Picture of the Big Bang (a.k.a. Oldest Light in the Universe)

Where does all the stuff in the universe come from?

And twitter - @minutephysics

Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute!

Music by Nathaniel Schroeder

Thanks to Nima Doroud and Chantal Hutchison for contributions and to Perimeter Institute for support.

[NVAfilm]

0:38 Now i'm hungry
2:14 oh never mind, Hungry gone

[QuantumCraziness]

Holy shit that was beautiful, I dont care what you believe that is some awesome science.

[chachingu]

Oh, i thought the big bang was 9 months before i popped out.

[hellacopternator]

when astronomy starts in school ill probably be liks da booss

[brainnuke]

That website's askin' a password and a username!

[aeowyn_]

I am a Christian and I believe that God created the universe. I also believe in the big bang and, albeit I am only in high school, I would dare say that I am a scientist.

[foxitive]

Whenever my friends tell a lie I always add at the end "And the moon is made of cheese." I was right all along

[Richard_is_cool]

Well, the site isn't even working... You know, maybe write that in the description or something...

[MrAqr]

3:07~ Never saw that conclusion coming.

[whittyjd]

This is a brilliant explanation of the CMB radiation, i love the milk curdling analogy. I think a lot of people would find it more interesting if they took time to understand the concept of what the WMAP image means in the context cosmological evolution.

[elizbethann]

He comes the raid of christens commenting "ummm this is all lies god made everything and every scientist is wrong and stupid, all this proof everywhere is made up so yeahhhh" lol come on guys 

[danielgarnreiter]

Contemporary text says that Electromagnetic particle waves a.k.a. photons are formed when Electrons orbiting the Proton nucleus drop In their valence orbit.
If electrons were not bonded to protons what produced The electromagnetic waves of the Microwave background radiation?
Also
Why do you propose that the Photons from the Background radiation would have started as visible light And not something like gamma radiation as out of black holes? Due to the intense pressures and Heat of the early universe isn't it more like they would have started as something with more energy?

[cmacc]

I dont get it. How can the light from the Big Bang hit us after 13 billion years, while both we and the light are originated from the same place? Shouldn`t the light leave us way behind? 

[DragonAurora]

Where's the map??? It's not on the link you provided.

[Sonicbolt]

Quantum fluctuations. That sounds COOL!!!! >3<

[deegobooster]

I still have a hard time grasping how the "Big Bang" could actually occur :(

can you do a video on it?

[kevinbartlett]

My question is this. If the light left this single point that we think of as the big bang, and has been travelling since, and light moves faster than the matter would have, AND our solar system took time to form, wouldn't the light have already passed us? How would we be seeing it now, unless it was bounced back off of something to get back here? I mean we have to be in one singular direction from where the big bang happened. Unless this gas cloud was larger than the known universe even before cooling. If this is the case, then the expanding universe theory loses some traction in my mind, since the coalescence of the universe would be pulling us back in. 

[GothicSilverWolf]

@minutephysics So here's a question that I just thought of today...the singularity before the big bang had 0 entropy right? And since entropy is constantly increasing with the passage of time, as the universe ages, the amount of entropy should approach infinity right? But if the Big Rip theory is true and all matter becomes a uniform sea of quarks, neutrinos, ect, then wouldn't the disorder be 0 again, and therefore entropy has been reversed??

[slumz]

Deep down inside I feel as if the Universe is older than 13.7 billion years old..

[rheiagreenland]

So without gravity all we would have would be lone atoms all over the place?