cosmologist gives a public lecture, someone in the audience inevitably raises a hand to ask, “Yes, but what came beforethe Big Bang?” “There’s this textbook answer that we’re supposed to give,” says Glenn Starkman, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University. “We say that the question is meaningless, just as it’s meaningless to ask wh...
Black holes are regions of space in which gravity exerts such an enormous pull that nothing — not light or any other signal of any kind — can escape. Since nothing can get out, it’s as if the inside of every black hole is permanently “pinched off” from the rest of the universe. “We have no idea what goes on inside a black hole — unless we’re willin...
Are we the only intelligent creatures in the cosmos? The only beings to wonder what other thinking, wondering beings might be out there? Our galaxy contains several hundred billion stars, many of which are likely to have planets orbiting them. As if that weren’t mind-boggling enough, astronomers believe there at least a trillion galaxies in the vis...
Explore the cosmic mysteries of the universe's origin, evolution and fate with NASA's science questions. Learn about the Big Bang, dark matter, black holes and more.
Some of the most enduring questions about space and the Universe, and the best answers science has so far.
Big Questions. The research at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian centers on humanity’s greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. These questions have been pondered for generations, and our research is bringing us closer to answers than ever before.
Sep 15, 2014 · The universe is a hologram. Look at a standard hologram, printed on a 2D surface, and you’ll see a 3D projection of the image. Decrease the size of the individual dots that make up the image ...
The Universe’s History The origin, evolution, and nature of the universe have fascinated and confounded humankind for centuries. New ideas and major discoveries made during the 20th century transformed cosmology – the term for the way we conceptualize and study the universe – although much remains unknown. Here is the history of the universe according […]
