A deep look at how our universe is built: its age, its staggering size, and the mysterious elements that hold it all together.
Most of what exists is invisible to us. Only about 5% is the "normal" matter that makes up every star, planet, and person you have ever known.
This mysterious force drives the universe to expand faster every second. We know it exists because of how distant supernovae behave and the patterns in the Cosmic Microwave Background.
The invisible skeleton of the universe. It doesn't emit light, but its gravity pulls on galaxies, keeping them from flying apart. We see its footprint in gravitational lensing.
Baryonic matter: the atoms and molecules that form gas clouds, solar systems, and life itself. This is the only part we can study through light alone.
Current research is focused on identifying the particles behind dark matter and understanding why the expansion of space is accelerating.
Tiny fluctuations at the dawn of time grew into a massive cosmic web. Gravity turned small clusters of matter into the giant galaxies we see today.
Dark matter acts as a nursery for galaxies. It pulls in gas, which eventually cools and collapses to ignite the very first stars.
Individual galaxies merge into massive clusters. These are the largest structures in the universe, serving as massive natural laboratories.
Areas where gravity is so intense that nothing can escape. We've now captured actual images of their "shadows" and heard the ripples they leave in spacetime through gravitational waves.
We have found thousands of planets orbiting other stars. With the JWST, we are now beginning to peek at their atmospheres to see if any could support life as we know it.