Ongoing

From the Big Bang to Dark Energy

We have learned a lot recently about how the Universe evolved in 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. More than 80% of matter in the Universe is mysterious Dark Matter, which made stars and galaxies to form. The newly discovered Higgs-boson became frozen into the Universe a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang and brought order to the Universe. Yet we still do not know how ordinary matter (atoms) survived against total annihilation by Anti-Matter. The expansion of the Universe started acceleration about 7 billion years ago and the Universe is being ripped apart. The culprit is Dark Energy, a mysterious energy multiplying in vacuum. I will present evidence behind these startling discoveries and discuss what we may learn in the near future.

Supported Language(s): English, French, Spanish, etc.

Science
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Instructor(s)

MURAYAMA Hitoshi

Position
Professor
Division
Kavli IPMU, The University of Tokyo

The title and affliation listed are profile when the course was created.

Instructors' Voices

In this course, you will learn about:

  • How the Universe began with daily life experience, and learn the techniques/findings in modern physics that provide us this understanding
  • Birth of elements and Higgs Boson
  • Dark matter and anti-matter—some of the more mysterious sides of the Universe
  • Dark energy, inflation, and the possible fates of our Universe

Learners' Statistics

Learners' Voices

  • Student A

    I completed my bachelor degree in three subjects (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics). I was always curious about sky and outer space. I loved to watch and observe starry nights. Because of that, I enrolled in space club in my school and I was a member of ASTRO CLUB during my college time. There we had a telescope. So after that, I planned to join for MSc Astrophysics but I was unable to join for the same for some reasons. After that I got a chance to join in this course last year. I'm very glad that we got a wonderful and a great mentor to teach this course. I was able to feel his interest and passion in this subject through these classes. Many things I learned about universe through this course especially, about the Big Bang, about Black Holes, Dark matter. I don't have words to express my thanks to my Professor. Thank you very much Professor. You are the best mentor I have ever met.

  • Student B

    Thank you so much for this course. Although I found it rather difficult to stay with you throughout the entirety of the course due to my knowledge being limited to that of a high school student, your wonderful explanation made it much easier for me to follow you along. At the end of each lecture, you left me wishing for a more detailed explanation of everything that you covered. You are truly a master in your field of expertise. Thank you so much for this course. You have inspired me in more ways than you could imagine.

  • Student C

    Thank you professor for turning these difficult topics into easy term with meticulous & immaculate. It has felt me exhilarating. Thank you for your hard working. I have got to know innovate terms through this course. Currently I am doing my masters program in Textile Engineering subject. I like knowing about our universe since my childhood. Somehow I could not able to take this subject in my undergraduate. So, I have decided to do a short course astronomy related context so that I can understand some advanced information about universe. I love gathering knowledge about big bang, explosion between stars, black holes, spirals of galaxies, energy, gases, dark matter, motion, ages, higgs boson, gravitational force, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, equinox, gravitational waves, power spectrum, anti matter etc. I want to know what & why actually is happening in our whole universe.

  • Student D

    Thank you so much for this course! I have been an astronomy enthusiast for years, and this course lined up so much of what I learned into a timeline brilliantly. There is so much I learned in this class, I am so happy I took it. The lessons were broken up so I could easily watch and digest the information, and I loved watching the extra videos at the end of the course, updating the information on black holes. I live in the town LIGO Hanford is located, and I really want to visit it now. The section on gravitational waves was so fascinating, I talked about it all day to my partner and my dad. The way you explained things in this course was easy to understand, I genuinely enjoyed learning from you! Thank you so much for creating this course!

  • Student E

    Hi, I am from India. I took this course and satisfied very much with the way you design this course. I am looking to make a career in astronomy & astrophysics and currently doing my masters in physics from an IIT here in India. I took this course because of my interest to know about universe. It helped me to understand some basic and advanced fields in astrophysics. Your way of designing the course was excellent by giving a question after every video or topic. I enjoyed a lot to know about the big bang and the universe from you! I hope I will meet you in the near future somehow and somewhere. So many thanks for sharing the information of universe through this online platform.

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