Fly from the Big Bang down to Earth

One zoom, from the first instant to your own sky

The explorer is a ladder of zoom levels. Each one runs its own clock, because time means something different at each scale. Pick a rung to open it.

1. 
   ideas, not facts · no clock

   Before the Big Bang?

   Seven ideas scientists really discuss, each drawn as its own 3D model and rated by how much evidence it has.

2. 
   10⁻³⁶ to 10⁻³² seconds · 1 s = 10⁻³⁵ s

   Inflation

   Watch a patch smaller than an atom stretch, and quantum ripples freeze into the seeds of galaxies.

3. 
   13.8 billion years · all of time

   Cosmic history

   Thirteen eras on one timeline: the first atoms, the afterglow, the first stars, the Sun, and today.

4. 
   ~1 billion light-years · 1 s ≈ 100 million years

   The cosmic web

   Galaxies gathered into filaments and clusters around vast empty voids.

5. 
   100,000 light-years · 1 s ≈ 10 million years

   The Milky Way

   Our galaxy from outside, with the Sun’s place in it and the stars turning around the centre.

6. 
   8 light-hours · 1 s ≈ 1 week

   The Solar System

   The planets where they really are today, with Saturn’s rings casting their shadow.

7. 
   12,742 km · 1 s ≈ 1 hour

   Earth and Moon

   Day and night sweeping across the planet, and the Moon on its month-long orbit.

Read the story, then fly through it

Written guides to the big questions. Each one opens the explorer at the right place.

• 

  What happened before the Big Bang?

  Seven ideas scientists really discuss, from inflation to a bouncing universe, each rated by how much evidence it has.

Know what is measured and what is a guess

Every card in the explorer carries one of five ratings. The cards on cosmic history and on the Big Bang also list their sources.

• MeasuredDirectly observed or measured, again and again. The afterglow of the Big Bang is here.
• Strong evidenceSeveral independent kinds of observation point to it. Dark energy is here.
• Leading theoryThe best current explanation, with rivals still alive. Inflation is here.
• Proposed, testableA real proposal that predicts something we could look for. The Big Bounce is here.
• SpeculativeFits some theory, but has no observation behind it yet. The multiverse is here.