The Big Bang main content.

The Big Bang

Part of Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Hall of the Universe.

The Big Bang AMNH/D. Finin

Exhibition Text

The Big Bang is the scientific description of the origin of the cosmos. It describes the beginning of the universe as an explosion of space, which has expanded and cooled ever since.

If we rewind the expansion of space and go backward in time, galaxies crowd closer and closer together in the past. Ultimately, all matter and energy is compressed at extremely high density and temperature. The observable universe fits within a volume smaller than a grain of sand. That superdense medium exploded in the Big Bang, launching the expansion of the universe.

Evidence for the Big Bang

The Big Bang theory makes three major predictions that have been tested and confirmed by obs