News of the Universe from Starts With A Bang

Have you been enjoying the wonders that the skies offer? If you haven’t caught the Perseid meteor shower yet, don’t despair that the peak was Thursday morning; remember that Friday and Saturday nights should still hold an excellent show if you’ve got clear, dark skies! If you’ve ever wondered why the Perseids are the best, most consistently awesome shower year after year, you’ll definitely want to read our special on the subject.

Maybe you missed a couple of momentous events from earlier this month and need to catch up: we hit our 100th Ask Ethan column and took on a spectacular topic, Why Doesn’t Dark Matter Form Black Holes?

And personally, for that matter, last week saw me celebrate my birthday, and so I ran a special on how the Solar System, galaxy and Universe change — imperceptibly but importantly — with every single year that passes.

But there’s news beyond that, too! We’ve been running a Patreon campaign, and thanks to your backing, we not only hit our second goal and will be giving away a free chapter to all Patrons at $3 donations and up from my upcoming book due out this fall (and you can vote on which chapter if you donate; the top two candidates are separated by just one vote!), but we’re just $150 away from our third reward, which is a doozy: the beginning of a monthly podcast by me!

Make it happen, and we’ll start off September (which just coincides with the new academic/school year) with extra educational material for everyone of all ages. Thanks for all your support, and can’t wait to make even more wonderful things happen!