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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 0 00:00:00,010 --> 00:00:07,777 1 00:00:02,402 --> 00:00:06,939 The big bang, the story of everything ... 2 00:00:06,941 --> 00:00:12,076 time, the universe, us. 3 00:00:12,078 --> 00:00:14,879 The big bang, one, has a cool name, 4 00:00:14,881 --> 00:00:18,750 and two, it's the history of our universe. 5 00:00:18,752 --> 00:00:20,519 This is it. It's all of us. 6 00:00:20,521 --> 00:00:23,021 It's all things. 7 00:00:23,023 --> 00:00:25,290 That's the traditional view, 8 00:00:25,292 --> 00:00:27,892 but is it right? 9 00:00:27,894 --> 00:00:32,230 More and more scientists aren't sure. 10 00:00:32,232 --> 00:00:34,232 In the old, outdated big bang theory, 11 00:00:34,234 --> 00:00:39,037 our universe just popped into existence from nothing. 12 00:00:39,039 --> 00:00:41,706 We talk about it as the beginning of the universe, 13 00:00:41,708 --> 00:00:45,443 but what it really is is the end of our understanding. 14 00:00:45,445 --> 00:00:49,047 Astronomers are ripping up the old rules, 15 00:00:49,049 --> 00:00:51,649 but that creates new problems. 16 00:00:51,651 --> 00:00:54,186 How can we possibly say that universe expanded 17 00:00:54,188 --> 00:00:57,856 faster than the speed of light? 18 00:00:57,858 --> 00:01:01,259 But are they asking questions with no answers? 19 00:01:01,261 --> 00:01:02,860 What was the origin? 20 00:01:02,862 --> 00:01:06,998 Is there even a sense to asking, "was there a time before time?" 21 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,001 We don't know. We got nothing, folks. 22 00:01:10,003 --> 00:01:13,271 Well, we got some things, but it's tough. 23 00:01:13,273 --> 00:01:14,673 It's tough. 24 00:01:14,675 --> 00:01:16,407 It doesn't tell us what happened, really, 25 00:01:16,409 --> 00:01:17,541 at the beginning. 26 00:01:17,543 --> 00:01:20,411 This is still an absolute puzzle. 27 00:01:20,413 --> 00:01:23,748 So just how did it all start? 28 00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:28,954 The big bang theory is a good story, but is it true? 29 00:01:38,632 --> 00:01:41,699 captions paid for by discovery communications 30 00:01:43,837 --> 00:01:46,638 to begin at the beginning ... 31 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:51,576 no space, no time, 32 00:01:51,578 --> 00:01:53,712 everything in the known universe 33 00:01:53,714 --> 00:01:59,050 compressed into a dot smaller than an atom. 34 00:01:59,052 --> 00:02:04,989 Suddenly, out of this, the universe expands. 35 00:02:04,991 --> 00:02:07,191 Stars and galaxies form, 36 00:02:07,193 --> 00:02:11,329 creating the cosmos we see today. 37 00:02:11,331 --> 00:02:17,402 The story of our universe starts with a big bang, or does it? 38 00:02:17,404 --> 00:02:20,205 So the big bang is the observed truth, 39 00:02:20,207 --> 00:02:25,677 but there are details that haven't been quite worked out. 40 00:02:25,679 --> 00:02:27,512 There are a lot of things that may have happened. 41 00:02:27,514 --> 00:02:29,681 It's just one explanation. 42 00:02:31,519 --> 00:02:34,619 Science isn't about being right all the time. 43 00:02:34,621 --> 00:02:36,421 It's about being wrong, 44 00:02:36,423 --> 00:02:39,891 and we could absolutely be wrong about a major component 45 00:02:39,893 --> 00:02:42,294 in our understanding of the universe. 46 00:02:42,296 --> 00:02:43,628 We're putting one of science's 47 00:02:43,630 --> 00:02:47,098 greatest stories to the test. 48 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:52,904 The big bang sure sounds like an explosion, but was it? 49 00:02:52,906 --> 00:02:56,974 An explosion is a sudden release of energy from one point 50 00:02:56,976 --> 00:02:59,043 usually generating light, 51 00:02:59,045 --> 00:03:03,314 heat, pressure, 52 00:03:03,316 --> 00:03:07,719 and a bang. 53 00:03:07,721 --> 00:03:11,590 But did the big bang even explode? 54 00:03:11,592 --> 00:03:13,591 When you hear the term bang, you think of a noise, 55 00:03:13,593 --> 00:03:15,260 but you have to realize that it's sound waves 56 00:03:15,262 --> 00:03:17,062 propagating through air. 57 00:03:17,064 --> 00:03:18,730 So after the big bang, there's no air. 58 00:03:18,732 --> 00:03:20,331 There was no air. 59 00:03:20,333 --> 00:03:23,601 There's no way to hear anything, so in that sense, it was silent. 60 00:03:23,603 --> 00:03:26,671 So the big bang didn't bang, 61 00:03:26,673 --> 00:03:28,673 but to make the universe, 62 00:03:28,675 --> 00:03:31,342 it must've pushed out stuff, 63 00:03:31,344 --> 00:03:36,214 lots of stuff. 64 00:03:36,216 --> 00:03:39,884 Every explosion has an ignition point. 65 00:03:39,886 --> 00:03:42,287 What about the big bang? 66 00:03:42,289 --> 00:03:45,757 So if you were to only think of the big bang as an explosion, 67 00:03:45,759 --> 00:03:47,759 you would very rightly ask, 68 00:03:47,761 --> 00:03:49,560 "well, where's the center of that explosion? 69 00:03:49,562 --> 00:03:51,830 Where is the center of the universe?" 70 00:03:51,832 --> 00:03:53,430 There was no central point. 71 00:03:53,432 --> 00:03:55,432 There's nowhere in the sky you can point and say, 72 00:03:55,434 --> 00:03:57,102 "that's where the big bang was." 73 00:03:57,104 --> 00:03:59,571 The big bang is everything. 74 00:03:59,573 --> 00:04:02,707 The big bang happened here, where I'm sitting. 75 00:04:02,709 --> 00:04:05,844 The big bang happened on the other side of the planet. 76 00:04:05,846 --> 00:04:08,046 The big bang happened in the Andromeda galaxy. 77 00:04:08,048 --> 00:04:10,448 The big bang occurred throughout 78 00:04:10,450 --> 00:04:13,852 the universe simultaneously. 79 00:04:13,854 --> 00:04:15,586 During an explosion, 80 00:04:15,588 --> 00:04:20,458 debris fires out from the center. 81 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:23,261 This debris spreads out unevenly, 82 00:04:23,263 --> 00:04:24,729 with different-sized pieces 83 00:04:24,731 --> 00:04:30,402 landing at different distances from the blast center, 84 00:04:30,404 --> 00:04:34,339 but did the big bang shoot material out 85 00:04:34,341 --> 00:04:37,609 in this explosive manner? 86 00:04:37,611 --> 00:04:41,946 For clues, we need to search the night sky. 87 00:04:41,948 --> 00:04:44,749 One of the things that's really very striking about the universe 88 00:04:44,751 --> 00:04:46,284 when you simply take a telescope 89 00:04:46,286 --> 00:04:49,088 and start looking in different directions is that it, 90 00:04:49,090 --> 00:04:53,691 roughly speaking, looks the same in all directions. 91 00:04:53,693 --> 00:04:56,361 Although the universe is peppered with individual 92 00:04:56,363 --> 00:04:59,030 galaxies and galaxy clusters, 93 00:04:59,032 --> 00:05:03,434 the big picture is what astronomers call homogeneous. 94 00:05:03,436 --> 00:05:05,303 When we say the universe is homogeneous, 95 00:05:05,305 --> 00:05:09,574 it means it's almost exactly the same on very large scales 96 00:05:09,576 --> 00:05:11,042 with very, very little differences. 97 00:05:11,044 --> 00:05:15,780 It's perfectly smooth. 98 00:05:15,782 --> 00:05:18,850 If we believe the classic big bang story, 99 00:05:18,852 --> 00:05:21,586 the same amount of material was shot out 100 00:05:21,588 --> 00:05:25,189 over the same distance in all directions. 101 00:05:25,191 --> 00:05:27,892 Our smooth, homogeneous universe 102 00:05:27,894 --> 00:05:33,331 doesn't appear to be the result of what we know as an explosion. 103 00:05:33,333 --> 00:05:36,401 It wasn't big, and it wasn't a bang. 104 00:05:36,403 --> 00:05:40,138 The big bang was not an explosion like a grenade 105 00:05:40,140 --> 00:05:42,540 or a bomb or dynamite 106 00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:47,078 where there is material rushing out from a common center. 107 00:05:47,080 --> 00:05:48,813 It's not like there's a ring of galaxies 108 00:05:48,815 --> 00:05:51,883 that came out from some explosion. 109 00:05:51,885 --> 00:05:53,217 A firecracker explosion is 110 00:05:53,219 --> 00:05:55,887 triggered by a fuse, 111 00:05:55,889 --> 00:05:58,823 so what set off the big bang? 112 00:05:58,825 --> 00:06:00,959 What I would say is there's no such thing as, 113 00:06:00,961 --> 00:06:02,293 "what triggered the big bang?" 114 00:06:02,295 --> 00:06:04,829 You know, we tend to think when something happens, 115 00:06:04,831 --> 00:06:07,231 when there's an effect, there was a cause, right? 116 00:06:07,233 --> 00:06:09,300 There was something that made it happen, 117 00:06:09,302 --> 00:06:11,102 but here, we're talking about the whole universe. 118 00:06:11,104 --> 00:06:12,637 There's nothing outside the universe 119 00:06:12,639 --> 00:06:14,973 to bring it into existence. 120 00:06:14,975 --> 00:06:16,507 The science is clear. 121 00:06:16,509 --> 00:06:20,778 The universe did not start with an explosion, 122 00:06:20,780 --> 00:06:22,513 but if there was no bang, 123 00:06:22,515 --> 00:06:27,652 then how did everything start so small and get so big? 124 00:06:27,654 --> 00:06:31,122 The young universe, we do understand, 125 00:06:31,124 --> 00:06:35,526 and that old contemporary universe, we also understand. 126 00:06:35,528 --> 00:06:38,197 We've stitched together this story 127 00:06:38,199 --> 00:06:39,863 where we don't fully understand 128 00:06:39,865 --> 00:06:42,533 the first few paragraphs of the story, 129 00:06:42,535 --> 00:06:47,271 but we know the rest of the book. 130 00:06:47,273 --> 00:06:50,408 How can we get to the bottom of the big bang story 131 00:06:50,410 --> 00:06:54,012 when we can't even read the first page of the book? 132 00:06:54,014 --> 00:06:58,015 The only hope we have is to search back in time, 133 00:06:58,017 --> 00:07:00,618 line by line. 134 00:07:00,620 --> 00:07:04,555 One of the amazing things about being a cosmologist 135 00:07:04,557 --> 00:07:08,092 is that telescopes are time machines. 136 00:07:08,094 --> 00:07:09,961 It takes a while for light to get here, 137 00:07:09,963 --> 00:07:13,097 so if we look farther out into space, 138 00:07:13,099 --> 00:07:15,700 we're really looking back into the history of the universe, 139 00:07:15,702 --> 00:07:18,336 and that's amazing. 140 00:07:18,338 --> 00:07:21,773 The first clues to unraveling the big bang mystery 141 00:07:21,775 --> 00:07:24,775 came with the introduction of advanced telescopes 142 00:07:24,777 --> 00:07:26,311 in the 1920s. 143 00:07:29,983 --> 00:07:31,315 Edwin hubble was studying the light 144 00:07:31,317 --> 00:07:33,117 coming from distant galaxies, 145 00:07:33,119 --> 00:07:36,387 and what he realized was the more distant the galaxy was, 146 00:07:36,389 --> 00:07:38,722 the more reddened the light was. 147 00:07:38,724 --> 00:07:39,923 Why should that be? 148 00:07:39,925 --> 00:07:41,592 Well, it turns out that light reddens 149 00:07:41,594 --> 00:07:43,794 if a galaxy is moving away from us. 150 00:07:43,796 --> 00:07:45,264 It's called the red shift. 151 00:07:45,266 --> 00:07:48,599 So what he discovered was pretty much every galaxy in the sky 152 00:07:48,601 --> 00:07:52,537 was moving directly away from the milky way. 153 00:07:52,539 --> 00:07:56,541 This was truly one of science's landmark moments. 154 00:07:56,543 --> 00:08:00,077 Hubble had proved one of the basic principles 155 00:08:00,079 --> 00:08:01,813 of the big bang story ... 156 00:08:01,815 --> 00:08:05,883 our universe is continuously expanding. 157 00:08:05,885 --> 00:08:08,553 There was only one conclusion to draw. 158 00:08:08,555 --> 00:08:10,621 If you extrapolate that back in time, 159 00:08:10,623 --> 00:08:12,490 it looks like everything was coming 160 00:08:12,492 --> 00:08:15,159 from one point at one time. 161 00:08:15,161 --> 00:08:17,228 That's the big bang. 162 00:08:17,230 --> 00:08:19,698 Hubble's discovery grabbed the headlines, 163 00:08:19,700 --> 00:08:22,232 but the idea of an expanding universe 164 00:08:22,234 --> 00:08:24,702 had been proposed two years earlier 165 00:08:24,704 --> 00:08:28,973 by a Belgian priest and physicist. 166 00:08:28,975 --> 00:08:32,910 The real idea of the big bang comes from georges lemaître. 167 00:08:32,912 --> 00:08:35,446 He realized that if you ran time backwards, 168 00:08:35,448 --> 00:08:37,047 back to the beginning of time, 169 00:08:37,049 --> 00:08:39,784 maybe everything coalesced into a single atom, 170 00:08:39,786 --> 00:08:44,256 the primeval atom. 171 00:08:44,258 --> 00:08:46,457 Lemaître believed the infant universe 172 00:08:46,459 --> 00:08:48,926 was extremely small and dense, 173 00:08:48,928 --> 00:08:53,998 squeezed into a single point ... 174 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:57,001 the primeval atom. 175 00:08:57,003 --> 00:09:00,003 Later, scientists would define this point 176 00:09:00,005 --> 00:09:05,543 as an infinite entity called a singularity, 177 00:09:05,545 --> 00:09:08,679 but there's a problem. 178 00:09:08,681 --> 00:09:13,217 The singularity and the laws of physics don't mix. 179 00:09:13,219 --> 00:09:16,954 It may be one infinitely small point, 180 00:09:16,956 --> 00:09:22,093 but it causes some impossibly big problems. 181 00:09:37,310 --> 00:09:38,976 The big bang ... for almost a century, 182 00:09:38,978 --> 00:09:42,780 it's been science's leading account of how everything began. 183 00:09:45,518 --> 00:09:48,318 but there was no explosion, 184 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,522 no bang, and it wasn't big. 185 00:09:51,524 --> 00:09:55,326 In fact, the father of the big bang, georges lemaître, 186 00:09:55,328 --> 00:09:59,196 claimed everything originated from one tiny point 187 00:09:59,198 --> 00:10:02,199 he called the primeval atom. 188 00:10:02,201 --> 00:10:03,668 I think one of the hardest things to grasp 189 00:10:03,670 --> 00:10:07,205 about the idea of the big bang is that everything you see, 190 00:10:07,207 --> 00:10:10,008 everything you've ever known, everybody, every house, 191 00:10:10,010 --> 00:10:13,210 every tree, every planet, every moon, every star, 192 00:10:13,212 --> 00:10:17,147 every galaxy in the entire universe at some point, 193 00:10:17,149 --> 00:10:19,016 13.8 billion years ago, 194 00:10:19,018 --> 00:10:23,420 was compressed down into a tiny little dot. 195 00:10:23,422 --> 00:10:27,157 In fact, far smaller than a tiny dot, 196 00:10:27,159 --> 00:10:32,897 infinitely small, a point called a singularity, 197 00:10:32,899 --> 00:10:37,034 and this singularity has been causing astronomers headaches 198 00:10:37,036 --> 00:10:41,038 for decades. 199 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:42,773 It's all because of one word ... infinite. 200 00:10:42,775 --> 00:10:45,442 As soon as you start getting the word infinity, 201 00:10:45,444 --> 00:10:47,578 things are infinitely larger, infinitely small. 202 00:10:47,580 --> 00:10:51,382 In physics, it means that you don't understand everything. 203 00:10:51,384 --> 00:10:54,185 Einstein's general relativity predicts 204 00:10:54,187 --> 00:10:57,522 the theoretical existence of singularities, 205 00:10:57,524 --> 00:10:59,857 but in practice, a singularity 206 00:10:59,859 --> 00:11:03,861 is where our current laws of physics break down. 207 00:11:03,863 --> 00:11:07,064 We do not understand singularities. 208 00:11:07,066 --> 00:11:09,934 These are some of the theoretical questions 209 00:11:09,936 --> 00:11:11,269 that are real conundrums, 210 00:11:11,271 --> 00:11:13,804 and people are trying to figure out what to do. 211 00:11:13,806 --> 00:11:16,607 The universe is telling us something is going on here 212 00:11:16,609 --> 00:11:19,677 that we don't understand quite yet with our math. 213 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,213 Our mathematics are incomplete. 214 00:11:22,215 --> 00:11:24,148 This is a sign that general relativity 215 00:11:24,150 --> 00:11:28,486 is not up to the task of describing the earliest, 216 00:11:28,488 --> 00:11:31,488 earliest moments of the universe. 217 00:11:31,490 --> 00:11:34,892 General relativity predicts singularities, 218 00:11:34,894 --> 00:11:37,361 but in reality, it doesn't work 219 00:11:37,363 --> 00:11:41,498 when things are really tiny. 220 00:11:41,500 --> 00:11:44,235 Einstein's picture of general relativity 221 00:11:44,237 --> 00:11:47,037 is incredibly successful 222 00:11:47,039 --> 00:11:50,575 at describing the motion of planets around the sun, 223 00:11:50,577 --> 00:11:54,045 the bending of light around massive objects, 224 00:11:54,047 --> 00:11:57,448 the growth and expansion of the universe itself, 225 00:11:57,450 --> 00:12:02,053 but it breaks down when gravity gets too strong 226 00:12:02,055 --> 00:12:04,121 and gets too small. 227 00:12:04,123 --> 00:12:06,724 General relativity may not be the best tool 228 00:12:06,726 --> 00:12:09,593 for understanding the origin of the universe. 229 00:12:09,595 --> 00:12:10,994 Say, for example, 230 00:12:10,996 --> 00:12:13,464 you want to weigh some spices in your kitchen. 231 00:12:13,466 --> 00:12:14,932 You can use a kitchen scale. 232 00:12:14,934 --> 00:12:17,801 That works really fine, but now say, on the other hand, 233 00:12:17,803 --> 00:12:19,136 you wish to weigh your truck. 234 00:12:19,138 --> 00:12:22,673 That's just not the right tool for it. 235 00:12:22,675 --> 00:12:25,076 So forget relativity. 236 00:12:25,078 --> 00:12:28,613 Maybe another fundamental branch of theoretical physics 237 00:12:28,615 --> 00:12:32,283 can help out ... quantum mechanics. 238 00:12:32,285 --> 00:12:36,153 This deals with the small, the very small, 239 00:12:36,155 --> 00:12:38,889 but what about the infinitely small? 240 00:12:38,891 --> 00:12:43,827 Can quantum mechanics prove the existence of a singularity? 241 00:12:43,829 --> 00:12:47,164 General relativity seems to say that singularities exist. 242 00:12:47,166 --> 00:12:48,632 They're a very straightforward prediction 243 00:12:48,634 --> 00:12:50,233 of general relativity. 244 00:12:50,235 --> 00:12:53,237 That doesn't fit well with what quantum mechanics says. 245 00:12:53,239 --> 00:12:55,172 Quantum mechanics tends to fuzz things out. 246 00:12:55,174 --> 00:12:57,575 It doesn't really like singularities. 247 00:12:57,577 --> 00:12:59,910 In some theories of quantum mechanics, 248 00:12:59,912 --> 00:13:02,279 the science of the small, 249 00:13:02,281 --> 00:13:05,783 there's a limit to how small you can go. 250 00:13:05,785 --> 00:13:08,586 For example, I'm not gonna be able to fold this paper 251 00:13:08,588 --> 00:13:11,321 more than seven times. 252 00:13:11,323 --> 00:13:16,460 One, two, three, four, 253 00:13:16,462 --> 00:13:18,329 I'm feeling good. 254 00:13:18,331 --> 00:13:21,599 Five, oh, man, six, can I do it? 255 00:13:21,601 --> 00:13:23,600 Can I do it? Can I break the laws of physics? 256 00:13:23,602 --> 00:13:25,002 No, I can't. 257 00:13:25,004 --> 00:13:27,405 There's a limit. I just can't go past it. 258 00:13:27,407 --> 00:13:30,607 You can't keep folding paper or space 259 00:13:30,609 --> 00:13:33,611 into smaller and smaller fragments, 260 00:13:33,613 --> 00:13:36,480 and according to most laws of quantum mechanics, 261 00:13:36,482 --> 00:13:39,483 you can't have anything infinitely small 262 00:13:39,485 --> 00:13:43,521 and infinitely dense. 263 00:13:43,523 --> 00:13:46,557 Singularities seem to be doomed. 264 00:13:46,559 --> 00:13:49,360 So is the big bang story wrong, 265 00:13:49,362 --> 00:13:52,897 or are we just too dumb to work it out? 266 00:13:52,899 --> 00:13:57,501 Our laws of physics are our best attempts 267 00:13:57,503 --> 00:14:00,570 to model with mathematics 268 00:14:00,572 --> 00:14:04,174 all of our observations of the universe. 269 00:14:04,176 --> 00:14:06,777 The universe doesn't care what we think. 270 00:14:06,779 --> 00:14:09,647 The universe doesn't care how we understand it. 271 00:14:09,649 --> 00:14:11,182 This is just our attempts 272 00:14:11,184 --> 00:14:14,251 to explain the behavior that we see, 273 00:14:14,253 --> 00:14:16,954 and the earliest moments of the big bang 274 00:14:16,956 --> 00:14:22,726 is a big example of where our understanding falls short. 275 00:14:27,467 --> 00:14:29,800 Maybe the answer lies in a combination 276 00:14:29,802 --> 00:14:33,270 of general relativity and quantum mechanics. 277 00:14:33,272 --> 00:14:34,673 All right, guys. Go ahead. 278 00:14:34,675 --> 00:14:35,739 But they won't play ball. 279 00:14:35,741 --> 00:14:37,407 One, two, three. Deuce! 280 00:14:37,409 --> 00:14:38,609 -Who's house? -Our house. 281 00:14:38,611 --> 00:14:40,144 -Who's house? -Our house. 282 00:14:40,146 --> 00:14:42,879 -One, two, three. -Go usc! 283 00:14:42,881 --> 00:14:44,148 -Whoo! -Whoo! 284 00:14:44,150 --> 00:14:46,483 Sutter: Imagine the rules of quantum mechanics 285 00:14:46,485 --> 00:14:49,353 are like the rules that lacrosse players 286 00:14:49,355 --> 00:14:51,555 might use to play their game, 287 00:14:51,557 --> 00:14:53,891 and the rules of general relativity 288 00:14:53,893 --> 00:14:55,959 are the rules that baseball players 289 00:14:55,961 --> 00:14:57,895 would use to play their game. 290 00:14:57,897 --> 00:15:01,432 If you're just watching a baseball game 291 00:15:01,434 --> 00:15:03,433 then they're just following the rules of baseball 292 00:15:03,435 --> 00:15:04,768 or general relativity. 293 00:15:04,770 --> 00:15:06,636 If you're just watching a lacrosse game, 294 00:15:06,638 --> 00:15:09,707 you're watching the rules of lacrosse play out, 295 00:15:09,709 --> 00:15:12,243 you're watching the rules of quantum mechanics. 296 00:15:12,245 --> 00:15:14,178 But if you take one team from lacrosse 297 00:15:14,180 --> 00:15:15,779 and one team from baseball 298 00:15:15,781 --> 00:15:19,517 and put them together and ask them to start playing, 299 00:15:19,519 --> 00:15:21,986 they don't even know how to interact with each other. 300 00:15:21,988 --> 00:15:27,457 It's fundamentally different rules that simply don't connect. 301 00:15:27,459 --> 00:15:29,660 Each of these pillars of modern science, 302 00:15:29,662 --> 00:15:31,929 quantum mechanics and general relativity, 303 00:15:31,931 --> 00:15:35,933 are wonderful in their domain, 304 00:15:35,935 --> 00:15:39,870 but when we try to marry them, which is what we need to do 305 00:15:39,872 --> 00:15:42,539 to describe the earliest moments of the universe, 306 00:15:42,541 --> 00:15:44,809 it all goes haywire. 307 00:15:44,811 --> 00:15:46,343 Perhaps both teams playing with 308 00:15:46,345 --> 00:15:48,678 a unified set of rules 309 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,416 will shed some light on the big bang. 310 00:15:52,418 --> 00:15:55,352 Merging together quantum mechanics and general relativity 311 00:15:55,354 --> 00:15:56,821 is the gold standard. 312 00:15:56,823 --> 00:15:58,290 It's what every theoretical physicist 313 00:15:58,292 --> 00:16:00,156 would really love to do in the modern age. 314 00:16:00,158 --> 00:16:01,758 We haven't done it yet. 315 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:04,628 We have ideas, so when I say, "we haven't done it yet," 316 00:16:04,630 --> 00:16:06,964 we don't agree on what the right idea is. 317 00:16:06,966 --> 00:16:11,969 What will ultimately reconcile quantum mechanics with gravity? 318 00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:16,240 Is there even a reconciliation between them? 319 00:16:16,242 --> 00:16:17,708 What do we need? 320 00:16:17,710 --> 00:16:21,912 Do we need more surprising, more powerful observations, 321 00:16:21,914 --> 00:16:24,047 new data that we weren't expecting, 322 00:16:24,049 --> 00:16:28,519 another genius or 1,000 geniuses to come along 323 00:16:28,521 --> 00:16:32,455 and find the route through the mathematics to marry it? 324 00:16:32,457 --> 00:16:37,260 It's probably all of the above. 325 00:16:37,262 --> 00:16:38,729 So a major premise of 326 00:16:38,731 --> 00:16:42,867 the big bang story remains unproven, 327 00:16:42,869 --> 00:16:44,467 but what about monsignor lemaître's 328 00:16:44,469 --> 00:16:47,204 other assertions? 329 00:16:47,206 --> 00:16:50,140 Was the infant universe, the primeval atom, 330 00:16:50,142 --> 00:16:52,475 intensely hot, 331 00:16:52,477 --> 00:16:55,546 and if so, just how hot was it? 332 00:17:16,035 --> 00:17:17,368 The story of the big bang 333 00:17:17,370 --> 00:17:19,369 is based on the discovery 334 00:17:19,371 --> 00:17:22,973 that the universe is continuously expanding, 335 00:17:22,975 --> 00:17:25,041 and if we go back in time, 336 00:17:25,043 --> 00:17:28,646 this leads to one inescapable conclusion. 337 00:17:30,983 --> 00:17:32,316 so if you run the clock backwards 338 00:17:32,318 --> 00:17:34,117 and let the universe get younger, 339 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:35,653 it'll get smaller and smaller and smaller, 340 00:17:35,655 --> 00:17:38,989 and then everything is basically compressed into one point. 341 00:17:38,991 --> 00:17:40,390 The big bang story claims 342 00:17:40,392 --> 00:17:44,863 this point was infinitely small, 343 00:17:44,865 --> 00:17:47,365 but scientists have not been able to prove 344 00:17:47,367 --> 00:17:50,667 the existence of such singularities. 345 00:17:50,669 --> 00:17:53,203 In our universe, we see all galaxies 346 00:17:53,205 --> 00:17:57,407 receding from all other galaxies on average. 347 00:17:57,409 --> 00:18:01,878 Imagine if you were looking at trains leaving a station. 348 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:03,614 If you ran the clock backwards, 349 00:18:03,616 --> 00:18:07,017 the trains would converge to the same station. 350 00:18:07,019 --> 00:18:10,087 Now, did these trains come from the same station? 351 00:18:10,089 --> 00:18:11,288 Probably. 352 00:18:11,290 --> 00:18:14,224 Did they come from the exact same platform? 353 00:18:14,226 --> 00:18:15,692 Probably not. 354 00:18:15,694 --> 00:18:18,629 You can't fit all the trains onto the same platform. 355 00:18:18,631 --> 00:18:21,765 But while physicists can't prove everything came 356 00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:25,235 from an infinitely small and dense singularity, 357 00:18:25,237 --> 00:18:27,838 they're convinced the observable universe 358 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:30,774 did expand from one small point, 359 00:18:30,776 --> 00:18:35,912 and this point was incredibly dense and incredibly hot. 360 00:18:35,914 --> 00:18:37,581 Imagine that you and a bunch of friends 361 00:18:37,583 --> 00:18:39,583 are in a very large room, 362 00:18:39,585 --> 00:18:41,985 and you're all hanging out, and it all seems normal, 363 00:18:41,987 --> 00:18:43,587 but now you're all cramped together 364 00:18:43,589 --> 00:18:45,589 in a very small elevator, 365 00:18:45,591 --> 00:18:47,391 and it starts to feel much warmer 366 00:18:47,393 --> 00:18:49,593 because you're interchanging all of this heat. 367 00:18:49,595 --> 00:18:51,262 It's sort of like that in the early universe. 368 00:18:51,264 --> 00:18:52,897 Everything is smashed together. 369 00:18:52,899 --> 00:18:56,066 Everything is very hot. 370 00:18:56,068 --> 00:18:58,402 It makes sense theoretically that this period 371 00:18:58,404 --> 00:19:03,073 was intensely hot, but how do you prove it? 372 00:19:03,075 --> 00:19:06,677 How do you take the temperature of the early universe, 373 00:19:06,679 --> 00:19:11,415 which began 13.8 billion years ago? 374 00:19:11,417 --> 00:19:14,485 You can't, but you can take the temperature 375 00:19:14,487 --> 00:19:17,888 of the coldest part of the universe now. 376 00:19:17,890 --> 00:19:19,756 So if you go away from all the stars 377 00:19:19,758 --> 00:19:21,291 and get away from all the galaxies, 378 00:19:21,293 --> 00:19:25,028 you might think space was infinitely cold, absolute zero, 379 00:19:25,030 --> 00:19:26,963 but it turns out it's not. 380 00:19:26,965 --> 00:19:28,766 Empty space has a temperature 381 00:19:28,768 --> 00:19:34,504 of roughly 455 degrees fahrenheit below zero, 382 00:19:34,506 --> 00:19:38,108 5 degrees higher than absolute zero. 383 00:19:38,110 --> 00:19:43,380 Where did these mysterious extra 5 degrees come from? 384 00:19:43,382 --> 00:19:47,050 Big bang believers thought they had the answer. 385 00:19:47,052 --> 00:19:49,586 They claimed this faint trace of heat 386 00:19:49,588 --> 00:19:51,922 was left over from the incredibly hot 387 00:19:51,924 --> 00:19:54,257 infant universe. 388 00:19:54,259 --> 00:19:56,860 Getting the proof took decades, 389 00:19:56,862 --> 00:20:02,266 but it came in 1964 by pure accident. 390 00:20:02,268 --> 00:20:04,868 Penzias and Wilson were bell labs engineers, 391 00:20:04,870 --> 00:20:06,069 and they were given an assignment 392 00:20:06,071 --> 00:20:09,540 to measure certain radio signals 393 00:20:09,542 --> 00:20:12,476 for the idea of sending wireless signals via telephones, 394 00:20:12,478 --> 00:20:14,545 so rural areas could have telephone. 395 00:20:14,547 --> 00:20:16,346 They used a radio antenna 396 00:20:16,348 --> 00:20:18,949 shaped like a giant horn. 397 00:20:18,951 --> 00:20:21,886 The problem was, no matter where they pointed this horn, 398 00:20:21,888 --> 00:20:23,620 they kept hearing kind of a static, 399 00:20:23,622 --> 00:20:27,891 just a radio noise coming from every direction. 400 00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:31,028 Sutter: And they thought, "okay. Maybe it's a satellite," 401 00:20:31,030 --> 00:20:33,964 but it didn't match up with any satellite positions. 402 00:20:33,966 --> 00:20:35,765 There's a nearby army base, 403 00:20:35,767 --> 00:20:37,234 and they called up the army base and said, 404 00:20:37,236 --> 00:20:39,403 "hey. Are you broadcasting at this frequency?" 405 00:20:39,405 --> 00:20:41,304 And they said, "no. We're not." 406 00:20:41,306 --> 00:20:44,040 Thought, "maybe it's pigeon poop." 407 00:20:44,042 --> 00:20:45,775 Well, you know, there are these pigeons 408 00:20:45,777 --> 00:20:47,578 nesting inside the antenna, 409 00:20:47,580 --> 00:20:51,248 and their droppings are creating this noise in your telescope. 410 00:20:51,250 --> 00:20:53,051 So they actually went inside and scraped out 411 00:20:53,053 --> 00:20:54,385 all these pigeon droppings, 412 00:20:54,387 --> 00:20:57,522 but no matter what they did, the noise remained. 413 00:20:57,524 --> 00:21:01,725 They tried everything they could to remove this background noise, 414 00:21:01,727 --> 00:21:04,661 and they finally realized it was coming from the sky. 415 00:21:04,663 --> 00:21:07,131 It was real. 416 00:21:07,133 --> 00:21:09,933 What they were hearing was not radio waves 417 00:21:09,935 --> 00:21:12,736 but a different form of radiation ... 418 00:21:12,738 --> 00:21:16,874 microwaves, a heat signature left over from the big bang. 419 00:21:20,546 --> 00:21:25,083 they had discovered the cosmic microwave background, 420 00:21:25,085 --> 00:21:29,819 a ghostly snapshot of the early universe. 421 00:21:29,821 --> 00:21:32,289 Different colors highlight subtle variations 422 00:21:32,291 --> 00:21:34,424 in temperature. 423 00:21:34,426 --> 00:21:36,493 The cooler blue areas will develop 424 00:21:36,495 --> 00:21:40,297 to form stars and galaxies. 425 00:21:40,299 --> 00:21:43,500 The warmer orange areas will eventually make up 426 00:21:43,502 --> 00:21:47,370 the vastness of intergalactic space. 427 00:21:47,372 --> 00:21:49,239 Sutter: The cosmic microwave background 428 00:21:49,241 --> 00:21:53,309 is a literal baby picture of our universe. 429 00:21:53,311 --> 00:21:56,980 It's the equivalent of a picture of you 430 00:21:56,982 --> 00:21:59,917 when you were seven seconds old. 431 00:21:59,919 --> 00:22:02,653 We can date the cosmic microwave background 432 00:22:02,655 --> 00:22:07,391 to 380,000 years after the big bang. 433 00:22:07,393 --> 00:22:09,459 The temperature here is estimated 434 00:22:09,461 --> 00:22:12,797 to be 5,000 degrees fahrenheit, 435 00:22:12,799 --> 00:22:16,800 but how hot was the big bang? 436 00:22:16,802 --> 00:22:20,938 As we run the clock backwards, the universe gets smaller, 437 00:22:20,940 --> 00:22:26,276 and the temperature increases. 438 00:22:26,278 --> 00:22:27,677 We know what the temperature of the cosmic 439 00:22:27,679 --> 00:22:29,813 microwave background was, but prior to that time, 440 00:22:29,815 --> 00:22:32,883 we know the universe was getting smaller and smaller and smaller, 441 00:22:32,885 --> 00:22:36,753 and therefore it had to get hotter and hotter and hotter. 442 00:22:36,755 --> 00:22:40,958 But can we find out how hot? 443 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,027 In the early universe, it was much smaller, denser, 444 00:22:44,029 --> 00:22:46,630 and hotter than it is today, and in fact, 445 00:22:46,632 --> 00:22:51,634 it was so hot it could fuse hydrogen into helium. 446 00:22:51,636 --> 00:22:54,104 25% of the mass in the early universe 447 00:22:54,106 --> 00:22:58,442 is fused into helium in this timescale of just a few minutes, 448 00:22:58,444 --> 00:23:00,510 so it's trillions and trillions of times 449 00:23:00,512 --> 00:23:03,447 more than the amount of fusion that's going on in the sun. 450 00:23:08,587 --> 00:23:10,720 Extremely high temperatures are required 451 00:23:10,722 --> 00:23:13,457 to fuse hydrogen into helium. 452 00:23:13,459 --> 00:23:17,661 Scientists estimate fusion started 100 seconds 453 00:23:17,663 --> 00:23:19,130 after the big bang, 454 00:23:19,132 --> 00:23:24,267 when temperatures reached 1 billion degrees fahrenheit. 455 00:23:24,269 --> 00:23:26,336 During the very first fractions 456 00:23:26,338 --> 00:23:29,473 of the very first second of the big bang, 457 00:23:29,475 --> 00:23:32,409 some estimate the temperature could have reached 458 00:23:32,411 --> 00:23:38,281 250 million trillion trillion degrees fahrenheit, 459 00:23:38,283 --> 00:23:41,418 but what sparked this massive release of energy 460 00:23:41,420 --> 00:23:45,088 here at the birth of the big bang? 461 00:23:45,090 --> 00:23:48,759 The initial moments of our universe 462 00:23:48,761 --> 00:23:51,160 are a source of frustration 463 00:23:51,162 --> 00:23:53,297 because it'd be really nice to know that, 464 00:23:53,299 --> 00:23:55,765 but also a source of curiosity. 465 00:23:55,767 --> 00:23:57,968 This is the frontiers of physics. 466 00:23:57,970 --> 00:24:00,570 This is where we're really pushing things 467 00:24:00,572 --> 00:24:02,105 to try to understand 468 00:24:02,107 --> 00:24:05,909 the fundamental aspects of reality. 469 00:24:05,911 --> 00:24:08,579 But even if we could back up the big bang story 470 00:24:08,581 --> 00:24:13,249 by proving the way everything came from a tiny hot point, 471 00:24:13,251 --> 00:24:15,385 there's still another problem. 472 00:24:15,387 --> 00:24:20,691 Where did everything that made up that tiny point come from? 473 00:24:20,693 --> 00:24:22,258 You can't get something from nothing, right? 474 00:24:22,260 --> 00:24:24,662 We all know that, except it looks like 475 00:24:24,664 --> 00:24:26,396 we got everything from nothing. 476 00:24:26,398 --> 00:24:29,532 The entire universe seems to have appeared out of nowhere. 477 00:24:29,534 --> 00:24:30,801 How can that work? 478 00:24:42,748 --> 00:24:44,414 The big bang ... 479 00:24:44,416 --> 00:24:48,685 no space, total darkness, nothing. 480 00:24:51,690 --> 00:24:57,027 suddenly, the universe sparks into life. 481 00:24:57,029 --> 00:24:59,029 Really? 482 00:24:59,031 --> 00:25:03,433 Surely, everyone knows you can't get something from nothing. 483 00:25:06,104 --> 00:25:08,238 it's really the ultimate question. 484 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:10,907 How did the universe come into being? 485 00:25:10,909 --> 00:25:14,111 And the thing is we don't want just everything to come nothing. 486 00:25:14,113 --> 00:25:16,580 It seems like a trick, but here we are. 487 00:25:16,582 --> 00:25:19,515 We exist, so something must've happened, 488 00:25:19,517 --> 00:25:22,985 and we just don't understand the physics of it yet. 489 00:25:22,987 --> 00:25:26,323 This is one of the big open questions in cosmology, 490 00:25:26,325 --> 00:25:28,591 the origin of the universe, 491 00:25:28,593 --> 00:25:32,529 and I think that people have variously said stuff like, 492 00:25:32,531 --> 00:25:34,264 "oh, the universe has come from nothing." 493 00:25:34,266 --> 00:25:35,799 Like, ta-da! 494 00:25:35,801 --> 00:25:41,738 Now there's a universe, but remember, we don't have data 495 00:25:41,740 --> 00:25:44,541 about the earliest moments of the universe. 496 00:25:44,543 --> 00:25:49,545 We don't know what was going on. 497 00:25:49,547 --> 00:25:51,615 We're struggling in the dark. 498 00:25:51,617 --> 00:25:54,284 To get insight into what may have happened 499 00:25:54,286 --> 00:25:55,786 before the big bang, 500 00:25:55,788 --> 00:25:58,822 that period of apparent nothingness, 501 00:25:58,824 --> 00:26:01,824 physicists look to empty space, 502 00:26:01,826 --> 00:26:04,961 but does empty really mean 503 00:26:04,963 --> 00:26:08,432 there's absolutely nothing there? 504 00:26:08,434 --> 00:26:11,167 It's not that there's something coming from nothing 505 00:26:11,169 --> 00:26:14,905 because that old-fashioned idea of nothing just doesn't apply 506 00:26:14,907 --> 00:26:17,907 to what we think of as empty space. 507 00:26:17,909 --> 00:26:22,445 It turns out empty space is far from empty. 508 00:26:22,447 --> 00:26:26,516 The vacuum of space is really a writhing sea awash 509 00:26:26,518 --> 00:26:31,521 with charged quantum particles and electromagnetic fields. 510 00:26:31,523 --> 00:26:35,324 The vacuum of space itself can be a very dynamic thing. 511 00:26:35,326 --> 00:26:37,727 Matter can spontaneously appear out of the vacuum 512 00:26:37,729 --> 00:26:39,996 and then spontaneously annihilate. 513 00:26:39,998 --> 00:26:43,133 The vacuum is full of particles and antiparticles 514 00:26:43,135 --> 00:26:45,335 that are whizzing into existence 515 00:26:45,337 --> 00:26:48,404 and then disappearing, colliding with each other. 516 00:26:48,406 --> 00:26:51,007 Space is full of virtual particles 517 00:26:51,009 --> 00:26:54,010 popping in and out of existence. 518 00:26:54,012 --> 00:26:56,012 And there's no question that they're real. 519 00:26:56,014 --> 00:26:57,748 Their effects are absolutely visible. 520 00:26:57,750 --> 00:27:02,619 We can see them. 521 00:27:02,621 --> 00:27:06,423 In extreme physics, things can get strange. 522 00:27:06,425 --> 00:27:09,693 Maybe nothing is something after all. 523 00:27:12,365 --> 00:27:14,631 If empty space contains particles 524 00:27:14,633 --> 00:27:17,033 that apparently come from nothing, 525 00:27:17,035 --> 00:27:19,235 could some sort of similar process 526 00:27:19,237 --> 00:27:23,239 have triggered the big bang? 527 00:27:23,241 --> 00:27:26,242 The quantum vacuum itself 528 00:27:26,244 --> 00:27:30,079 can randomly, spontaneously, 529 00:27:30,081 --> 00:27:32,983 without any input just ... 530 00:27:32,985 --> 00:27:36,720 have a lot of energy, perhaps enough energy 531 00:27:36,722 --> 00:27:39,656 to spark something that we would call a big bang. 532 00:27:43,662 --> 00:27:45,595 There are many speculative theories 533 00:27:45,597 --> 00:27:48,265 about the origin of the universe, 534 00:27:48,267 --> 00:27:51,801 but is its sudden appearance out of nothingness 535 00:27:51,803 --> 00:27:54,572 the only trick it pulled off? 536 00:27:54,574 --> 00:27:57,741 It also made matter from energy. 537 00:27:57,743 --> 00:28:01,544 The universe is full of galaxies, stars, planets, 538 00:28:01,546 --> 00:28:03,012 and comets. 539 00:28:03,014 --> 00:28:07,016 Where did they all come from? 540 00:28:07,018 --> 00:28:09,952 According to the big bang narrative ... from one tiny dot. 541 00:28:09,954 --> 00:28:11,254 When the universe began, 542 00:28:11,256 --> 00:28:13,356 there was actually no room for matter at all. 543 00:28:13,358 --> 00:28:15,158 The temperature was so high. 544 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:19,029 The spaces were so compressed that matter couldn't exist. 545 00:28:19,031 --> 00:28:20,896 So how did the universe manage 546 00:28:20,898 --> 00:28:25,301 to become full of matter? 547 00:28:25,303 --> 00:28:28,972 In the primeval atom, there was no room for matter, 548 00:28:28,974 --> 00:28:32,775 but it was crammed full of energy, 549 00:28:32,777 --> 00:28:34,511 and as Einstein tells us, 550 00:28:34,513 --> 00:28:39,716 all we need to create matter is energy. 551 00:28:39,718 --> 00:28:42,519 According to e equals mc squared, 552 00:28:42,521 --> 00:28:47,824 energy and matter are interchangeable. 553 00:28:47,826 --> 00:28:51,394 Einstein taught us with special relativity 554 00:28:51,396 --> 00:28:56,733 that energy and matter are two sides of the same coin. 555 00:28:56,735 --> 00:28:59,469 You can convert matter into energy by, 556 00:28:59,471 --> 00:29:02,805 say, blowing something up. 557 00:29:02,807 --> 00:29:03,873 The most fearsome example 558 00:29:03,875 --> 00:29:06,343 of converting matter into energy 559 00:29:06,345 --> 00:29:09,479 was the atomic bomb, developed in the 1940s. 560 00:29:14,486 --> 00:29:19,289 but with the big bang, this process was reversed. 561 00:29:19,291 --> 00:29:23,293 Energy created matter, 562 00:29:23,295 --> 00:29:26,696 matter that expanded out and out 563 00:29:26,698 --> 00:29:31,301 to fill a whole universe, 564 00:29:31,303 --> 00:29:33,103 and in cosmic terms, 565 00:29:33,105 --> 00:29:38,174 the universe where matter would develop grew remarkably fast. 566 00:29:38,176 --> 00:29:40,044 Right after the universe was born, 567 00:29:40,046 --> 00:29:42,779 it had an unbelievable growth spurt, 568 00:29:42,781 --> 00:29:44,914 basically going from being a toddler 569 00:29:44,916 --> 00:29:48,584 to a teenager in the single tick of a clock. 570 00:29:48,586 --> 00:29:53,056 How could the universe get so big so quickly? 571 00:29:53,058 --> 00:29:55,058 If we believe the big bang story, 572 00:29:55,060 --> 00:29:56,392 it appears to have broken 573 00:29:56,394 --> 00:30:01,397 one of the most fundamental laws of physics. 574 00:30:01,399 --> 00:30:05,535 Did the early universe really grow faster 575 00:30:05,537 --> 00:30:07,137 than the speed of light? 576 00:30:26,958 --> 00:30:28,958 In the classic big bang story, 577 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:30,827 the observable universe expands 578 00:30:30,829 --> 00:30:34,764 from a ball of energy smaller than an atom. 579 00:30:34,766 --> 00:30:36,634 Today, the universe is estimated 580 00:30:36,636 --> 00:30:41,971 to be 93 billion light years in diameter. 581 00:30:41,973 --> 00:30:45,108 Think about the vast universe that we see all around us today, 582 00:30:45,110 --> 00:30:47,444 and it was once a tiny, tiny little volume, 583 00:30:47,446 --> 00:30:49,112 unimaginably dense. 584 00:30:49,114 --> 00:30:51,714 The universe must've gone through a colossal growth spurt. 585 00:30:55,655 --> 00:30:57,387 With a steady rate of expansion, 586 00:30:57,389 --> 00:30:59,923 there simply hasn't been enough time for the universe 587 00:30:59,925 --> 00:31:04,794 to grow to its current size. 588 00:31:04,796 --> 00:31:08,598 Regions of the universe that were close neighbors in the past 589 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,600 are now so far apart that their separation can't be 590 00:31:11,602 --> 00:31:16,873 explained by normal expansion. 591 00:31:16,875 --> 00:31:19,876 And the huge size of the cosmos 592 00:31:19,878 --> 00:31:22,879 is not the only strange thing we've discovered. 593 00:31:22,881 --> 00:31:27,684 The universe is what astronomers call flat. 594 00:31:27,686 --> 00:31:32,756 Sutter: Our universe is lumpy and bumpy at small scales. 595 00:31:32,758 --> 00:31:35,225 There's galaxies. There's black holes. 596 00:31:35,227 --> 00:31:36,759 There's people. 597 00:31:36,761 --> 00:31:40,230 There's all sorts of junk, but at large scales, 598 00:31:40,232 --> 00:31:41,564 global scales, 599 00:31:41,566 --> 00:31:46,369 truly universal scales, our universe is flat. 600 00:31:49,574 --> 00:31:52,009 Could this universal flatness 601 00:31:52,011 --> 00:31:54,710 and the super rapid growth 602 00:31:54,712 --> 00:31:56,312 somehow be connected? 603 00:32:00,585 --> 00:32:03,853 we know that the big bang wasn't an explosion, 604 00:32:03,855 --> 00:32:07,724 or matter in the universe would be unevenly distributed. 605 00:32:09,794 --> 00:32:12,194 yet something pushed everything 606 00:32:12,196 --> 00:32:15,932 outwards and fast, but what? 607 00:32:18,736 --> 00:32:22,805 in 1980, Alan guth, a young Stanford cosmologist, 608 00:32:22,807 --> 00:32:26,409 came up with a potential answer. 609 00:32:26,411 --> 00:32:30,146 His theory of inflation says the observable universe 610 00:32:30,148 --> 00:32:33,149 expanded from being smaller than an atom 611 00:32:33,151 --> 00:32:38,487 to the size of a basketball almost instantaneously. 612 00:32:38,489 --> 00:32:40,356 In this tiny fraction of a second 613 00:32:40,358 --> 00:32:41,957 at the beginning of the universe, 614 00:32:41,959 --> 00:32:45,262 like a millionth of a second but a millionth of that, 615 00:32:45,264 --> 00:32:47,297 a millionth of that and a millionth of that, 616 00:32:47,299 --> 00:32:49,298 the universe expanded by ... 617 00:32:49,300 --> 00:32:51,234 take the size of the universe at that time 618 00:32:51,236 --> 00:32:55,505 and multiply it by a one with, say, roughly 50 zeros behind it. 619 00:32:55,507 --> 00:33:00,977 Inflation drove the accelerated expansion of the universe, 620 00:33:00,979 --> 00:33:04,714 made it get really, really big really, really fast, 621 00:33:04,716 --> 00:33:07,716 and then it stopped. 622 00:33:07,718 --> 00:33:09,185 Inflation seems to solve 623 00:33:09,187 --> 00:33:11,988 two big bang headaches ... 624 00:33:11,990 --> 00:33:14,924 how the universe got so huge so quickly 625 00:33:14,926 --> 00:33:19,262 and why it's so flat. 626 00:33:19,264 --> 00:33:22,198 Because it inflated everywhere at once, 627 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:26,135 all the energy in the universe which would turn into matter 628 00:33:26,137 --> 00:33:32,075 was pushed out evenly at the same time and same pace. 629 00:33:32,077 --> 00:33:34,009 Sutter: And the first stars grow together 630 00:33:34,011 --> 00:33:35,678 to become the first galaxies. 631 00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:40,683 Even here, us, in the solar system, we're born. 632 00:33:40,685 --> 00:33:45,555 We're seeded in the event of inflation. 633 00:33:48,026 --> 00:33:50,226 Parts of the universe that are now separated 634 00:33:50,228 --> 00:33:52,830 by 93 billion light years 635 00:33:52,832 --> 00:33:57,433 once had the same cosmic zip code. 636 00:33:57,435 --> 00:34:01,704 To have expanded so quickly, inflation must have broken 637 00:34:01,706 --> 00:34:05,174 one of the fundamental rules of physics. 638 00:34:05,176 --> 00:34:07,376 We all know that one rule the universe sticks to 639 00:34:07,378 --> 00:34:09,646 all the time is that nothing can travel 640 00:34:09,648 --> 00:34:11,581 faster than the speed of light. 641 00:34:11,583 --> 00:34:14,384 So how can we possibly say that the universe expanded 642 00:34:14,386 --> 00:34:16,986 faster than the speed of light? 643 00:34:16,988 --> 00:34:18,988 But inflation says the universe 644 00:34:18,990 --> 00:34:21,991 expands into nothingness. 645 00:34:21,993 --> 00:34:24,927 There was no outside of the universe. 646 00:34:24,929 --> 00:34:27,931 The universe was everything. 647 00:34:27,933 --> 00:34:31,601 So space itself was inflating, 648 00:34:31,603 --> 00:34:35,605 and space can move as fast as it wants. 649 00:34:35,607 --> 00:34:37,340 You can't go faster than the speed of light 650 00:34:37,342 --> 00:34:38,808 through space, 651 00:34:38,810 --> 00:34:41,144 but space itself is allowed to stretch and expand 652 00:34:41,146 --> 00:34:42,812 as fast as it wants, 653 00:34:42,814 --> 00:34:45,414 and that's what our universe is doing. 654 00:34:45,416 --> 00:34:47,817 The idea of inflation smooths out the universe 655 00:34:47,819 --> 00:34:49,352 in kind of a peculiar way. 656 00:34:49,354 --> 00:34:51,821 You can kind of think of it as having a sheet 657 00:34:51,823 --> 00:34:53,356 with a lot of wrinkles in it, 658 00:34:53,358 --> 00:34:55,892 and if you take that sheet and snap it really hard, 659 00:34:55,894 --> 00:34:58,227 those wrinkles very suddenly flatten out. 660 00:34:58,229 --> 00:35:04,033 The theory of inflation is one of the craziest-sounding ideas 661 00:35:04,035 --> 00:35:06,035 in the history of science, 662 00:35:06,037 --> 00:35:09,706 so crazy that it might just be right. 663 00:35:09,708 --> 00:35:12,842 Inflation helps us to understand the inexplicable, 664 00:35:12,844 --> 00:35:14,977 but there's a problem. 665 00:35:14,979 --> 00:35:19,983 We don't know what triggered or powered inflation. 666 00:35:19,985 --> 00:35:22,785 The inflationary universe idea imagines 667 00:35:22,787 --> 00:35:24,320 that the universe was suffused 668 00:35:24,322 --> 00:35:27,991 with some kind of ultradense energy at early times, 669 00:35:27,993 --> 00:35:30,593 something that pushed the universe apart. 670 00:35:30,595 --> 00:35:35,998 What caused there to be that hot expanding stuff? 671 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,333 We have to be humble and acknowledge 672 00:35:37,335 --> 00:35:40,069 that we don't know for sure. 673 00:35:40,071 --> 00:35:41,871 But whatever started it, 674 00:35:41,873 --> 00:35:45,341 inflation was over in a split second. 675 00:35:45,343 --> 00:35:47,143 Sutter: It didn't last very long, 676 00:35:47,145 --> 00:35:50,480 and this is difficult to understand. 677 00:35:50,482 --> 00:35:55,017 How did inflation stop? 678 00:35:55,019 --> 00:35:58,154 We don't know. We got nothing, folks. 679 00:35:58,156 --> 00:36:01,356 Well, we got some things, but it's tough. 680 00:36:01,358 --> 00:36:04,493 It's tough. 681 00:36:04,495 --> 00:36:09,766 But has the process of inflation really stopped? 682 00:36:09,768 --> 00:36:14,170 One radical theory proposes if the force called inflation 683 00:36:14,172 --> 00:36:17,840 kick-started the expansion of one universe, 684 00:36:17,842 --> 00:36:21,310 then why not another and another and another? 685 00:36:23,848 --> 00:36:29,118 is inflation creating a whole series of new universes? 686 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,955 Is there a multiverse? 687 00:36:45,203 --> 00:36:48,470 If we believe the big bang story, 688 00:36:48,472 --> 00:36:53,142 a dot smaller than an atom expanded to make a universe 689 00:36:53,144 --> 00:36:56,145 93 billion light years across. 690 00:36:56,147 --> 00:36:58,681 A theory called cosmic inflation 691 00:36:58,683 --> 00:37:01,751 claims to explain this stupendous growth. 692 00:37:07,959 --> 00:37:11,828 but inflation may create more questions than answers. 693 00:37:13,965 --> 00:37:16,566 inflation gave us more than we had bargained for. 694 00:37:16,568 --> 00:37:18,167 We tried to come up with a mechanism 695 00:37:18,169 --> 00:37:21,370 that would just create our universe and stop 696 00:37:21,372 --> 00:37:22,571 and then quickly realized that, 697 00:37:22,573 --> 00:37:24,307 actually, just like most car factories 698 00:37:24,309 --> 00:37:25,908 don't produce one car and then stop 699 00:37:25,910 --> 00:37:29,712 but produce many cars, inflation tends to produce one universe 700 00:37:29,714 --> 00:37:34,650 then another and a vast number of them, a multiverse. 701 00:37:34,652 --> 00:37:38,187 It's a process called eternal inflation. 702 00:37:38,189 --> 00:37:42,458 It proposes that while inflation ended in our universe 703 00:37:42,460 --> 00:37:45,127 and led to formation of stars and galaxies, 704 00:37:45,129 --> 00:37:49,331 we're just one small part of a vast continuously 705 00:37:49,333 --> 00:37:52,067 inflating multiverse. 706 00:37:52,069 --> 00:37:56,339 Imagine a series of bubbles next to each other. 707 00:37:56,341 --> 00:37:58,141 Those are the different universes, 708 00:37:58,143 --> 00:38:00,743 and so our bubble is expanding, 709 00:38:00,745 --> 00:38:02,745 and we're bumping into our neighboring universe, 710 00:38:02,747 --> 00:38:05,348 and we're going to expand into it 711 00:38:05,350 --> 00:38:09,552 if the multiverse theory is correct. 712 00:38:09,554 --> 00:38:10,953 A big bubbling multiverse 713 00:38:10,955 --> 00:38:14,324 sounds like science fiction, 714 00:38:14,326 --> 00:38:18,694 but there is prospective evidence to back up the theory. 715 00:38:18,696 --> 00:38:21,497 Scientists have spotted an unusual Mark 716 00:38:21,499 --> 00:38:25,701 on the cosmic microwave background, 717 00:38:25,703 --> 00:38:30,106 that snapshot of the infant universe. 718 00:38:30,108 --> 00:38:33,442 There's a spot in the Southern hemisphere 719 00:38:33,444 --> 00:38:37,046 that's not necessarily the coldest spot 720 00:38:37,048 --> 00:38:38,647 or the biggest spot, 721 00:38:38,649 --> 00:38:42,050 but it's the coldest biggest spot, 722 00:38:42,052 --> 00:38:44,319 and it's strange. 723 00:38:44,321 --> 00:38:47,723 We don't know how to fully explain it. 724 00:38:47,725 --> 00:38:50,459 One unproven but intriguing theory 725 00:38:50,461 --> 00:38:54,530 is that this area is a kind of cosmic dent, 726 00:38:54,532 --> 00:38:59,402 surface dent from an impact with another universe. 727 00:38:59,404 --> 00:39:00,736 I work in the building with the people 728 00:39:00,738 --> 00:39:03,272 that discovered this giant cold area, 729 00:39:03,274 --> 00:39:04,673 and they were pointing it out and saying, 730 00:39:04,675 --> 00:39:06,208 "well, that doesn't make any sense. 731 00:39:06,210 --> 00:39:08,478 "Why would the microwave background be like that? 732 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:10,813 "Hey, maybe that's evidence of another universe 733 00:39:10,815 --> 00:39:12,681 interacting with our own." 734 00:39:12,683 --> 00:39:14,217 That's something that, when you go to lunch, 735 00:39:14,219 --> 00:39:17,753 makes you pause. 736 00:39:17,755 --> 00:39:19,288 If you buy into the idea 737 00:39:19,290 --> 00:39:21,624 of a crowded multiverse, 738 00:39:21,626 --> 00:39:25,895 cosmic bangs and scrapes are not only perfectly possible, 739 00:39:25,897 --> 00:39:27,897 they're probable. 740 00:39:27,899 --> 00:39:30,566 There may be many universes outside expanding 741 00:39:30,568 --> 00:39:32,835 under the force of inflation right now. 742 00:39:32,837 --> 00:39:34,237 One analogy is 743 00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,572 think about a superhero that just can't be killed. 744 00:39:36,574 --> 00:39:39,909 They keep regenerating. 745 00:39:39,911 --> 00:39:42,845 If the multiverse narrative is correct, 746 00:39:42,847 --> 00:39:47,917 it places a giant question Mark over the story of the big bang. 747 00:39:47,919 --> 00:39:50,519 The possibility of a multiverse suggests 748 00:39:50,521 --> 00:39:54,123 not just one but a whole series of big bangs. 749 00:39:56,861 --> 00:40:01,730 but not all physicists buy into this thesis. 750 00:40:01,732 --> 00:40:04,667 The community is divided on the idea of the multiverse, 751 00:40:04,669 --> 00:40:08,204 predictably, because there are some of us who believe 752 00:40:08,206 --> 00:40:11,874 that this sort of leap of imagination is justified, 753 00:40:11,876 --> 00:40:13,943 and there are others, sort of hardliners, 754 00:40:13,945 --> 00:40:16,612 who think that, until we have empirical evidence, 755 00:40:16,614 --> 00:40:19,214 this is not a scientific idea. 756 00:40:19,216 --> 00:40:20,749 Others welcome the fact that, 757 00:40:20,751 --> 00:40:23,686 when it comes to explaining everything, 758 00:40:23,688 --> 00:40:28,824 we're not simply stuck with the good old big bang narrative. 759 00:40:28,826 --> 00:40:31,093 I would've felt kind of claustrophobic 760 00:40:31,095 --> 00:40:33,762 if it turned out that all that existed was earth, 761 00:40:33,764 --> 00:40:35,497 and I was happy that we discovered 762 00:40:35,499 --> 00:40:36,766 that it was part of something bigger, 763 00:40:36,768 --> 00:40:39,301 the solar system, the galaxy, 764 00:40:39,303 --> 00:40:40,969 a cluster of galaxies or universe, 765 00:40:40,971 --> 00:40:44,440 so I'd feel even better if there's still more space out 766 00:40:44,442 --> 00:40:47,576 there and parallel universes, 767 00:40:47,578 --> 00:40:50,379 the more the merrier. 768 00:40:50,381 --> 00:40:52,247 While it's an appealing notion, 769 00:40:52,249 --> 00:40:54,116 without empirical evidence, 770 00:40:54,118 --> 00:40:56,652 it's a theory requiring a leap of faith. 771 00:40:59,390 --> 00:41:02,258 there's no reason to think that the tiny, little creatures 772 00:41:02,260 --> 00:41:07,529 that we are actually perceive the vast true nature of reality. 773 00:41:07,531 --> 00:41:09,465 This is still an absolute puzzle. 774 00:41:09,467 --> 00:41:11,400 We have ideas. I have ideas. 775 00:41:11,402 --> 00:41:13,736 Other people have proposed models, right? 776 00:41:13,738 --> 00:41:15,805 But we have no data, really, that helps us 777 00:41:15,807 --> 00:41:18,140 distinguish between these ideas, and to be honest, 778 00:41:18,142 --> 00:41:22,211 the ideas themselves aren't fully fleshed out. 779 00:41:22,213 --> 00:41:24,280 Support for the classic big bang model 780 00:41:24,282 --> 00:41:27,483 seems to be increasingly shaky. 781 00:41:27,485 --> 00:41:29,952 The latest thinking proposes not one, 782 00:41:29,954 --> 00:41:31,554 but a whole series of big bangs. 783 00:41:35,626 --> 00:41:39,362 as scientists continue to rewrite the traditional story, 784 00:41:39,364 --> 00:41:42,498 more and more questions are being asked, 785 00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:47,102 but for now, many remain unanswered. 786 00:41:47,104 --> 00:41:48,704 What was the origin? 787 00:41:48,706 --> 00:41:53,575 Is there even a sense to asking, "was there a time before time?" 788 00:41:53,577 --> 00:41:55,110 And I think the answer is yes. 789 00:41:55,112 --> 00:41:58,047 You know, our science and our math, they're just incomplete. 790 00:41:58,049 --> 00:41:59,982 Some day, we may have the mathematics 791 00:41:59,984 --> 00:42:02,718 to describe the earliest moments of the universe. 792 00:42:02,720 --> 00:42:05,220 Some day, we may be able to make predictions 793 00:42:05,222 --> 00:42:07,389 that we can connect to observations. 794 00:42:07,391 --> 00:42:09,525 Just because that day isn't today 795 00:42:09,527 --> 00:42:11,961 doesn't mean that that day will never come. 796 00:42:11,963 --> 00:42:14,597 We've learned an enormous amount in the last 100 years, 797 00:42:14,599 --> 00:42:17,333 but now we're left with some pretty serious puzzles 798 00:42:17,335 --> 00:42:20,803 that are gonna be really tough to solve, 799 00:42:20,805 --> 00:42:22,738 so I'm waiting for the next Einstein. 62513

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