Topic: The Early Universe

Top galleries, list articles, quizzes

In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Remarkable Hubble photos
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Exoplanets
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Fireworks
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Hubble
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 09/28

All Content

Will 2012 be the year scientists find the 'God Particle'? (+video)

Researchers at CERN are cranking up the power on their Large Hadron Collider, in a last-ditch attempt to uncover the Higgs Boson, the so-called God Particle thought to be responsible for giving matter the property of mass. This will be their last chance to find the elusive particle before the particle-smasher is shut down for an upgrade.
NASA able to observe a long time ago, in newly found galaxies far, far away

Researchers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to find five tiny but bright galaxies clustered together 13.1 billion light-years from Earth.
Humongous 'El Gordo' galaxy cluster packs mass of 2 quadrillion stars

Located some7 billion light-years from Earth, 'El Gordo' is the biggest and hottest cluster of galaxies ever observed in the early universe.
Why is the Higgs boson so important?

Physicists at CERN are increasingly confident that they have discovered the elusive Higgs boson – the so-called 'God particle' that is thought to be a key component of our understanding of the cosmos. Why does the Higgs boson matter?
God particle, the Higgs boson, could be found in 2012

God particle: The Higgs boson isn't just any particle. It's the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics theory that explains the Big Bang, because it is believed to answer a fundamental question about why matter has mass.
Giant black holes a window into origins of earliest galaxies

Scientists have found evidence of supermassive black holes at the core of the earliest galaxies, a discovery that could shape theories about galaxy formation.
The hunt for antimatter begins at the space station: Will dilithium be next?

A $2 billion particle detector, newly installed on the International Space Station, begins its search for antimatter, dark matter, quarks, and more.
Did the universe begin as a slender thread?

A new framework for the universe's formation suggests that it began as a single thready line, then evolved into a plane, and only then the three-dimensional space we now inhabit. This could simplify sticky cosmological questions, including dark matter and gravity waves.
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Remarkable Hubble photos
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Exoplanets
Oldest galaxy: Hubble telescope detects farthest, oldest galaxy yet

Oldest galaxy: Astronomers using the Hubble telescope have detected a galaxy that formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang, making it the most distant and oldest galaxy discovered so far.
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Fireworks
Astronomers build on a Hubble find, report light from oldest galaxy

Astronomers, aiming a ground-based telescope at a target spotted by the Hubble in space, confirm the find as the oldest galaxy so far. Its light was emitted at a time when hydrogen and helium fog still filled the universe.
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Hubble
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 09/28
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 09/16
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 09/14
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 08/30
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 08/26
In Pictures: Space photos of the day 06/28
'God particle' symphony: CERN scientists simulate sounds of Higgs boson

'God particle' audiophiles rejoice: The Higgs boson has been turned into a sonata. Scientists working at the CERN's Large Hadron Collider have converted data from their experiments into musical sounds.
Two medium-sized black holes fight back against supermassive black hole

So far two rare medium-sized black holes have not been swallowed up by a nearby supermassive black hole.
In Pictures: The Large Hadron Collider
Discoveries
Stunning views of star birth in a distant galaxy

Astronomers get a rare glimpse of three regions in a galaxy 10 billion light years away that are breeding grounds for new stars – or at least were breeding grounds 10 billion years ago.
Discoveries
Dark matter revealed?

Giant particle collider at CERN could detect dark matter.