Search results
Episode Guide
- 6. Force of Attraction Nov 22, 2022
- For two king penguins, gravity steers them toward their soulmates.
- 5. Water World Nov 22, 2022
- The story of water's arrival on the planet and its role in the survival of a herd of elephants.
- 4. Elemental Nov 22, 2022
- Elements constitute every living being and were formed within the very first stars.
Today the universe has expanded into an age and size that is physically only in parts observable as the observable universe, which is approximately 93 billion light-years in diameter at the present day, while the spatial size, if any, of the entire universe is unknown.
Learn how the universe evolved from the big bang to the present day, and what mysteries remain to be explored. Discover the key events, eras, and discoveries that shaped our cosmic story, from cosmic inflation to dark energy.
The universe is nearly 14 billion years old, our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, life on Earth has existed for maybe 3.8 billion years, and humans have been around for only a few hundred thousand years. In other words, the universe has existed roughly 56,000 times longer than our species has.
- Exoplanets. Worlds beyond our solar system.
- Stars. Giant balls of hot gas that burn for millions to billions of years.
- Black Holes. Concentrations of matter with gravity so powerful not even light can escape.
- Galaxies. Collections of stars, planets, and vast clouds of gas and dust bound together by gravity.
- What Is The Big Bang?
- What Is Dark Energy?
- What Are The Hubble Deep fields?
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
About 13.8 billion years ago, the universe sprang into existence in an event known as the big bang. The early universe was incredibly hot — too hot for even atoms to exist — and extraordinarily dense. As the universe expanded, it it cooled and became less dense. Atoms formed, then molecules. Gravity drew the matter into greater and greater clumps, ...
In the late 1990s, astronomers found evidence that the expansion of the universe was not slowing down due to gravity as expected. Instead, the expansion speed was increasing. Something had to be powering this accelerating universe and, in part due to its unknown nature, this “something” was called dark energy. Read the Dark Energy Article
For 10 straight days in 1995, Hubble stared at a tiny and nearly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper. The telescope gathered all the light it could, slowly building a picture. What emerged — the Hubble Deep Field — revealed galaxies fainter than had ever been seen before. The light from some of these has traveled for 10 billion years to reach us...
Learn about the origins and evolution of the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope, which provides a clearer sense of the cosmos and our place in it. Explore the articles on the big bang, dark energy, the Hubble Deep Fields and more.
May 27, 2024 · Learn about the universe, the whole cosmic system of matter and energy, from its origin in the big bang to its current state and future evolution. Explore the observable universe, the solar system, the galaxies, and the cosmological models that explain them.
Jan 18, 2017 · Learn how the big bang theory describes the birth and evolution of our universe from a single primordial atom to the present day. Explore the key events, discoveries, and mysteries of cosmic history.
