Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!2024’s summer solstice is Earth’s earliest since 1796On June 20, 2024, the summer solstice occurs at its earliest moment since 1796: when George Washington was President of the USA. Here’s…·11 min read·14 hours ago--1--1
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!No, new measurements can’t relax the Hubble tensionThere are two different ways to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, and they don’t agree. And no, new measurements don’t help.·11 min read·1 day ago--5--5
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!5 big lessons from JWST’s new record-setting galaxyA new all-time record! JWST’s discovery of JADES-GS-z14–0 pushes the earliest galaxy ever seen to just 290 million years after the Big…·3 min read·2 days ago--1--1
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!Ask Ethan: Why didn’t the Big Bang become a black hole?If you bring too much mass or energy together in one location, you’ll inevitably create a black hole. So why didn’t the Big Bang become…·11 min read·5 days ago--4--4
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!Is the “Methuselah star” really older than the Universe?The Universe is precisely dated at 13.8 billion years old, but astronomers claim the Methuselah star is 14.5 billion years old. What gives?·14 min read·6 days ago--5--5
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!8 basic unanswered questions about the known particlesIt’s 2024, and we still only know of the fundamental particles of the Standard Model: nothing more. But these 8 unanswered questions…·11 min read·Jun 5, 2024--6--6
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!The Higgs boson’s most captivating puzzle still remainsPredicted way back in the 1960s, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 completed the Standard Model. Here’s why it remains fascinating.·12 min read·Jun 4, 2024--5--5
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!Ask Ethan: Will the Universe ever reach equilibrium?The expanding Universe, in many ways, is the ultimate out-of-equilibrium system. After enough time passes, will we eventually get there?·11 min read·May 31, 2024--7--7
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!Is fundamental science a victim of its own success?Some think the reason fundamental scientific revolutions are so rare is because of groupthink. It’s not; it’s hard to mess with success.·13 min read·May 30, 2024--17--17
Ethan SiegelinStarts With A Bang!Why physicists now question the fate of the UniverseFor nearly 25 years, we thought we knew how the Universe would end. Now, new measurements point to a profoundly different conclusion.·12 min read·May 29, 2024--11--11