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Big Bang Theory

Big Bang theory is the leading explanation for how our universe began. According to the theory, the entire universe began as a tiny singularity that went through an explosive expansion 13.8 billion years ago, gradually expanding into the cosmos we see today. Today, astronomers can detect an "echo" from the Big Bang in the cosmic microwave background, a phenomenon that can be detected with radio telescopes. Big Bang Theory is also the name of a popular CBS sitcom about scientists, where several real-life scientists and astronauts have appeared.

Related Topics: Black Holes, Dark Matter, Gravitational Waves, The Theory of Relativity in Space 

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NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-Hubble/Europe Collaboration; Acknowledgment: H. Bond (STScI and Pennsylvania State University)

How the Universe Stopped Making Sense

By Rafi Letzter

What's going on?

An artist's illustration of the cosmology and exoplanet research honored by the 2019 Nobel Prize in physics, directed toward understanding our place in the universe.

This Year's Nobel Prize in Physics Mixes 2 Research Fields — And Politics

By Meghan Bartels

The Nobel Prize in physics this year has gone to two very different research threads — and danced around some big societal issues, even as they celebrate distinguished work.

An artist's depiction of the history of the universe.

Nobel Prize in Physics Honors Scientists Who Transformed Our Ideas About the Cosmos

By Jeanna Bryner

The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to three scientists for unraveling the structure and history of the universe and for changing our perspective of Earth’s place in it.

In this Hubble Space Telescope view of the distant quasar RXJ1131-1231, a foreground galaxy smears the image of the background quasar into a bright arc (left) and creates a total of four images — a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

Einstein's Gravitational Lenses Could Clear Up Roiling Debate on Expanding Cosmos

By Charles Q. Choi

Warps in the fabric of space-time can act like magnifying glasses, and that may help solve a cosmic mystery about the rate of the universe's expansion, a new study found.

An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud taken with a ground-based telescope. The inset image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, and shows a galaxy cluster teeming with variable Cepheids, a class of stars that flicker regularly. Using this pulsation rate, scientists have calculated the universe's expansion rate, but that number doesn't match with values derived from other cosmic phenomena, such as the echo of the Big Bang known as the cosmic microwave background radiation.

One Number Shows Something Is Fundamentally Wrong with Our Conception of the Universe

By Adam Mann

Here's what's going on with the discrepancies in cosmic expansion measurements.

During the brief "inflation" period, the newborn universe expanded far faster than the speed of light, growing from a subatomic size to a golf-ball size almost instantaneously.

The Problems with the Cosmic Calendar

By Paul Sutter

Our lives here on Earth are small and insignificant and inconsequential — but only in a certain frame of reference, and that frame of reference doesn't necessarily apply to cosmic scales.

A look at our expanding universe from the Hubble Space Telescope's Ultra Deep Field.

New Hubble Constant Measurement Stokes Mystery of Universe's Expansion

By Passant Rabie

Using red giant stars, scientists calculate new universe expansion rate.

Researchers recently found stardust embedded in a meteorite from Antarctica. This tiny grain made up of carbon-rich material (red) and oxygen-rich material (blue) likely formed in a nova explosion.

This Antarctic Meteorite Holds a Tiny Speck of Stardust That's Older Than the Solar System

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

This speck of primeval stardust may hold clues about the origin of the solar system.

This is a ground-based telescope’s view of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The inset image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals one of many star clusters scattered throughout the dwarf galaxy.

The Universe Is Expanding So Fast We Might Need New Physics to Explain It

By Mike Wall

The universe is expanding faster than expected, suggesting that astronomers may have to incorporate some new physics into their theories of how the cosmos works.

Particles acting as "standard clocks" would show different patterns of signals based on what happened in the primordial universe (top: Big Bounce; bottom: inflation).

Massive Clock-Like Particles Could Reveal What Happened Before the Big Bang

By Charles Q. Choi

To see if there was a universe before the Big Bang and understand how the cosmos evolved after it began, researchers suggest looking for the influence of particles that acted like clocks.

An artist's depiction of the SPHEREx mission at work.

NASA Will Launch a New Space Telescope in 2023 to Investigate the Universe

By Meghan Bartels

Come 2023, NASA will have a new eye tracking the heavens and looking to solve some of the greatest scientific mysteries we know of.

Cosmic vibrations

'Vibrating Universe' Shares Astronomy with Deaf Students

By Meghan Bartels

What does a star feel like? A team of scientists put astronomy on a vibrating sound stage in order to tackle such questions.

NGC 6752

Hubble Telescope Discovers 'Living Fossil' Galaxy in Our Milky Way's Backyard

By Mike Wall

The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a dwarf galaxy in our own cosmic backyard, a mere 30 million light-years from the Milky Way.

Quasar art

Dark Energy Gets Weirder: Mysterious Force May Vary Over Time

By Mike Wall

Dark energy is even more mysterious than astronomers had thought, a new study suggests.

In "The Citation Negation" episode, Amy and Sheldon are devastated after learning from a Russian paper that Super Asymmetry has already been discovered and disproven.

Did 'The Big Bang Theory' Get the Science Right? A Lesson in Supersymmetry and Economy Class

By Don Lincoln

Is super asymmetry a thing? And do big physicists really travel economy class?

30,000-light‐year-wide region

Supermassive Black Holes Likely Born in 'Halos' of Dark Matter

By Mike Wall

We now have a better idea of how big black holes were born in the early universe, a new study reports.

High mountain peaks glowing in the moonlight.

A Mirror Image of Our Universe May Have Existed Before the Big Bang

By Erik Vance

Before the Big Bang, time may have run in reverse.

artistic concept of early universe, black hole, galaxy.

Bizarre Superfluid Could Explain the Existence of the Modern Universe

By Rafi Letzter

Back in the first moment of the universe, everything was hot and dense and in perfect balance. A new quantum experiment aims to show how that changed.

blue gas swirls around orange galaxies

This 'Fossil' Cloud of Pure Hydrogen Gas Could Be a Time Capsule of the Big Bang

By Brandon Specktor

The emptiest space in the universe is full of gas.

Quark-gluon plasma shapes

Early Universe 'Soup' Cooked Up in Weird Plasma Blobs

By Hanneke Weitering