Thanks to the wonders of physics, astronomers can map a timeline of the universe’s history. Today, Phil’s going to give you an overview of those first few minutes (yes, MINUTES) of the universe’s life. It started with a Big Bang, when the Universe was incredibly dense and hot. It expanded and cooled, going through multiple stages where different kinds of matter could form. It underwent a phenomenally rapid expansion called inflation, which smoothed out much of the lumpiness in the matter. Normal matter formed atoms between 3 and 20 minutes after the bang, and the lumps left over from inflation formed the galaxies and larger structures we see today.
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Table of Contents
Mapping the History of the Universe Using Math and Observations 00:41
It Started With A Bang! 1:58
Rapid Expansion Smoothed Out Matter 4:55
Normal Matter Formed After 3-20 Minutes 5:12
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PHOTOS/VIDEOS
Proton Collision Event with Boosters and LHC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhXMXiXOWAA [credit: ATLAS]
Melting Snowball video courtesy of Phil Plait
Big Bang to Hubble http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/hst15_big_bang_to_hubble/ [credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)]
Journey to the centre of the Sun http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/astro_ac/ [credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)]
PIA16873: Best Map Ever of the Universe http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16873 [credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration]
A high resolution foreground cleaned CMB map from WMAP http://space.mit.edu/home/tegmark/mapforegs.pdf [credit: Tegmark et al.]
Planck comb rbcol scaled http://www.astro.cardiff.ac.uk/~spxcen/CMB_Sims/Planck_comb_rbcol_scaled.png [credit: Chris North, Cardiff University]
WMAP’s Portrait of the Early Universe http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=10123 [credit: NASA]