Course: Gravity! The Big Bang, Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

Where are we in our exploration of the gravitational Universe? Inflation has uncovered for us the secrets of the Universe 10-38 seconds after the Big Bang! But among the predictions …

Let me tell the saga of dark matter, this non-luminous form of matter, from its identification in the 1930s by Fred Zwicky in the Coma cluster to the realization that …

If inflation explains some of the mysteries associated with the homogeneity and isotropy of the CMB, it also leads to some observational predictions. In order to understand them, it is …

In this interview, George Smoot gives us a recollection of the moments of his discovery of fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background, what was his personal reaction, and how the …

The Planck mission has achieved maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background to a level of details that had never been reached before. This has allowed to measure a certain number …

We now proceed to identify the first light which could travel through the Universe: this light which was emitted 380 000 years after the Big Bang can still be detected …

It is now time to introduce the scenario of cosmic inflation, a period of very fast expansion which took place right after the Big Bang. Theorists identified this stage of …

It is time to summarize what we have learned so far about gravity, and to realize what it means to say that “gravity is the engine of the Universe”. This …

Because the Universe is expanding, it is dynamical and thus it has a history. How do we follow this history? We review the many parameters that may help to describe …

It is time now to describe what is known as the Big Bang theory. What is the Big Bang itself? How does the Universe evolve from this primordial moment? Is …

George Smoot takes you to a trip in space and time, away from the Earth to the outskirts of our visible universe, that is to the dawn of time (7:53)

Einstein tries to apply his equation to the whole Universe, but what is the Universe? It turns out that it is more complex than anticipated. Henri Lemaître and Edwin Hubble …

A quick reminder on the finiteness of the velocity of light: how did physicist succeed in measuring this very large velocity (approximately 300 000 km/s)? This has far reaching consequences …

Nobel Prize winner George Smoot, with Marie and Thierry, reproduce with old-fashioned balls and board but modern stopwatches the inclined plane experiment of Galileo, which marked the foundation of modern …

Continue with Galileo, focusing on the notions of inertia and mass. And discover the principle of relativity, as expressed by the same Galileo. This will lead us smoothly to Einstein’s …