Page 39 - DK Children's Encyclopedia

Big Bang SEE ALSO

▸ ▸ Atoms p.34
▸ ▸ Elements p.90
Scientists believe that the universe began in a ▸ ▸ Gases p.117
dramatic event called the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ▸ ▸ Light p.147
ago. The universe was tiny at the start, but it has ▸ ▸ Solar system p.233

been expanding ever since. ▸ ▸ Universe p.263

▸ ▸ Volume p.269

1. The Big Bang Creation
The universe was tiny and The universe started as a tiny
very hot. It started to grow. point of pure energy. It then Re-creating the
began to quickly expand and Big Bang
cool down. Over time it got
2. Atoms Scientists try to create the conditions
After 380,000 years, bigger and bigger. of the Big Bang in huge machines
tiny particles formed, called accelerators, which smash tiny
called atoms. particles together.
Scientists think
the first stars were Particle
probably very big accelerator
3. First stars and galaxies and very bright.
The first stars and clusters of
stars, called galaxies, appeared
100 to 200 million years after
the Big Bang.

Most scientists Light from distant
think our universe galaxies travels
will keep for billions of
expanding years before it
reaches Earth.
forever.

4. Our solar system
The sun and the rest of the solar
system formed nine billion years
after the Big Bang.
The space between
galaxies keeps expanding.

The universe may keep
expanding forever.

5. Today’s universe
The universe is still expanding.
Scientists study this stretching of
space by measuring how fast other
galaxies are moving away from us.
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