What is Big Bang?
Big Bang
The Big Bang is the prevailing cosmological model describing the origin and expansion of the universe from an initial hot, dense state approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Discussion among physicists has centered on what the model implies about the universe’s earliest moments, its large-scale structure, and whether an initial singularity is required.
How it developed
- Mar 2026 - Charles Liu said that at the moment of the Big Bang the mass of the universe was less than that of a glass of water.
- Jul 2026 - Adam Riess said measurements of the clumpiness of matter in the nearby universe show it to be smoother than the model’s picture of how the universe looked shortly after the Big Bang predicted.
- Aug 2026 - Eric Weinstein said there is no initial singularity due to the Big Bang, nor a singularity at the center of a black hole.
- Aug 2026 - Brian Greene said that roughly 10^11 years from now the sun will swell, consuming Mercury and Venus and possibly the Earth.
In the evidence
Every line below is attributed to a named speaker.
At approximately 10^11 years after the Big Bang, the Sun will swell to engulf Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth, ending life on Earth.
“If you just go up to here, 10^ the 11 years, what happens here is the sun will get bigger and bigger. It swells. It eats up the close planets, Mercury and Venus. It may swallow up the Earth, too.”Brian Greene · 17 Aug 2026
The nearby universe is measurably smoother (less clumpy) than Lambda-CDM predicts based on early-universe conditions, adding a second major tension to the standard cosmological model.
“There is the way we measure the clumpiness of matter in the nearby universe that, again, based on the way the universe looked shortly after the Big Bang in the model, we thought it would look clumpier than it does. Instead, it looks smoother.”Adam Riess · 23 Jul 2026
At Planck time (10^-43 seconds after the Big Bang) the total mass of the universe was less than a glass of water.
“At the moment of the big bang, the mass of the universe was well at 10 theus 43 seconds after the big bang, we'll call that the plunk time, the mass of the universe was less than a glass of water.”Charles Liu · 15 Mar 2026
General relativity's predicted singularities are wrong: there was no initial Big Bang singularity and no singularity exists at the center of a black hole.
“There is no initial singularity due to the big bang. Nor is there a singularity in the in the center of a black hole.”Eric Weinstein · 27 Aug 2026