How far away are the most distant objects in the Universe? How has the Universe expanded over the course of its history? And therefore, how big and how old is the Universe since the Big Bang? Through ...

In around 5 billion years, the sun will run out of the fuel needed for nuclear fusion in its core. This will cause its inner core to collapse under the force of the sun's own gravity. At this point, ...

To look out at the night sky and marvel at the seemingly endless canopy of stars is one of the oldest and most enduring human experiences we know of. Since antiquity, we've gazed towards the heavens ...

Study of an under-appreciated subclass of stars that brighten and dim periodically brings to light their potential use as cosmic yardsticks — out to distances of a few hundred million light years.

The photo in this article is titled the Hubble Extreme Deep Field. For several reasons this image is probably the most remarkable cosmic image ever made. First, it is the farthest we have ever seen ...

How fast is the universe expanding? How much does matter clump up in our cosmic neighborhood? Scientists use two methods to answer these questions. One involves observing the early cosmos and ...

This week I would like to discuss the second rung on the cosmic ladder. The parallax method we discussed last week is the first rung on this ladder. Unfortunately, the parallax method is limited to ...

The cosmic distance ladder could soon have another rung. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. In around 5 billion years, the sun will ...