Cosmology

A quarter of a century after detecting dark energy, scientists are still trying to figure out what it is

Several unexplained measurements are threatening to upend scientists’ understanding of the universe’s origin and fate

The darkness of the night sky offers a profound insight on the nature of the cosmos

A surprisingly complex galaxy cluster suggests that in the search for dark matter, nothing is as simple as it seems

This enormous structure could help explain processes close to the dawn of time—or it could be a random cosmic fluke

Physicist John Cardy and his colleague just won the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. We spoke with Cardy about conformal field theory, 2D black holes and coffee filters

Scientists debate what the future of the cosmos looks like and whether space will ever stop getting bigger and bigger

Voracious black holes feeding on matter in the early universe display the curious spacetime phenomenon known as time dilation

New research pokes holes in the idea that the cosmos expanded and then contracted before beginning again

A new way to gauge the universe’s expansion rate has delivered a confusing result that may conflict with previous related measurements

Scientists have new evidence about how cosmic cataclysms forge gold, platinum and other heavy members of the periodic table

Researchers are convinced the James Webb Space Telescope has glimpsed an unexpected population of galaxies in the early universe. Now they’re trying to decide what this means for our understanding of the cosmos