TIME

The Big Bang

≈ 13.8 billion years ago

Cinematic illustration of the Big Bang: a blinding burst of light on the left opens into a widening cone of glowing cosmic structure that grows from fiery orange through purple and blue into a field of galaxies on the right.

Cosmic TimeThe Big Bang

The beginning of everything.

The universe began expanding from an extremely hot, dense early state. As space expanded and cooled, the conditions emerged for the formation of matter, stars and galaxies.

The Big Bang was not an explosion at a point in space. Space itself expanded. About 13.8 billion years is a rounded scientific estimate from the expansion rate and the afterglow of the early universe. It is not a calendar date, and it carries an uncertainty.

13.8 billion years ago, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Cosmic Time
Period
≈ 13.8 billion years ago
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic illustration of the Big Bang, made for the timeline background. An artistic depiction, not an observation. Nothing records the beginning itself.