A new cosmic bounce model suggests that remnants from a pre-Big Bang Universe may still exist today. What if some of the Universe’s oldest objects are actually older than the Big Bang itself? A new study from the University of Portsmouth suggests that ancient black holes may have survived from a time before the Universe [...]

A new study suggests that the collapse of a massive star could spark the creation of a tiny expanding universe rather than a black hole. The resulting object, called a gravastar, would avoid the singularity and event horizon that make black holes so puzzling. Massive stars produce light and heat through nuclear fusion in their [...]

AI could accelerate the hunt for new physics, but sometimes it knows too much to see what’s right in front of it. Artificial intelligence could make it much cheaper and faster to search for new laws of physics, according to a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP). But the [...]

A new detector-based method clarifies how gravitational waves should be measured in an evolving universe. Imagine trying to measure a ripple on the surface of a pond while the pond itself is slowly changing shape. That is the challenge scientists face when they study gravitational waves not as isolated signals from colliding black holes, but [...]

A new mathematical breakthrough sheds light on how tiny black holes could emerge from critical states of spacetime. Black holes are often portrayed as cosmic giants, swallowing stars and shaping entire galaxies. But some of the most intriguing black holes predicted by physics could be far smaller than an atom. For decades, scientists have known [...]

New mathematical research suggests dark energy may not be needed to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe, challenging the foundations of the standard cosmological model. Mathematicians are questioning whether dark energy is actually responsible for the universe’s accelerating expansion. In a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, researchers at the [...]

A new method could improve cosmology research by analyzing supernovae together with the galaxies that host them. An international collaboration led by scientists at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) has created a new approach that may sharpen what researchers can learn about how the Universe expands and what dark [...]

The universe may not be perfectly uniform after all, a new series of papers hints. If confirmed, this could upend a nearly 100-year-old model of cosmology.

A massive galaxy from less than 2 billion years after the Big Bang is baffling astronomers because it shows no sign of rotation. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified an unusual galaxy from the early universe that appears to be missing something scientists expected to find: rotation. Researchers say galaxies are generally [...]

A peculiar object dubbed an 'X-ray dot' could help solve the mystery of the 'little red dots' discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope.

A new study links the universe’s expansion to quantum topology, suggesting that hidden mathematical structures may stabilize the cosmological constant in ways previously unrecognized. The cosmological constant is a term physicists use to describe the energy pushing the universe to expand faster over time. Despite its simple definition, it represents one of the deepest unsolved [...]

A record-breaking 3D map of the universe is now complete, giving scientists a new way to study dark energy. The massive dataset could reveal surprising changes in how the universe is expanding. Scientists have reached a major milestone in the effort to understand dark energy by finishing observations across the full target area of the [...]

Yesterday the Open Journal of Astrophysics published a paper by Porredon et al which will feature in the usual Saturday round-up. That paper, which is based on the First Data Release from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) reminded me that I should mention that DESI recently reached an amazing milestone – it has now […]

A squad of new AI algorithms called GAME could help astrophysicists take a more accurate reading of the universe's changing behavior, a new study suggests.

Recent surveys hint that the rate of cosmic expansion changes dramatically over time; if that's true, then the universe could end much sooner than we thought, new research suggests.

An unprecedented neutrino detection in the Mediterranean has pushed the boundaries of high-energy astrophysics, raising new questions about the most extreme processes in the universe. Three years ago, scientists detected an “ultra-energetic” cosmic neutrino in the Mediterranean Sea, the most energetic ever recorded. The discovery drew global attention from researchers, the media, and the public.…

By studying galaxy clusters separated by hundreds of millions of light-years, Penn physicist Patricio Gallardo and collaborators show that the laws of gravity described by Newton and Einstein still hold, providing strong evidence that invisible dark matter exists. Gravity may seem simple in everyday life. Drop an apple, and it falls. On cosmic scales, though, [...]

A decade-long effort to measure one of physics’ most fundamental constants culminates in a moment of uncertainty and revelation. The moment had arrived to open the envelope, but Stephan Schlamminger, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), hesitated. Inside was a hidden number that would reveal the final result of his [...]

A nearby galaxy long treated as a stable cosmic reference is revealing a far more dynamic and turbulent history. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is one of the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbors. It is a small, gas-rich galaxy visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere, and it remains gravitationally linked to [...]

Live Science spoke with Nobel prize-winning physicist David Gross, who recently received the $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, about the quest to unite all the forces and why humanity might not live to see a unified theory.

The largest 3D map of the universe, created with data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, shows 47 million galaxies in stunning detail.

New research questions whether memory reliably reflects reality. What if your entire past never actually happened? That unsettling idea is at the center of a new study by SFI Professor David Wolpert, SFI Fractal Faculty member Carlo Rovelli, and physicist Jordan Scharnhorst. They revisit the “Boltzmann brain” hypothesis, a thought experiment that has challenged physicists [...]

A new study suggests that failing to detect dark matter signals in some galaxies may not contradict evidence seen in our own. The absence of a signal may itself carry meaning. That is the central idea of a new study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP), which proposes a different way [...]

A vast new survey of the early universe has dramatically expanded the known population of hydrogen gas halos surrounding young galaxies, revealing that these structures are far more common and diverse than previously thought. Astronomers analyzing data from the Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have identified tens of thousands of enormous hydrogen gas halos, [...]

Astronomers have uncovered an extraordinarily ancient star that offers a rare glimpse into the universe’s earliest chapters. An international team of astronomers has identified the most chemically pristine star ever observed, named SDSS J0715-7334, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-V (SDSS-V) along with follow-up observations from the Magellan telescopes at Carnegie Science’s Las [...]

A new study suggests that faint, ancient ripples in spacetime may hold the key to one of physics’ greatest mysteries. Gravitational waves may have played a role in creating dark matter during the universe’s earliest moments, according to a new study by Professor Joachim Kopp of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the PRISMA++ Cluster [...]

Galactic magnetic fields may arise surprisingly fast, driven by collapsing plasma and turbulent flows. How quickly can a galaxy develop organized magnetic fields that stretch across thousands of light-years? Traditional models suggest this process takes billions of years, yet observations of real galaxies point to much faster timelines. A study published in Physical Review Letters [...]

A new quantum gravity theory suggests the Big Bang may have unfolded naturally—and could soon be testable. Scientists at the University of Waterloo have introduced a new approach to understanding how the universe began, one that could reshape current ideas about the Big Bang and the earliest stages of cosmic history. Their research indicates that [...]

Deep beneath the Earth’s surface, a major physics experiment has reached a critical milestone, enabling detectors to operate at temperatures near absolute zero. Far below the surface of a Canadian mine, scientists have brought one of the coldest experiments ever built to life. The Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) has now reached its operating [...]

Primordial magnetic fields may help explain why measurements of the universe’s expansion do not agree. Scientists have long known that the universe is expanding, yet there is still no agreement on how quickly that expansion is taking place. Two leading methods used to calculate the expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant, continue to produce [...]