The Big Bang theory is the leading scientific explanation for how the universe began and developed. It says the universe started about 13.8 billion years ago from an extremely hot, dense state, and has been expanding and cooling ever since.
What it says
- Everything we see (all matter, energy, space and time) was once packed into an incredibly small, hot, dense state.
- It wasn’t an explosion in space. Space itself expanded, and it still is.
- In the first fractions of a second the universe grew extremely fast (called inflation), then cooled enough for particles to form.
- After a few minutes, protons and neutrons combined into the first light atoms: hydrogen, helium and a little lithium.…