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The ‘Beautiful Confusion’ of the First Billion Years Comes Into View

October 9, 2024

Astronomers are reveling in the James Webb Space Telescope’s discoveries about the formative epoch of cosmic history.

JWST Spots Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe

August 14, 2023

Giant black holes were supposed to be bit players in the early cosmic story. But recent James Webb Space Telescope observations are finding an unexpected abundance of the beasts.

Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe’s First Stars

January 30, 2023

Theory has it that “Population III” stars brought light to the cosmos. The James Webb Space Telescope may have just glimpsed them.

Standard Model of Cosmology Survives a Telescope’s Surprising Finds

January 20, 2023

Reports that the James Webb Space Telescope killed the reigning cosmological model turn out to have been exaggerated. But astronomers still have much to learn from distant galaxies glimpsed by Webb.

A Dream of Discovering Alien Life Finds New Hope

November 3, 2022

For Lisa Kaltenegger and her generation of exoplanet astronomers, decades of planning have set the stage for an epochal detection.

Black Hole Image Reveals the Beast Inside the Milky Way’s Heart

May 12, 2022

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope released a historic image of a supermassive black hole in another galaxy. The follow-up — an image of Sagittarius A* — shows it shimmering at the center of our own.

Detailed Footage Finally Reveals What Triggers Lightning

December 20, 2021

Scientists have never been able to adequately explain where lightning comes from. Now the first detailed observations of its emergence inside a cloud have exposed how electric fields grow strong enough to let bolts fly.

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

December 3, 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

How Radio Astronomy Reveals the Universe

April 13, 2021

Radio waves, longer and less energetic than visible light, give astronomers access to some of the most obscure physics in the cosmos.

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