What is the Big Bang?
It is great to have you here! Before we dive into the incredible story of how our universe began, I would love to know what brings you to the theory today, and how comfortable you already feel with physics or astronomy concepts.
I'm just curious and brand new to physics!
It is wonderful to have you here! Since you're brand new to physics, we're going to keep things simple, intuitive, and completely free of scary jargon.
Your path
Key evidence supporting the theory
Timeline of early cosmic evolution
Common misconceptions and modern questions
The Universe's Ultimate Growth Spurt
To understand the , it helps to start with what it wasn't.
Most people hear the word "bang" and picture a giant firework exploding in the middle of a dark, empty room. They think of matter blasting outward to fill up a massive, pre-existing void.
But the reality is much stranger and far more beautiful: there was no empty room. There was no space at all before the Big Bang.
Instead, the Big Bang was the sudden, rapid expansion of space itself.
Imagine the surface of a balloon. If you draw two dots on a deflated balloon and start blowing it up, the dots move away from each other. The dots aren't actually walking across the rubber—it's the balloon itself that is stretching and expanding between them. That is exactly what is happening to our universe right now.