The Big Bang Visual: Witness the Birth of the Universe

Overview

This video visually explains the Big Bang, detailing the universe's origin 13.8 billion years ago from a single point of infinite density. It traces the expansion, cooling, formation of atoms and stars, and the emergence of galaxies, culminating in the universe experiencing itself through us.

In this video

• The universe originated 13.8 billion years ago from a single point of infinite density.
• Cosmic inflation saw space expand everywhere at once, faster than light, from smaller than an atom to cosmic scale, in the first sliver of a second.
• The early universe was a searing soup of quarks and pure energy at trillions of degrees, too hot and dense for light to travel.
• Within the universe's first few minutes, quarks locked into protons and neutrons, forming the earliest nuclei of hydrogen and helium.
• At 380,000 years, electrons joined nuclei into atoms, allowing light to break free and create the cosmic microwave background.
• After ages of darkness, gravity gathered hydrogen into collapsing knots that ignited the first stars, illuminating the universe.
• These initial stars exploded, seeding space with elements such as carbon, oxygen, and iron, from which new stars and worlds would form.
• Gravity organized stars into vast, swirling galaxies, which are strung like jewels along a cosmic web of glowing filaments.
• Every atom within us was forged in the Big Bang and subsequently in the stars it lit.

Frequently asked questions

When did the Big Bang happen?

The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, when all of space, time, and matter were compressed into a single point of infinite density before expanding.

What is cosmic inflation?

Cosmic inflation describes the first sliver of a second when space itself expanded everywhere at once, faster than light, from smaller than an atom to cosmic scale.

What was the early universe made of?

The early universe was a searing soup of quarks and pure energy at trillions of degrees, an opaque ocean of plasma too hot for atoms or light to travel through.

What is the cosmic microwave background?

The cosmic microwave background is the first light that broke free 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when electrons joined nuclei into atoms, and it still glows today.

Where do the elements in our bodies come from?

Every atom in us was forged in the Big Bang and in the stars it lit, as those first stars lived fast and seeded space with elements like carbon, oxygen, and iron.