Universe

The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. According to this theory, space and time emerged together 13.787±0.020 billion years ago, and the universe has been expanding ever since the Big Bang. While the spatial size of the entire universe is unknown, it is possible to measure the size of the observable universe, which is approximately 93 billion light-years in diameter at the present day. Some of the earliest cosmological models of the universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian philosophers and were geocentric, placing Earth at the center. Over the centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus to develop the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System.

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100 years ago this week, Edwin Hubble announced his monumental discovery that the universe existed beyond our own Milky Way galaxy. He noted that the Andromeda nebula, also called M31, was nearly a million light years away – too remote to be a part of the Milky Way.

What Is Dark Energy? The Hidden Force Driving the Universe Apart

Unlocking the Universe’s Dark Ages: How a Quasar’s Wild Flicker Could Change Cosmic History

Recreating the Big Bang: Tiny Collisions Reveal Droplets of the Universe’s First Matter

A super-Earth laboratory for searching life elsewhere in the Universe

A cosmic 'CT scan' shows the universe is far more complex than expected

Black Hole Mergers Will Tell Us if the Universe Obeys Symmetry

Habitable planets could have formed at the dawn of the universe

James Webb Validates Hubble’s Calculation of the Universe’s Expansion

Unlocking the Universe’s Secret Code: The Quest to Understand Alien Life

Universe's First Stars Flooded The Cosmos With Water, Study Says

Astronomers find the most distant supernova yet: JWST revealed a massive star that ended its life in an explosion when the universe was 1.8 billion years old

Scientists use black-hole mergers to test symmetries of the universe

Scientists Confirm The Universe Is Expanding Too Fast

The Star That Proved the Universe Is Bigger Than We Imagined

Mysterious Space Signal Traced Across the Universe to an Ancient Dead Galaxy

A cosmic shape could explain the fundamental nature of the universe

Early supernovae may have filled the universe with planet-forming dust

'Our model of cosmology might be broken': New study reveals the universe is expanding too fast for physics to explain

'Heavy' dark matter would rip our understanding of the universe apart, new research suggests