During cosmological inflation, the space contained in the inflationary region grows exponentially, doubling in all three dimensions with each tiny fraction-of-a-second that passes. Where inflation ends, a hot Big Bang ensues. But due to quantum effects, each region where a...
Today, the Universe has evolved into the complex, life-friendly place we know it to be because we were able to form neutral atoms early on in the Universe. Yet without just the right quantum properties, the formation of stable, neutral...
This image shows a three-filter NIRCam view of galaxy MoM-z14: the new record holder (as of May 16, 2025) for the most distant galaxy ever discovered. Invisible at wavelengths below 1.8 microns, JWST has measured its spectrum and detected several...
While we conventionally think of quantum physics as bringing an inherent uncertainty and “quantum-ness” to the particles that exist in our Universe, these effects necessarily extend beyond the particles themselves to include the fields that permeate all of space, even...
What appears to be a double-lobed nuclear explosion is actually the result of a rare astronomical outburst known as a supernova impostor. A “small” nuclear explosion occurred in the massive star Eta Carinae nearly 200 years ago, but the star...
For the first several billion years of our Universe’s history, the Universe’s expansion rate was decreasing and distant galaxies slowed in their recession from ours, as the matter and radiation densities dropped. However, for the past ~6 billion years, distant...
This sand dune, known as Dingo Gap, was crossed by Mars Curiosity in 2014. This image has been slightly ‘white balanced’ as opposed to being shown in true color, which enables the differences in the compositions and intrinsic colors of...
The brain is a network of neurons, connected by synapses, embedded in a substrate of four different types of glial cells. There is both white and gray matter in the brain, and a three-layer protective casing surrounding it, all fed...
This map of stars in the vicinity of the identified object Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 in two-dimensional space, with the contours showing the central location of a stellar overdensity. This may merely be the last remnants of a globular cluster,...
To learn how galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time, including an understanding of how gas infalls and gets expelled from galaxies, we will need to develop a suite of multiwavelength observatories, missions, and facilities. All of this is possible...
