Space at the Speed of Light

Space at the Speed of Light

The History of 14 Billion Years for People Short on Time

Dr. Becky Smethurst


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Before the big bang, time, space, and matter didn't exist. In the 14 billion years since, scientists have pointed their telescopes upward, peering outward in space and backward in time, developing and refining theories to explain the weird and wonderful phenomena they observed. Through these observations, we now understand concepts like the size of the universe (still expanding), the distance to the next-nearest star from earth (Alpha Centauri, 26 trillion miles) and what drives the formation of elements (nuclear fusion), planets and galaxies (gravity), and black holes (gravitational collapse). But are these cosmological questions definitively answered or is there more to discover?



Dr. Becky Smethurst:
Dr. Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her current research is focused on the question of how galaxies and black holes evolve together. Her weekly YouTube videos explain unsolved cosmological mysteries, weird objects found in space, and general space news. Dr. Smethurst also presents physics videos for the YouTube channel Sixty Symbols and astronomy videos for Deep Sky Videos. She was shortlisted for an Early Career Physics Communicator Award by the Institute of Physics and was named Audience Winner in the UK national finals of the FameLab competition.

Justin Van Genderen is an illustrator and artist whose work is inspired by science, space, and imagination.