Given how unfathomably large the universe is, it is perhaps understandable that we haven’t yet cracked all its secrets. But there are actually some pretty basic features, ones we used to think we ...

Ian G. McCarthy receives funding from UKRI's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). He works for Liverpool John Moores University. Given how unfathomably large the universe is, it is ...

The universe is unimaginably vast. Even the nearest stars are incredibly far away. Our galaxy is just one of billions. Traveling vast cosmic distances requires immense energy. Key takeaways sponsored ...

Just how large is the universe? The short answer is 93 billion light-years — at least. That 93 billion light-year number refers to what astronomers call the observable universe, and it extends about ...

This story is part of our Cosmic Perspective series, in which we confront the staggering vastness of the cosmos and our place in it. Read the rest of the series here. In a sense, we are at the centre ...

For decades, almost every scientist has agreed that the universe began in an enormous explosion known as the Big Bang. But one group of researchers now controversially claims that everything we think ...

Cosmic inflation tries to describe one brief but crucial phase in the Big Bang that launched the universe onto its expansion course. Credit: Christine Daniloff / MIT / ESA / Hubble / NASA Many ...

Astronomer Fred Hoyle supposedly coined the catchy term to ridicule the theory of the Universe’s origins — 75 years on, it’s time to set the record straight. “Words are like harpoons,” UK physicist ...

While it's much smaller than the largest supermassive black holes detected, it's still a whopper considering how early in the history of the universe it appeared. An enormous black hole in the early ...