All language subtitles for How the Universe Works - 3X04 First Second of the Big Bang

The most momentous
second in history, the first.

In that first moment of
creation, in the first second,

Space and time,
matter and energy,

Everything was set into motion.

Space and time
burst into existence,

Giving birth to the universe.

More things happened
in that first second

Than will probably happen

In the entire future history of the
universe, no matter how long it lives.

This violent first second will
define everything, including you.

So that very first second,
understanding that

Is the key to understanding
the universe itself.

Look up at the night sky,

At our universe...

...an awesome spectacle,

Stunning,
exhilarating, humbling.

And look at all the world
around us,

Bursting with life,

With natural wonders,

With those we love.

All of this, everything we see,

Comes from one miraculous
moment the big bang.

The big bang was more
than just a creation of matter.

It was the creation
of the universe,

Which means the creation
of space and time.

Creating time, space, and
everything is a pretty neat trick.

Obviously it happened.

But so far,
physics hasn't figured out how.

We don't know why it banged.
We don't know what banged.

We don't know how it's banging.

All we know for sure,

All of existence
suddenly burst into life.

This is the beginning
of the first second

When time itself is set to zero.

It's the moment
when everything we see,

All hundred billion galaxies,

Each of which contains
a hundred billion stars,

All of that material was compressed in
a region which was infinitely small.

In its first second,

The universe evolves
more radically

Than in the 13.8 billion years
that follow.

The first second of the universe

Was the most important second
the universe ever had.

And it went through more stages
in that first second

Than it has
in all the time since.

So much happens so quickly

That scientists need
a whole new concept of time.

For human beings, one second
can seem like a very short time.

But for the universe,
an incredible amount can happen.

We measure our lives
in hours, minutes, and seconds.

But they're useless
at the time scale of creation

Because the big bang unfolds
almost instantaneously.

We have taken
our understanding

Of what the universe was like

Back from one second
to a tenth of a second,

A hundredth of a second,
a thousandth of a second,

A millionth of a second,
a billionth of a second,

All the way back to a time
where the laws of physics,

As we now know them, break down.

That far back,
time must be measured

In unimaginably tiny slivers
know as planck time.

One way of understanding

How much actually happened
in the first second

Is to think in units
of the planck time,

The planck time being
10 to the minus 43 seconds.

There's a billion billion
billion billion billion

Planck times in one second.

There are only
a billion billion seconds

In the entire history
of the universe.

That's far fewer seconds
in all of history

Since one second to today

Than there were from the planck
time for the first second.

By breaking time up
into such tiny fragments,

We can imagine the birth of
the universe moment by moment.

In the beginning,
space and time are wrapped up

In an infinitesimally small
speck of pure energy.

As the planck time clock
starts running,

This knot of space and time
somehow bursts into life.

The big bang wasn't
an explosion in space.

It was an explosion of space.

As the hands of our cosmic clock
approach the first planck time,

All of space expands.

The universe emerges everywhere
at once.

The wonderful thing is
it happened right here

At the end of your nose.

And it happened 5 billion
light-Years away.

Every single point in space
was involved in the big bang.

So it's not as if it's a ball
that you can stand outside of.

Everywhere you are
is inside of the big bang.

In this very first
instant of creation,

Some scientists believe
that a single pure force,

A super force, rules everything
in the universe.

We think that the original universe
was a state of perfection,

A single unified force that existed
at the instant of the big bang.

As the first
planck times pass by,

Something causes the super force
to split...

...shattering the state
of perfection.

As the universe cools, these
different forces freeze out.

That means
they behave differently.

Think, for example,
in terms of steam.

If i have steam and i cool it,
it turns to a liquid.

If i cool it again,
it turns to a solid.

So in the same way,
as the universe began to cool,

The different forces broke off
from each other.

When the super force splits,

A new force emerges to drive
and shape the cosmos gravity.

It will mold matter
into planets, stars, galaxies.

If gravity were
a little bit stronger,

Perhaps we would have had
a big bang which would stop,

And then it would re-Collapse
immediately into a big crush.

Life would be impossible.

If gravity were a little weaker,

Then we would have a big bang
that just keeps on going,

And the universe
would freeze to death.

But gravity breaks
away from the super force

At exactly the right strength

To create galaxies, stars,
and life itself.

So our universe in some sense
is fine-Tuned.

We're just right to have
a universe that expands slowly,

Making it possible to create dna
and life as we know it.

Gravity may be
the perfect strength

For our universe,

But it's not the only force
that will govern the cosmos.

By the 10 millionth tick
of the planck time clock,

Another stupendous event will
begin the wildest growth spurt

In cosmic history.

The first second of
the universe has barely begun.

And the shortest possible units
of time, planck times,

Are flying by
in their millionths.

The universe is a super-Hot ball
of radiation,

Billions of times smaller
than an atom,

And dense beyond imagination.

Gravity has begun shaping
the future of the cosmos.

But as the universe expands,
temperature drops.

Another force arrives
on the scene, a strong force.

Without the strong
nuclear force,

The nuclei of the atoms themselves
would all disintegrate.

Three forces

Gravity, the strong force, and
the fractured super force

Rule the universe as it hurdles
towards its next milestone,

An event that sets out
the blueprint for the galaxies

That fill the cosmos today.

We think this event happened

Because it explains
a longstanding mystery.

Everywhere we've looked
in the universe,

Its billions of galaxies
are spread evenly,

The same number
in every direction.

Nobody could explain why.

All of these parts of the
universe must have at one point

Been in contact with each other.

It's kind of like having
two people

Who live on opposite sides
of a country

Getting up at the same time,

Eating the same breakfast,
dressing the same way,

Even when they don't talk
to each other.

There must be something common
in their past that links them.

This problem needed a solution.

And in 1979, a young cosmologist
named alan guth proposed one.

He called it inflation.

This was very exciting.

I suddenly realized
that this might be the key

To a very important secret
of the universe.

But at the same time, i was, of course,
very nervous because it was all new.

And i was shaky about
whether or not it was right.

Guth speculated
that the infant universe

Went through
a phenomenal growth spurt.

Cosmic inflation was a moment
in the history,

The very early history,
of the universe

When the expansion
suddenly accelerated.

It got huge for the briefest
moments of time.

Just 10 million
planck times after the big bang,

A tiny volume of space
suddenly starts to expand

Much more quickly than before.

This inflation is so rapid
that it turns chaos into order,

Spreading the constituents
of our universe

Evenly throughout space and
fixing their positions within it.

As the universe cooled
down in those earliest moments,

It increased in volume
by a factor of 10 to the 90th,

In a millionth of a billionth
of a billionth of a second.

It's like a grain of sand

Swelling to larger than the sun
faster than the speed of light.

Well, have we violated
einstein's laws?

Nothing can go faster
than the speed of light.

And here is one of the real
subtle points about the big bang.

Space can expand so much that
two objects appear to move apart

Faster than the speed of light.

But they're not moving.

It's the space in between them
that's growing.

Guth's audacious idea,
the inflationary universe,

Could push the limit
of our understanding back

To the very first moments
of the very first second.

But how could we ever test it?

How could we peer
into the birth of creation?

Tv static holds a clue.

1% of the static on this screen

Comes from light
from the big bang.

In 1964, astronomers
arno penzias and robert wilson

Were listening to radio signals
from space.

But in every direction,

They were picking up
a background hum.

Puzzled by the hum, they
suspected they knew the culprit

And swept the entire receiver
free of pigeon dropping,

But to no avail.

If anything, the background
got even greater.

And according to legend,

When they gave a talk
at princeton,

One physicist raised his hand
and says,

"Either you are listening
to the effects of bird dropping

Or the creation of the universe."

What penzias
and wilson had stumbled upon

Was the afterglow
of the fireball

Created by the big bang.

As the universe expanded,
it cooled.

After a few hundred
thousand years,

It was just protons
and electrons flying around.

But at some point,
the universe cooled enough

That when an electron
and proton got together

All over the universe,
essentially all at once,

The universe became transparent.

Think of a gigantic fog
that suddenly lifts.

Before the fog lifts,

You can only see a few feet
in front of you.

Then suddenly
everything becomes clear.

That's what happened 380,000
years after the big bang.

Ever since that moment,

380,000 years
after the big bang,

This light has traveled
uninterrupted through space.

Scientists call it
the cosmic microwave background.

If you were to write down
a handful

Of the greatest scientific
discoveries of all time,

One of them might be
the discovery of dna.

Another one might be

The discovery of a cosmic
microwave background.

That's how big
this discovery was.

The cosmic microwave background

First lit up the universe

380,000 years
after the big bang.

But it bears the imprint of
a time much earlier than that,

A time when inflation
was transforming the cosmos.

If the secrets to inflation are
anywhere, they're hidden here.

Scientists needed
to take a closer look.

The infant universe

Is 1 trillion trillion
trillionths of a second old.

It abruptly inflates in the
greatest growth spurt in history.

And the universe expands
faster than the speed of light.

The secrets to this expansion

Are hidden in the cosmic
microwave background,

The first-Ever light
to shine through the cosmos.

To reveal these secrets,

Scientists need the best picture
of this light they can get.

Ignition.

Lift-Off.

May 2009,
the european space agency

Launches the planck satellite.

It orbits the sun,

Scanning the temperature
of the entire visible universe.

It's so sensitive, it can
measure the temperature

Of the cosmic
microwave background

To within a millionth
of a degree.

The blue spots
in the map are cold spots.

They would evolve
and become large empty voids.

The red spots in the map,
those are hot spots.

They're gonna form
clusters of galaxies.

This map is a blueprint

For how our universe
is gonna form and evolve.

When we look at this map,
we're also looking back in time

And seeing the echoes
of creation.

The tiny variations
measured by planck

Go on to form the galaxies
that fill the universe.

And inflation
explains them perfectly.

But scientists need
a smoking gun,

Something out of science
fiction gravitational waves.

One of the tests is
that we might be able to see

The gravity waves
that were produced

At the very end of inflation.

Gravitational waves stretch and
contract spacetime itself.

They travel through the universe
like ripples in a pond.

Scientists believe
that the violence of inflation

Sent these waves reverberating
throughout the cosmos.

If we could see them,
it would be case closed.

Scientists would know
that inflation was real.

March 2014,

30 years since alan guth
came up with inflation,

A telescope at the south pole
shakes the world.

Today, scientists announce
they have discovered

What was going on in the
earliest moments of our universe

Right after the big bang.

This is the most
exciting scientific result

Of my career.

Inflation was an incredibly
violent process,

Different parts of the universe

All expanding at somewhat
different rates,

But all faster
than the speed of light.

And this difference
in expansion rate

Produced gravitational waves.

And these gravitational waves

Produced a signature
on the microwave sky

That we've now seen.

It's something i am so happy
that's happened in my lifetime.

The data is an almost
perfect fit for inflation.

What we're finding

Is that the very simplest models
of inflation

Are agreeing beautifully

With what observations
are being made.

And that's incredibly gratifying

And provides, i think,
very strong evidence

That inflation really happened.

Inflation explains why galaxies

Are spread so smoothly
across the cosmos.

In the tiniest fraction
of a second,

It transforms a minute
and uniform bit of space

Into the entire
visible universe.

And the implications
are stunning.

Maybe it wasn't just
the visible universe

That grew under inflation.

Some scientists now believe
that other regions of space,

Too distant for their light
to ever reach us,

Underwent inflation, too,
and are still inflating now.

One of the profound things about
inflation is once it starts,

It's hard to stop it.

Inflation never stops everywhere.
It stops in places.

And every place where it stops,
one produces a universe.

Inflation seems to go on

Producing other pocket
universes, literally forever.

Indeed,
inflation makes our big bang

And then goes on and makes
lots of other big bangs

And creates this big collection
of universes, the multiverse.

Our universe
may be just one

Of an infinite collection
of universes in a multiverse

Much, much larger
than we ever imagined.

And some scientists argue

That not only are there
multiple universes out there,

They think every possible
universe must exist.

People, identical to us,

Would live out every
possible parallel life

In every possible
parallel world...

...a mind-Blowing outcome.

Now that we have such strong
evidence for inflation,

It's time to take ideas like
the multiverse really seriously.

Let's reset.

The universe is less than a trillionth
of a trillionth of a second old,

And the seeds of its galaxies
have already been sown.

But everything
is still pure energy.

So where does all the matter,

The stuff of stars
and you and me, come from?

We're on a journey through
the first second of time.

The universe is a trillionth

Of a trillionth of a trillionth
of a second old.

The temperature is a thousand
trillion trillion degrees.

The infant universe inflates far
faster than the speed of light,

Pumping vast amounts of energy
into space.

But the cosmos is still
just the size of a baseball.

Inflation says that, for a brief
period, empty space gets energy.

And it turns out the universe
keeps dumping energy into space

To produce everything we see.

And so, apparently you produce
an incredible amount of stuff

From nothing without violating
the laws of physics.

It's almost magic,
but that's the keyword, almost.

It's allowed by the laws
of physics.

As inflation ends,
the brightest flash in history

Floods the cosmos
with radiation.

During the first second
of the universe,

It was unimaginably hot
and dense.

It was basically
a ball of energy.

It's not a place
you'd want to stand in.

You'd vaporize pretty quickly.

Everything's zipping 'round
at the speed of light.

This universe full of radiation

Is nothing like
our universe today,

Full of stuff, material stuff.

Because it was so hot,
atoms didn't exist.

Matter as we know,
it didn't exist.

The universe was a dense soup
of radiation.

The earliest universe
is a chaos of pure energy.

But how does it transform
into a universe full of matter?

To answer that question,
we have to turn to einstein

And a very famous equation
e=mc squared.

Before einstein, people said
"matter is matter,

Energy is energy,
and never the twain shall meet."

Along comes einstein and says,
"not so fast.

They really are the same thing."

Einstein realized that matter
is just concentrated energy.

This insight transformed our
understanding of the universe

And allowed us to unleash
devastating destruction...

...in atomic bombs.

Energy, "e," that can turn into
"m," matter, and vice versa.

Even a small teaspoon of matter
would be enough

To unleash the power of hundreds
of hydrogen bombs.

While atom bombs
convert matter into energy,

In the big bang, energy starts
to turn into matter.

But it's nothing like the matter
that makes up the world we live in.

So what does this primal matter
look like?

This is brookhaven national
laboratory in long island,

Home to the relativistic heavy
ion collider, or rhic for short.

Here, they re-Create the matter

That filled
the embryonic universe

One-Millionth of a second
after the big bang.

In a sense, rhic really
is a time machine.

We're reproducing the conditions

That existed
in the early universe

On the order of one microsecond
after the big bang.

Rhic fires gold nuclei around
a 2 1/2-Mile circular tunnel

78,000 times a second
at almost the speed of light.

Then it smashes them together
in the giant star detector.

Imagine smashing two cars
together in a head-On collision

And working out what
the cars looked like

By analyzing the debris
thrown off.

That's what the team
at rhic is doing.

They're hunting for the building
blocks of protons

By smashing them to pieces.

Each collision
that you see here,

You can see
that they're different.

Some collisions have more tracks
coming out of them.

The curved lines represent

In fact, they are the particles
that come out of the collision.

And you can see each collision

Generates a different number
of particles

Depending on the violence
of the collision.

What mike and his team
see is a spray

Of the most fundamental
particles of all quarks.

Quarks are normally bound
inside protons and neutrons.

But give quarks enough energy,
and they break free.

We expected these quarks,

Once they're liberated
from the protons and neutrons,

Not to interact
much with each other,

Just to stream out
into our detector.

What we found was
the most perfect fluid

That was ever discovered,
ever measured on the planet.

So it actually flows much
more easily than water does.

This was absolutely surprising.

And rhic shows us

That the perfect fluid
of elementary particles

Occurs at just one-Millionth
of a second into the big bang.

But, like everything
in the first second,

It doesn't last for long.

As the universe expands,
it cools.

And something called the strong
force makes its presence felt.

The most important characteristic
of the strong force

Is the confinement of quarks
inside protons and neutrons

That we see as today.

When the temperature
of the universe

Drops to 2 trillion degrees,

The strong force clumps quarks
together in groups of three,

Making protons and neutrons,
the building blocks of atoms.

The universe begins to take
the form we know today.

But as matter is bursting
into existence

All across the universe,
there's still something missing.

Somehow this matter has no mass.

The universe is hurtling through
its first second of existence.

It begins a hundred billion
billion times

Smaller than a proton.

After surging through a burst
of expansion, called inflation,

Faster than the speed of light,
the entire cosmos

Has grown to about the size
of our solar system.

And matter is bursting
into existence.

But this matter is strange.

It has no mass.

The matter in today's universe
has mass.

On earth, we feel it as weight.

In space,
objects can feel weightless,

But they still have mass.

If this astronaut had no mass,
he'd be in big trouble.

You can't actually slow
something down

If it doesn't have any mass.

If somebody doesn't have
any mass,

It has to move
at the speed of light.

There's no way of stopping it.

So a universe
that's full of matter

But matter which has no mass

Is one in which it just
looks like a big ball of light.

The early universe
had no mass,

Just elementary particles
fizzing at the speed of light.

But today, our universe
is full of planets and stars

That clearly have mass.

So where does this mass
come from?

Apparently there's some field

That permeates
the entire universe,

And different
elementary particles

Will interact with it
in different ways.

And it's the interaction
of the particle with the field

That gives the particle its
property that we call mass.

Scientists call it the
higgs field, after peter higgs,

One of the first scientists
to propose it in the 1960s.

The higgs field is invisible.

It stretches throughout space
and is accompanied

By a fundamental particle
called the higgs boson,

Which interacts with particles
of ordinary matter

As they pass through the field.

The more an object interacts
with the higgs field,

The more mass it gains.

Without the higgs field and the
higgs boson, there is no mass.

The higgs field
is a beautiful idea.

But does it really exist?

There's only one place
to find out

At the biggest and most advanced
machine ever built,

The large hadron collider
at cern.

Joe incandela hopes
to prove the field exists

By smashing the higgs boson
out of the shadows.

So i actually need all of you,
including the cameraman,

To go through
when the other door is open.

Just go all the way through.
There you go.

We're going down 90 meters,

Which is about 300 feet,
about 25 stories.

Took a couple years actually
to engineer the layout

Of just the cables.

There's enough cables to go
from here to moscow.

And this takes us
to the detector itself.

So here we are.

Like something out
of a james bond film.

Only this is real.

The lhc fires
two beams of protons

Around a 17-Mile
concrete-Lined tunnel,

Which collide at the highest
energies ever created by man.

It's equivalent
to shooting knitting needles

From either side of the atlantic

And having them hit head-On
in the middle.

The collisions
shatter the protons

Into a spray of new particles,

Including, perhaps,
the higgs boson.

Joe's team of 3,800 scientists
spend 5 years

Searching for the trail
of particles

The higgs should leave
in its wake.

On march 14, 2013, lhc delivers.

It was an electric atmosphere.

I mean, the 20-Year-Old
physicists had camped out

Overnight in the hallways to get
good seats in the lecture hall.

And the 80-Year-Old physicists,

Who had invented the idea
back in the '60s,

They were flown in
from all over the world.

And, you know,
secrecy was important,

So it was, like,
this is the one seminar

You're not gonna want to miss
in your lifetime.

I think we have it.

The discovery
of the higgs boson

Is one of the final keys to our
understanding of the big bang.

It was a very emotional moment.

I mean, people got choked up.

Thanks to peter higgs

And the efforts of scientists
around the world,

We understand the key moments
of the first second.

We now have all the building
blocks to make the universe.

A thousand years from now, when
they're writing the textbooks,

They will remember the moment
when we found the higgs boson.

All the matter around us,

All the human beings
and all the people,

All the stars and the planets
in the sky

And the higgs boson
was the missing piece.

That's what really
makes it get up and go.

Without this higgs' mechanism,
the higgs field,

That formation of mass,
we'd have no atoms.

Without atoms,
there's no structure.

We're not here.

That's where this other name
for this particle came from,

As a god particle in a sense.

We would not exist without it.

Stars, planets,
and people would be impossible

Without the higgs field
and the higgs boson.

But these new discoveries
may be responsible

For much more than
keeping our feet on the ground.

When the higgs field
pops into existence

During the first second
of the universe,

Some scientists believe
it may have triggered

The splitting
of the super force.

Without the higgs boson,
we can't exist.

And we think that a series of
higgs bosons were responsible

For breaking the symmetries
of the super force

So that the four forces
could emerge.

That's why when we found
the higgs boson,

Champagne bottles
were being opened up

In all the physics laboratories.

And we were all having
a grand party.

Nearing the end
of the first second,

Two final forces split off.

Without the weak nuclear force,
the stars would not shine.

The electromagnetic force
is the force

That governs almost everything
that we do,

Even the chemistry
of our own bodies.

The weak nuclear force
and the electromagnetic force

Now stand alongside the strong
nuclear force and gravity

To shape the universe
we live in.

With these four forces,

We have a universe
that can create our home.

The laws of physics
which govern our universe

Are, at heart,
these fundamental forces.

These forces drive the evolution
of the universe.

We're nearing the end
of the universe's first second.

The cosmos, now an inferno
of radiation and matter,

Has given birth to the four
fundamental forces of nature.

But before the first star
has a chance to shine,

A mysterious form of matter
threatens to destroy it all.

The first second,

The most important second
in the history of the universe,

Is nearly over.

The universe is now
20 light-Years across,

A fireball of light and matter.

But an almighty battle begins
to rock the cosmos.

Fundamental particles,
the building blocks of atoms,

Fill the early universe.

But they must survive a war,

A war whose outcome
will determine our future

Because matter has an evil twin,
antimatter.

And the two are mortal enemies.

In many ways,
they're opposites of each other.

And what that means is,
if you take a lump of matter

And a similar lump of antimatter
and slam them together,

They will be
totally converted into energy.

And according
to einstein's e=mc squared,

It's a lot of energy.

Matter and antimatter
simply cannot co-Exist.

They annihilate each other
on contact.

This cosmic carnage rages
as billions of times more matter

Than we see today
simply disappears

As matter and antimatter
collide.

The fate of the universe
hangs in the balance.

You have to understand
the universe shouldn't be here.

It should have been half
antimatter and half matter,

And we should have
all annihilated.

We do not understand
why we even exist.

At the end of this epic war,

Matter wins out
by the slimmest of margins.

But why?

The question is, why
in the universe, as we see it,

There are so many more particles
than antiparticles?

The galaxies and the stars
that we see in the sky,

These are all made of matter.

They are not made of antimatter.

Somehow, the balance
between matter and antimatter

Was slightly skewed
from the beginning.

For every billion particles
of matter and antimatter

That were being created
by energy,

One extra particle of matter

And that very small asymmetry
of one part in a billion

Is enough to account
for all the galaxies and stars

We see in the universe today.

Could things
have turned out differently?

What if antimatter
had won the war?

If antimatter had won
instead of matter,

The universe would
probably look the same today.

In fact, you know what?

We'd be made of antimatter,
and we'd call it matter.

Anti-Lovers could sit in cars,
anti-Cars,

Looking at anti-Moons,
making anti-Love,

And it would all seem
exactly the same.

So why was there more
matter than antimatter?

Why was the universe
built out of balance?

Professor tara shears
at the large hadron collider

Wants to find out.

What we're really interested in

Is how different the amounts
of matter and antimatter are

And whether they match up
to our understanding

Of how different matter
and antimatter should be

Because that's what
we don't understand.

The lhc results show

That the difference
between antimatter and matter

Is smaller than expected.

To explain why,
scientists need to know

What tips the scales
in matter's favor.

I really hope that we're gonna
make a measurement here sometime

In the future which is going
to just show us the light,

Show us what else there is
out there in the universe

That's going to make it all
make sense.

We still don't
completely understand

The first second of the cosmos.

But the fact that we know
so much already

Speaks volumes about the determination
and ingenuity of our scientists.

As a civilization, we are
extending our understanding

Of where we are in the universe.

And that's extremely important.

This is why we really love
doing what we do.

The first second is over.

The universe already contains
everything we see today.

What we understand from
the first second tells us a lot

About what's gonna happen
for a long time after that.

The first second
of the universe

Is amazing in its potential.

Here, we had a universe with
just these fundamental forces

And these very elementary
constituents of matter.

And what would they yield?

They would yield
an entire universe.

They would yield
the works of shakespeare

And the music of 50 cent.

We have gone so much further

Than anyone believed
we could have.

And i don't see why the origin
of the universe

Will be any different.

It might take 5 years.
It might take 500 years.

But i really believe
that one day

We will understand
mathematically

How our universe began.

In the next few minutes,

The universe cools enough
for protons and neutrons

To form the first atomic nuclei.

Another 380,000 years must pass
before the first atom appears.

In hundreds of millions
of years,

Those atoms clump to form
the first stars and galaxies,

Like the milky way.

More than 9 billion years
after the big bang,

Our sun and our planet,
earth, is born...

...their fate sealed in the
first second of the big bang.