Universe

If a new study holds water it might be the JWST's most important discovery ever. Three bright objects in the distant universe could be the first candidate “dark stars,” hypothetical celestial objects powered by the annihilation of dark matter.

The James Webb Space Telescope keeps challenging our models of the universe, seeing farther away than ever before. Now it’s discovered “impossibly” gigantic galaxies that contain more mass than was thought to exist in the whole universe at that time.

A groundbreaking new study could answer a perplexing astrophysics mystery without complicating our current models. Physicists suggest that black holes could contain a strange form of energy that’s accelerating the expansion of the universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope keeps breaking its own records for peering deeper into space and time. It's now detected a galaxy candidate about 35 billion light-years from Earth, which if confirmed would make it the most distant galaxy ever found.

Everything has to end eventually – including the universe itself. It might be hard to imagine a catastrophe big enough to affect the entirety of existence, but here are some of the leading hypotheses about how the universe could end, and when.

NASA has released a huge new report that astronomers are calling Hubble’s magnum opus. Analyzing 30 years of data from the famous space telescope, the new study makes the most precise measurement yet of how fast the universe is expanding.

Data from DESI's first survey run has produced the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe so far. The stunning image reveals the gigantic cosmic web of galaxies across billions of light-years – and the project is only just beginning.

Astronomers have spotted two “invisible” galaxies hiding near the dawn of the universe. The team used radio waves to peer behind a curtain of dust, and the find suggests that there were far more galaxies in the early universe than previously thought.

How did the universe end up with exactly the amount of dark matter needed? A new model suggests dark matter particles in the early universe converted regular matter into dark matter exponentially, before being slowed by the expansion of the universe.

Astronomers have proposed a novel solution to one of the many mysteries of black holes – why do so many seem to be more massive than expected? A new model suggests that their growth may be “cosmologically coupled” to the expansion of the universe.

Planets rotate, stars rotate, galaxies and galaxy clusters all rotate. Astronomers have now discovered evidence that larger scale structures of the universe also rotate – mind-bogglingly gigantic filaments that pipe galaxies around the cosmos.

Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating? The leading hypothesis is a repellent force that astrophysicists refer to as “dark energy." But how does it work? What does it mean for our future? And how sure are we that it even exists?