Cosmology

The sun was born in a family of stars. What became of them?

Dark energy does more than hurry along the expansion of the universe. It also has a stranglehold on the shape and spacing of galaxies

Is the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply flawed?

Some say its glory days are long gone, but the universe has life in it yet. Brand-new types of celestial phenomena will unfold over the coming billions and trillions of years

It's summer in the northern hemisphere of a small, damp, planet orbiting a middle-aged star in a spiral galaxy of matter enjoying a brief heyday before colliding with another galaxy in some 4 billion orbits of the same small, damp, planet.

Three experiments will begin upgrades that could help them corner the particles responsible for the universe’s missing mass
 

David Spergel explains why a widely publicized gravitational-wave discovery could be wrong, and how it could affect the public’s perception of science

The recent discovery of gravitational waves emerging from the big bang may point a way forward

After 10 years of flying through space, the Rosetta spacecraft arrives at its target [Infographic]

A co-designer of an experiment that might have confirmed gravitational waves isn't bothered by criticism that cosmic dust may account for his results

Cosmic dust is crucial to the birth of stars and planets, but how so much of it came to be present in the young universe has been a mystery

Changes measured by the Swarm satellite show that our magnetic field is weakening 10 times faster than originally predicted, especially over the Western Hemisphere