Big-bang model

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Thousands of distant galaxies in various colors and shapes fill a dark sky in this deep field image from the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI and NIRCam instruments.

Physicist Brian Greene speaks in front of a window, with an illustration of expanding balloons representing the universe on the screen beside him.

Britannica editor Erik Gregersen, a white man wearing glasses, holds a microphone in front of a galaxy background. Displayed above him are the phrases: Ask an Editor, and How old is the universe?

A sequence of five panels illustrates the early stages of the universe after the big bang. The first panel shows a bright explosion. The next panels depict the dense particle soup of quarks, leptons, and their antiparticles, then the formation of protons and neutrons, followed by the creation of atomic nuclei and finally atoms of hydrogen and helium, with radiation present throughout.

Diagram illustrating the evolutionary theory of the universe, with two panels: one labeled Now showing clustered galaxies, and a second labeled Billions of years later showing the galaxies spread farther apart, indicating expansion over time. Red lines connect the galaxies to emphasize their increasing distances.

What is the Big-Model?

Know how the centre of the universe changes with different perspectives

How the big-bang theory was developed

Learn about Georges Lemaitre's view on the origin of the universe and the big-bang theory in relation to space expansion

Listen to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson narrate a brief history of the formation of the universe, from the big bang to the present

Big-bang model: Media

cosmology

Videos

Physicist Brian Greene speaks in front of a window, with an illustration of expanding balloons representing the universe on the screen beside him.

Einstein, the Big Bang, and the Expansion of the Universe

After Albert Einstein published his theory of gravity, researchers realized that...

Video: © World Science Festival (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Britannica editor Erik Gregersen, a white man wearing glasses, holds a microphone in front of a galaxy background. Displayed above him are the phrases: Ask an Editor, and How old is the universe?

How Do We Know the Age of the Universe?

And how do you even start to answer this question?

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

What is the Big-Model?

What is the Big-Model?

The big-bang theory proposes that the universe expanded from a highly compressed...

Video: Created and produced by QA International. © QA International, 2010. All rights reserved. www.qa-international.com

Know how the centre of the universe changes with different perspectives

Know how the centre of the universe changes with different perspectives

Learn how the centre of the universe changes with different perspectives.

Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

How the big-bang theory was developed

How the big-bang theory was developed

History of the big-bang model.

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Learn about Georges Lemaitre's view on the origin of the universe and the big-bang theory in relation to space expansion

Learn about Georges Lemaitre's view on the origin of the universe and the big-bang theory in relation to space expansion

Georges Lemaître and the big-bang theory in relation to space expansion.

Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Listen to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson narrate a brief history of the formation of the universe, from the big bang to the present

Listen to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson narrate a brief history of the formation of the universe, from the big bang to the present

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson narrating a brief history of the universe, from...

Video: © MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Images

Thousands of distant galaxies in various colors and shapes fill a dark sky in this deep field image from the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI and NIRCam instruments.

"A fresh look at a classic deep field”

Released in 2025, this image from the James Webb Space Telescope revisits the Hubble...

ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Ostlin, P. G. Perez-Gonzalez, J. Melinder, the JADES Collaboration, the MIDIS collaboration, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

A sequence of five panels illustrates the early stages of the universe after the big bang. The first panel shows a bright explosion. The next panels depict the dense particle soup of quarks, leptons, and their antiparticles, then the formation of protons and neutrons, followed by the creation of atomic nuclei and finally atoms of hydrogen and helium, with radiation present throughout.

evolution of the universe

Immediately after the big bang (1), the universe was filled with a dense “soup” of...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Diagram illustrating the evolutionary theory of the universe, with two panels: one labeled Now showing clustered galaxies, and a second labeled Billions of years later showing the galaxies spread farther apart, indicating expansion over time. Red lines connect the galaxies to emphasize their increasing distances.

big bang model

According to the evolutionary, or big bang, theory of the universe, the universe...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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