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The Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is outlined and its development traced from Isaac Newton's work on gravity, through Edwin Hubble's discovery of the Red Shift and Albert Einstein's work on relativity to Alan Guth's use of quantum theory to suggest how the Big Bang might have occurred. NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer satellite sent back data in April 1992 which supported the Big Bang theory.

For the last two years Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) has been scanning the entire sky and gathering data on the intensity of background radiation which are now providing clues about the period 15 billion years ago immediately after the Big Bang. Tiny temperature differences in space are evidence that the Big Bang led to an irregular pattern of waves and ripples which helps to explain the origin of galaxies. These are grouped into clusters and superclusters representing areas of greater density which were slowed by gravity until they condensed into gravitational systems.

NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite, Cobe, has mapped minute temperature differences in space across 15 billion light years and shown why matter did not explode evenly through the universe after the Big Bang but instead coalesced into galaxies and star systems. The original explosion caused ripples in the fabric of space-time and galaxies formed as matter responded to uneven gravitational pulls. Gravity, however, could only operate if most of the matter in the universe is 'dark matter,' a substance which we cannot yet define or measure.