All language subtitles for How the Universe Works - 1X01 Big Bang

Billions and
billions of galaxies...

the universe is so vast,
we can't even imagine

what those numbers mean.

But 14 billion years ago,
none of it existed...

until the Big Bang.

The Big Bang is
the origin of space

and the origin of time itself.

We take a journey
through space and time,

from the beginning to the
end of the universe itself.

This is our world.

Cities... forests...

oceans... people...

everything in the universe
is made from matter

created in the first
seconds of the Big Bang...

...every star, every planet,
every atom, every blade of

grass, every drop of water.

Water is ancient.

The hydrogen atoms in here were
born moments after the Big Bang.

Then came everything else.

The Big Bang
is the defining event

of our universe...
and everything in it.

The secrets of our past, our
present, and our future are

locked inside this
one moment in time.

To unlock the secrets of the Big
Bang, we have to travel outside

of our own solar system...

And journey beyond
even our own galaxy.

As we travel into deep space,
we're actually seeing into

the past... and getting closer
to being able to witness

the dawn of time itself.

Passing the first infant
galaxies and the first stars...

We arrive back at the moment
the universe began and face

the biggest questions
in all of science.

This is the Holy
Grail of physics.

We want to know why it banged.

We want to know what banged.

We want to know what was
there before the bang.

To get the answers,
we've built machines the size of

cities to simulate conditions

when the universe
was created...

And space telescopes to peer
deep into our past.

We are getting close to answering
the age-old questions,

"Why are we here?

Where did we come from?"

Does the universe in fact
have a beginning or an end?

And, if so, what are they like?

If we find the answer to that,
it would be the ultimate triumph

of human reason.

We would know the Mind of God.

The origin of the
Big Bang is the greatest mystery

of all time.

And the more we learn, the
deeper the mystery becomes.

We like to think
that our universe is unique.

However, now we're not so sure.

Perhaps there is a
multiverse of universes.

Another possibility is
that our Big Bang is just one of many

Big Bangs, but it may be one of
just an infinite number

of universes.

And there may be other regions
in that infinite number of

universes where a Big Bang is
just happening today.

But there's only
one universe we're sure of, and

understanding this
one is hard enough.

Since the late 1920s, everything
we know about how our universe

works has been
turned upside down.

It's important to realize
how much our picture of the universe

has changed in the last century.

At the beginning of the
20th century, the conventional

wisdom in science was that the
universe was static and eternal.

In 1929,
that all changed.

At the Mount Wilson observatory
above Los Angeles, astronomer

Edwin Hubble discovered galaxies
aren't stuck in one place.

Not only are they moving, but
they're flying away from Earth

at incredible speeds.

This was the first real
evidence of the Big Bang.

All galaxies on average are
moving away from us, and,

stranger still, those that were
twice as far away were moving

twice as fast.

And those that were three times
as far away were moving

three times as fast, and so on.

Everything was
moving away from us.

It became
known as Hubble's Law.

His discovery is still the
starting point for exploration

of the Big Bang.

What Hubble convincingly
demonstrated, by seeing the

motion of those galaxies, is
that the universe is expanding.

Theoretically, an
expanding universe must have

started from a single point.

By measuring how fast the
universe is expanding,

astronomers calculated
backwards and figured out when

it burst into life.

People ask the question,
"How do you know that

the universe is 13.7
billion years old?

I mean, smarty-pants,
you weren't there

13.7 billion years ago."

Well, when you watch television
on videotape, you hit the stop

button when you see an
explosion, and you can run it

backwards and see when
it actually took place.

The same thing takes
place with cosmology.

We can run the videotape
backwards and then calculate

when it all came from
a cosmic explosion.

You don't
have to be an astronomer

to look back in time.

If you gaze up at the night sky,
you're seeing stars that are

millions of light-years away,
meaning it took the light from

those stars millions
of years to get here.

So if you look far enough,
you should be able to see

the beginning of the universe.

Named for the groundbreaking
astronomer, the Hubble Space

Telescope allows us to look deep
into the universe, back in time,

and closer to the
moment of the Big Bang.

But for scientists, winding back
the clock to the Big Bang

was only the first step.

When people first hear
about the Big Bang theory, they say,

well, where did it take place?

It took place over there.

It took place over there.

Where did it take place?

Actually, it took place
everywhere, because the universe

itself was extremely
small at that time.

These are only some
of the most abstract and

difficult concepts there are.

So here's a mind-bender.

What came before the Big Bang?

The philosophers in ancient
times used to say how could

something arise from nothing?

And what's amazing to me
is that the laws of physics

allow that to happen.

And it means that our whole
universe, everything we see,

everything that matters to us
today, could have arisen out of

precisely nothing.

It's one of the
biggest hurdles to understanding

the Big Bang.

First you have to buy into the
premise that something was

created out of nothing.

It's impossible to describe
the moment of creation

in human language.

All we know is that from what
may have been nothing, we go to

a state of... almost infinite
density and infinite temperature

and infinite violence.

Understanding how
nothing turned into something

may be the greatest
mystery of our universe.

But if you understand that, you
start to understand the

Big Bang, when time
and space began,

and the great big explosion
created everything.

At the dawn of
time, the universe explodes into

existence from absolutely
nothing into everything.

But everything is actually a
single point, infinitely small,

unimaginably hot, a super-dense
speck of pure energy.

The Big Bang was so immense
that it brought into existence

all of the mass and all of the
energy contained in all of the

400 billion galaxies we see in
our universe in a region smaller

than the size of a single atom.

The entire observable universe
was a millionth of a billionth

of a centimeter
across at that time.

Everything was compressed into
an incredibly hot, dense region.

It's not even
matter yet, just a point of

raging energy.

It was the beginning of the
universe and everything in it.

Everything was simple.

All the forces that
we know about today

were one and the same.

The universe was amorphous.

It had no structure.

In that instant of
creation, all the laws of

physics, the very forces that
engineer our universe,

began to take shape.

The first force to
emerge was gravity.

The fate of the universe... its
size, structure, and everything

in it... was decided
in that moment.

Carlos Frenk studies how gravity
shaped the universe by creating

artificial universes in this
supercomputer.

He gives each one a different
amount of gravity.

The first one he tried had
too little, resulting in,

well, nothing.

Gravity has saved our
universe, for if gravity was

weaker than it is, we would have
a very boring universe in which

everything would be flying apart
so fast that there would be

no galaxies forming.

Next, he
programmed a universe with

too much gravity.

If gravity was stronger
than we think it is, again,

we'll end up with
a failed universe.

Everything will end
up in black holes.

It has to be just so.

It has to be just right.

Lucky for us, the
Big Bang got it just right...

the perfect amount of gravity.

In the turmoil of forces after
gravity emerged, still a

fraction of a second after the
Big Bang, a shock wave of energy

erupted and expanded the
universe in all directions

at incredible speed.

All of space expanded
by an unbelievably large factor in

a fraction of a second.

We think that in less than a
millionth of a millionth of

a millionth of a millionth of
a second, space expanded by

a factor bigger than a million,
million, million, million times.

And for the record,

that's faster than
the speed of light.

But, wait, doesn't that break
one of the laws of physics?

Even schoolchildren know
that, "You can't go faster than

the speed of light."

But I say there's
a loophole there.

You see, nothing can
go faster than light,

nothing being empty space.

Don't worry.

This idea gives even the best
minds in science a headache.

But it's critical to
understanding

the early universe.

Scientists think it took less
than a millionth of a millionth

of a millionth of a millionth of
a second for the universe to

expand from the size of
an atom to a baseball.

That may not sound like much,
but it's like a golf ball

expanding to the
size of the Earth

in the same amount of time.

That means it was expanding
faster than the speed of light.

That's fast.

So many things were happening
so fast in the early universe,

because everything was
so close together,

that we needed a new unit
of time to describe things.

It's
called Planck time.

To understand just how short a
Planck time is, consider this.

There are more units of Planck
time in one second than all the

seconds since the Big Bang.

The math is mind-blowing.

There are more than 31 million
seconds in a year, and it's been

14 billion years
since the Big Bang.

So multiply 31,556,926 by
14 billion, and what you get is

a really big number.

It's a time scale that's
so small that all human intuition

goes out the window.

If we look at our watches
and measure one second,

we can ask, how many
Planck times is that?

Well, it is a billion, billion,
billion, billion, billion

Planck times.

So, now the Big
Bang is only a few Planck times

old, an exploding mass of pure
energy expanding faster than

the speed of light.

In the next few Planck times,
the universe as we know it

will be born.

A fraction of a
second after the Big Bang,

the universe is so small it can
fit in the palm of your hand.

But in another tiny fraction of
a second, it expands to

the size of the Earth.

Then, moving faster than the
speed of light, it grows larger

than our solar system.

And it's still just a raging
storm of superheated energy.

It would be hotter and denser
and more violent than anything

that we can experience
in the universe today.

Even the interior of a star is
calm and serene by comparison

to the violence of the earliest
moments of the Big Bang.

Temperatures were so hot that
even the atoms of your body

would disintegrate... so hot, in
fact, that the atoms would be

ripped apart.

How hot?

Trillions of degrees hot.

But as the universe continues to
expand, it also begins to cool.

Dropping temperatures trigger
the next stage in

the universe's evolution.

The raw energy of the
explosion transforms into

tiny subatomic particles.

It's the first matter
in the universe.

This conversion of energy into
matter was predicted by

Albert Einstein years before
anyone started talking about

the Big Bang.

It's the one scientific equation
every schoolkid knows.

There is one very
familiar formula.

And that is
e equals mc squared.

It says something about the
creation of the universe.

It says even if the universe is
created just out of pure energy,

that because energy can be
converted to matter and matter

to energy, that you can get all
of the stuff that we see in the

universe from this pure
energetic event.

Einstein's little
equation had a big impact.

It led to the first
nuclear bombs.

In a nuclear explosion, a small
amount of matter is converted

into an enormous
amount of energy.

As the universe was forming,
the exact opposite happened.

Pure energy transformed into
particles of matter.

You don't need to create
matter in the beginning.

You just need energy.

And energy alone can lead to the
creation of an entire universe.

In just a fraction
of a second after the Big Bang,

the building blocks of our
universe begin to take shape.

But this first matter is like
nothing we see today.

The stuff of matter has been
very different over the age

of the universe.

What we now think is normal
matter was not at all normal in

the earliest moments
of the Big Bang.

That's because
condition were so extreme.

There were no atoms yet.

But there were tiny
subatomic particles.

In the earliest moments of
the Big Bang, the universe was

so hot and dense, there were
great amounts of energy.

And so particles were being
created all the time, and energy

and matter were transferring
back and forth in this hot,

dense soup.

That earliest
matter was too unstable to start

forming the universe
as we know it.

Think of it like this.

Imagine rush hour at
Grand Central in New York City

as that superheated
early universe.

The commuters racing through
the main concourse are

subatomic particles.

If you look at a crowd of
people... a large crowd of

people... they
may appear random.

That random, quirky motion is
very similar than what was

happening in the particles in
the universe in the earliest

moments of the Big Bang.

The extreme
temperature of the early

universe energizes the
subatomic particles.

They appear.

They disappear.

They race around at
incredible speeds.

It's pure chaos.

It's like people.

If they're excited and running
around fast to catch trains at

a train station, they'll
be moving around quickly.

But eventually, they
calm down and get slower.

That's what's been happening to
our universe, in a sense.

The particles are
moving around very fast.

And as the universe cools down,
the particles move more slowly

and, in some sense,
less random.

As the universe
cools, the particles stop

changing back into energy.

Now there are more and more
subatomic particles, but it's

still a hot, violent place.

All this is happening in
fractions of a second

too small to detect.

But the Big Bang is moving into
a critical stage now, a titanic

battle between matter and the
one thing that can destroy the

universe before it even gets
started... antimatter.

Everything in the
universe is made from matter,

from the smallest rock
to the largest star.

And all the matter there will
ever be was created from the

pure energy of the Big Bang.

Einstein's equation,
e equals mc squared,

says that energy
transforms into matter.

But it was just a theory.

Today science is able
to test that theory.

This is CERN in Switzerland,

home to the world's
largest machine.

It's the size of a city and
engineered to re-create the

conditions millionths of a
second after the Big Bang.

If we want to probe
ever-smaller scales,

paradoxically we need an
ever-bigger machine.

There's just no other way of
doing it, so big machines mean

small physics, means early times
and, therefore, getting closer

and closer to the origin
of the universe itself.

This monster
machine is called a collider.

It's designed to take us back to
those first fractions of

a second after the Big Bang.

It's a 12-foot-wide
concrete-line circular tunnel

17 miles around.

The collider makes tiny
particles of matter smash into

each other at almost
the speed of light.

For a split second,

those collisions generate
turbocharged energy

similar to the explosive
force of the Big Bang.

And then that pure energy
briefly transforms into matter,

just like it did nearly
14 billion years ago.

But a monster machine
needs a monster detector

to see these collisions.

This detector is five stories
tall and weighs over 7,000 tons.

And 7,000 tons... to give you a
sense of perspective... is the

weight of the Eiffel Tower.

But as big as it
is, it can't see the actual

particles of new matter.

They hang around for just a
split second and move so fast it

can only record their trails.

There's a lot of energy in
these particles.

They move very, very quickly,
and so you need a very large

amount of detector in order to
be able to map the path of these

particles very precisely.

So, the detector is so big
because you need

better resolution.

It works exactly the
same as a camera.

The more pixels you have,
the better the picture.

It's exactly the same here.

We just have a
five-story camera.

Scientists hope
that it'll reveal just how

energy transforms into matter...

But not just any matter... the
kind of matter that emerged

14 billion years ago at
the dawn of time itself.

But the dawn of time was a
critical moment in the birth of

the universe, because pure
energy also produced one of the

most dangerous things in the
universe... antimatter.

That's right, antimatter...
it's real.

Antimatter is the
mirror image of ordinary matter.

However, matter has one charge,

and antimatter has
the opposite charge.

If there was an anti-me made out
of antimatter, that person, in

principle, could look exactly
like me... same personality

quirks, same everything, except,
of course, when I decide to

shake his hand.

At that point, we both would
blow ourselves to smithereens in

a gigantic nuclear explosion.

Matter with a
positive charge locks horns with

its archenemy, antimatter,
with a negative charge.

The fate of the universe
hangs in the balance

of this epic battle.

Equal amounts of matter and
antimatter will cancel each

other out... not good.

A universe with equal amounts
of matter and antimatter is

equivalent to a universe with
no matter at all, because the

matter and antimatter will
annihilate back into

pure radiation.

And there'll be nothing
interesting... no stars and

galaxies and people in between.

Like a cosmic game
of Risk, the side with the most

soldiers wins.

The score was very close,
but there was a winner.

For every billion
particles of antimatter, there were a

billion and one
particles of matter.

That was the moment of creation.

The one extra particle of matter
in each little volume survives,

survives enough to form all the
matter we see in the stars and

galaxies today.

One in a billion
might not sound like much, but

it's enough to build a universe.

We're the leftovers.

So, believe it or not,
everything you see around you,

the atoms of your body, the
atoms of the stars, are nothing

but leftovers... leftovers from
this ancient collision between

matter and antimatter.

Lucky for us, there
was enough left over to make all

the stars and planets.

And the universe is still less
than one second old.

But now it's swarming with tiny,
primitive particles.

The next stage is assembling
those tiny particles into

the first atoms.

Give or take a
couple of Planck times, the

universe is nearly a second old
and still a very strange place.

But matter has won the battle
with antimatter.

And now it's time to
build the universe.

It's still extremely hot and
expanding incredibly fast.

When the universe was a
second old, the particles in it

were very different than the
particles we see today.

There were no atoms.

Nothing that we recognize
in the room around us today

yet existed.

Now all
that begins to change.

Temperatures continue to cool.

And as the primitive particles
keep slowing down, they start

bonding together to form the
atoms of the first elements.

The first one to form is
hydrogen.

Then over the next three
minutes, the universe begins to

create two more elements...
helium and lithium.

We went from a universe that
was infinitely small to a

universe that was
light-years in size.

In the first three minutes,
essentially everything

interesting that was going to
happen in the universe happened.

Well, not quite.

If you were there,
you couldn't see it.

When we look at the
night sky, we can see literally

billions of years into the past,
and we think it's always

been that way.

Nope, not true.

380,000 years after the Big
Bang... that's when the universe

began to become transparent.

But before then, it was milky.

There is a milky
soup of loose electrons.

The young universe has to cool
down enough for the electrons

to slow down and
stick to new atoms.

It took a long time for all of
the hydrogen, helium, and

lithium atoms in the
universe to form.

Scientists calculate it took
380,000 years for the electrons

to slow down enough so that
the universe could start

mass-producing atoms.

When that happens,
the milky fog clears.

The first light escapes and
races across the universe.

Nearly 14 billion years later,
two young scientists in

New Jersey pick
it up by accident.

In 1964, Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson were mapping

radio signals across our galaxy.

Everywhere they looked,
they picked up a strange

background hum.

They first suspected
their equipment.

Maybe pigeon droppings on
the antenna were causing

the strange signal.

But after cleaning the antenna,
the mysterious hum remained.

So much for pigeon droppings.

Penzias delivered a talk at
Princeton University.

And according to lore, one
person in the back said, "Either

you have discovered the effects
of bird droppings or the

creation of the universe."

It was in fact the
moment of creation, nearly

14 billion years ago, when those
first atoms got their electrons.

That's the moment when the milky
cloud clears and the new

universe comes into
view for the first time.

To capture better images of this
critical event, NASA launched

the Cosmic Background Explorer
Satellite, or COBE.

They pointed it out into space,
where it took the temperature

of the universe.

By measuring differences in
temperature across space,

they created the first map of
our early universe.

The images were called
the Face of God.

We got gorgeous pictures...
baby pictures of the infant

universe when it was
380,000 years of age.

But there were problems with it.

The picture was very fuzzy.

The COBE results were
simply not good enough.

Mission looking good.
Liftoff.

So NASA launched an
even more advanced satellite,

WMAP, the Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe.

In 2001, David Spergel was part
of the team looking for a

clearer image of
the early universe.

It was exciting
to go to the Cape.

It was one of these moments we
were sitting there, watching

this... I was there
with my family...

watching the rocket go off.

It was very exciting when,
within about a day, we were able

to get our first signal from the
satellite and know it was

working and working properly.

This is the most
detailed picture of the early

universe ever taken, just
380,000 years after

the Big Bang.

The red and yellow areas
are warmer, the blue and

green regions cooler.

And those temperature
differences are clues to the

future structure
of the universe.

You see tiny
variations in temperature.

Those tiny variations in
temperature reflect small

variations in density.

This region has more matter.

This region has less matter.

Like a blueprint
for the construction of our

universe, this image shows us
where there's more matter and

where there's less.

Regions with no matter will
become empty space.

Areas with denser matter will
become the construction sites of

galaxies, stars, and planets.

These are the fluctuations
that will grow to form galaxies.

So if it wasn't for those little
density fluctuations, you and I

would not be here today.

Our universe is now
380,000 years old and trillions

and trillions of miles across.

Clouds of hydrogen and helium
gas float through space.

It will take another
200 million years before those

gases create the first stars.

These first stars ignited the
universe into what must have

been the most
amazing fireworks.

The universe went from the dark
ages to an age of splendor when

the first stars illuminated the
gas and the universe began to

glow in majestic fashion.

I wish I'd been there.

It was like Christmas
tree lights turning on.

The universe began to light up
in all directions, until you

form the beautiful
mosaic we now see today.

More and
more stars turn on.

1 billion years after the Big
Bang, the first galaxy forms.

Over the next 8 billion years,
countless more take shape.

Then about 5 billion years ago,
in a quiet corner of one of

those galaxies, gravity begins
to draw in dust and gas.

Gradually they clump together
and give birth to a star,

our Sun.

9 billion years after the Big
Bang, our tiny solar system

springs to life, and with it,
planet Earth.

Everything there is exists
because of the Big Bang,

and it's still going on.

Our universe is still expanding.

But it won't just
keep going forever.

Our universe had a beginning,
and it will also have an end.

In the 14 billion
years since the Big Bang,

galaxies have been created...

Filled with stars,
planets, and moons.

And the universe has been
expanding the whole time.

We've learned space is quite
big... at least 150 billion

light-years across.

The universe
may be infinite.

It might literally go on
forever.

The answer is there doesn't
have to be anything,

in principle.

The universe could be infinite,
and there's no outside, or it

could be closed on itself.

It could be such that if I
looked far enough in that

direction I'd see
the back of my head.

We may never know
if the Big Bang produced a

universe that goes on forever.

But we do know that the Big
Bang hasn't stopped yet.

The Big Bang is really
continuing now.

We're continuing to bang, if you
want, in the sense that the

expansion of the universe is
continuing.

One of the most astounding
discoveries in the last few

years has been the realization
that our universe is not slowing

down, like we once thought, but
it's actually speeding up.

It's accelerating.

It's in a runaway mode.

We now believe there's something
called dark energy, the energy

of nothing, that is pushing the
galaxies apart and is killing

the universe.

We can't see this
destructive force, and we have

no idea why it exists.

But it could mean the end of
everything created in

the Big Bang.

If dark energy continues
pushing the universe apart, our

Milky Way galaxy could
become a lonely outpost.

100 billion years from now, most
of our galactic neighbors will

be out of sight.

Stars will burn out.

Galaxies will grow dark.

Even atoms will tear apart.

The birth of the universe, the
Big Bang, was over in a flash.

But the death of our universe
will take almost forever.

That great philosopher of the western
world, Woody Allen, once said

eternity is an awful long time,
especially toward the end.

Figuring out how
our universe will end is as dark

a mystery as the Big Bang.

It could collapse back in on
itself, like a balloon when

the air is let out.

So, would the universe end
with a Big Crunch, a reverse of

the Big Bang, or would it end by
expanding out and becoming

cold and dark?

If you wished, would it end in
fire or ice, or with a bang or

a whimper?

If the universe
collapses, it might trigger

another Big Bang.

Maybe that's already happened,
and we're just one in a

long line of universes.

Personally, I believe in
continual genesis... that is,

there's a never-ending process
whereby universes collide, split

apart, give birth to new
universes, perhaps with

different laws of physics within
each universe.

Maybe this isn't the first
time it's happened.

Maybe it's cyclic, and it goes
around and around again,

eventually will collapse,
and the whole thing will

start over again.

One universe or many,
they all start with a Big Bang.

Everything that makes us human...
the atoms in our

bodies, the jewelry we wear, all
the things that lead to the

tragedy of life and the beauty
and the excitement, love,

everything else... arose because
of processes that happened

14 billion years ago.

And if we really want to
understand ourselves at some

fundamental level, we really
have to understand the Big Bang.

14 billion years
ago, the Big Bang created time

and space, our whole vast
universe, and everything in it,

including us.

Some people ask
the question,

"What's in it for me?"

The Big Bang gave us everything
we see around us... the

distribution of
galaxies and stars.

It set into motion the creation
of elements that we see

in the universe.

And even the laws of physics
themselves, we think, were born

at the instant of creation.

Everything started
with the Big Bang, one brief

moment in time 14 billion years
ago, that contains the answers

to our greatest questions about
our past, our present,

and our future.

Each discovery brings us one
step closer to understanding

how the universe works.