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Inside the Gigantic Universe | The Architecture of the Cosmos
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- Published on Feb 16, 2026
- Inside the Gigantic Universe - Physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores the incomprehensible scale of the universe. A cosmic journey into the laws of gravity, relativity, and the formation of supergalaxies. Discover how the largest structures shape our understanding of the cosmos itself.
Director: Tim Usborne
Writers: Jim Al-Khalili, Tim Usborne
Stars: Prof. Jim Al-Khalili (Physicist, Presenter)
Genre: Science Documentary, Physics, Cosmology
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English Also Known As: Secrets of Size: Going Big (BBC)
Release Date: 2022
Filming Location: United Kingdom / Various International Locations
Synopsis:
In this second episode of the fascinating series Secrets of Size, Professor Jim Al-Khalili takes us on a cosmic journey into the immensity, exploring the largest scale of the universe.
We leave behind the quantum realm to focus on the forces that govern the largest structures: gravity and relativity. Al-Khalili explains how these laws shape the existence of galaxies, galaxy clusters, and the immense supergalaxies.
The episode reveals the incomprehensible scale of the cosmos, where time and space are distorted, and how the study of these giants allows us to understand the origin, evolution, and perhaps the ultimate destiny of the universe itself.
Reviews:
written by "ScienceGeek22" on IMDb.com: "Jim Al-Khalili is simply the best science communicator of his generation. He explains complex concepts like general relativity and cosmology with such clarity and passion. A visual masterpiece."
Also Known As (AKA): Secrets of Size: Atoms to Supergalaxies (BBC Four), Secrets of Size: Going Big
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#documentary #greatminds #bigthoughts #JimAlKhalili #Cosmology #Physics #Supergalaxies #Gravity #Relativity #Universe #ScienceDocumentary
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COPYRIGHT: All of the films published by us are legally licensed. We have acquired the rights (at least for specific territories) from the rightholders by contract. Plot11 Publishing GmbH.
I see a video with Professor Jim Al-khalili and I watch it.
Flat out
Same!
yup!
i learned of him from a NASA doc he was on! Apollo doc it was .
This is the first such video I’ve ever seen but he made an immediate impression on me as top notch.
A new Jim Al Khalili documentary?! Happy holidays to us all ❤️
What a treat, the best space related documentary I’ve seen in years, offering knowledge and insights a new.
Not a repeat or AI mash up.
🙏❤️
May as well of been AI as this bloke is full of it just like AI SLOP i give it thaumsn down as it is assertion and assertion is not theory assertion is ignorance.
Rewal fuckign funny how non certified physcists hobbyist has no gro phobio i have no trouble with distance of 1000 universes , Physicist Jim Al-Khalili is being paid by trump to lie about the truth so trump can is the dumbest twat in the USA.
Any scientific still currently in the uSA is not ascientits they are enemies of science.
The gold-star standard of science comunication. Prof. Jim Al-Khalili and his team have done it again - absolutely marvelous.
What are the chances that the universe came about by chance??🤔
Ummmm, Sagittarius A*
He's so much fun to watch...he and Brian Cox!!!
Thank you Sir, the production crew and scientists for providing a window into our Universe.
My response to the video and comments was both intellectual and emotional. I cried at the beauty of it all.
I am deeply appreciative of having you all as my companions on a short journey 'round our galaxy and much shorter journey through our Universe.
We likely will never meet but understand my wish to spend time with you all.
All the best and good wishes for a Happy New Year.
What a magnificent presentation!
I like this guy, he makes everything sound interesting
Jim is a legend. So thankfull for all video's he's in. On topic of the video, the knowledge of the superclusters and the fact that galaxy's over these insane distances ALL move toward ONE point is scary. Is it gravity or something like a elak
What a fabulous video. I understand everything mentioned.
This was unbelievably satisfying to watch!
These are all (so far) things i already knew with only a passing interest in astronomy. Presented here in such a way that it motivates me to learn more and more about it. Thank you for making this possible through RUclips!
Some fresh Jim Al-Khalili. Excellent!
Great!
This was on UK TV over 3 years ago, hardly fresh. :)
Great educational video 👍
Amazing! I actually learned something. 🙌
Wow, what a great explanation. .Our universe is beyond our imagination.
Wow, a documentary not narrated by AI, how refreshing...and well done overall, thank you for this. However...wait a minute..."all these galaxies are moving towards a central mass".......? I thought all galaxies were flying away from each other (the famous red shift)?
Glad you enjoyed it!❤️❤️
There is a "The Great Attractor" which has astrophysicists confused because we cannot directly observe it since it is in the Avoidance Zone. Bummer that
There is a flow to galaxies, with many of them moving towards something that is beyond the cosmic horizon (currently about 47 billion light years).
Gravity pulls the towards but space itself is expanding
There is the expulsive force and also the magnetic force is it likely a push and pull. At the end of a universal cycle will it be the big crunch or expansion without end. I would predict a gradual withdrawal to the origin all entities being beamed up and out at that point. As the earth had all that was necessary for our arrival our exit will also be handled likewise. Atheist Materialists think all this is random to non existent prototypes and that appears to be magical thinking. We are likely not outside the Universe but at the Center; through Consciousness. It will be found that man as the Church and Da Vinci saw is at the Center of the Universe. Our earth in consideration of our elemental coats is in the Goldilocks zone in relation to the sun. We are in a Material Age until the Precession of the Equinoxes takes us out of it. The Church protects us from atheist materialism; communism, and likely next up; trans humanism. Consciously we are at the Cosmic Center, around us the sphere of Eternity; the sphere of Bliss the sphere of Omnipresent; Omniscient, living space is revolving. The Church had it right, and still has it right and will protect us from atheist materialism; communism; trans humanism as it protected us from the Dark Occult before the Age of Reason. Our elemental coats and all else appears to be projections to the new Physics and it is only getting started; the Precession will evolve it.
My all-time favorite professor/scientist.
Always the best, Dr. Al-Khalili always worth the watch
I expect the universe is millions of times bigger than the bit we see. It should grow for quite a bit too.
I’ve been searching for a video like this since before you made this! (currently 4w ago) Thank you!
❤ professor Jim is the best
Amazing
I just love this stuff!! Thank you! ❤
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Great Documentary! It is a real pleasure to watch.
amazing, subbed.
MIND BLOWN
Thank you.
We are AWESOME and tiny!
❤️
I hit like on this, but 'like' hardly describes it. It's so fascinating. I wish I had become an astrophysicist. It is among my deepest interests and I really feel that in some ways I missed my calling, that I sold myself short. I've been studying as a lay person for many years - decades, in fact. Since I was an adolescent, which is now decades ago - and I never, ever give up on the pursuit of more knowledge and greater understanding. So thank you Jim Al-Khalilli, for all the great work you do in bringing this to us. Inquiring minds really do want to know!
Great
3:09 quick professor grab the marshmallows !😂😂😂
Top tier teacher 💯🔥
Thank you for your comment!
All of our knowledge is based on our current understanding, it was once thought that the sun went around the earth and the magic either was what we saw looking up. but as humans we have the ability to ask why and how and everyday we discover that what we thought we knew is just a small part of the puzzle. we dont even know how big the puzzle is or how many pieces it has but each day, we learn more.and that is the nature of discovery.
Thank you for your comment!
Everything we don’t understand appears to be magic. Imagine handing Cro Magnum man a flashlight
For every door that opens, several others appear. So far, so good. But what we didn't expect was that when this one opened, the very ground would collapse.
As we can actually see, that quantum systems emerge into more complex systems. We are here!
I love it! thank u
I'm glad you like it
It's difficult to wrap our mind
It's such a struggle to unpack! And then how does one process all of the horrors? Oh dear me, if it's not one thing it's another!
I had no idea that the ort cloud has an hourglass structure. Great video, thanks 😊
Glad you found that detail interesting! Thanks for watching.
L🌎ve those cosmic comparison it gives a clear indication or proof scaling my mind, thanks.
❤️
Great documentary, thank you very much!
Young investigators like Alexia should be the true models to the youth, instead of the usual empty stupid influencers
Good luck trying to top this video
Very informative teaching leading into super structure. Finite speed óf gravity and electromagnetic waves in reshaping corresponding fields are apparent here. Also influence of multiple universes seems to be playing role here.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. The interplay between finite propagation speeds and field interactions is a fascinating area, and interpretations around broader structures or multiple frameworks certainly invite further reflection and discussion.
Laniakea supercluster and Great Attractor .
Our comprehension of the scale of the universe is that we can't comprehend it .
❤️
🙏
was not ready for that 7:26
The more we think we know,the less we do...one step forward,two steps back 😳...the Universe,so many variables,far too many to comprehend! It's almost as though the Universe needs to keep its secrets and mysteries.But every so often throws us the occasional carrot!....just a thought 🤔😊
it's easier to think all possibilities are possible
That’s a very fitting way to put it. The documentary echoes that idea, each discovery expands our understanding, but also reveals deeper layers of uncertainty, as if the universe advances knowledge in small invitations rather than full explanations
👍👍👍👍👍
We are extremely lucky … we have got Helios sphere ❤
Great documentary but try and fit a frw more ads in next time
What about the cosmic web? It's a fascinating structure in the cosmos.
is that a Borg cube?
@10:09 absolutely beautiful
Love this stuff and thankyou for the vid but I'm sad that Pluto and the Kuiper belt didn't even get a mention in the inner workings of our solar system. Mr. Ort Cloud who's only been in the picture for a week or so got mention and a nice little CGI clip, poor Pluto it's been beat up on a lot since it was demoted.
See THUNDERBOLTS Project... SATURN was OUR SUN... Just 8,000 years ago....
We're glad you enjoyed the video, and we appreciate your passion for Pluto and the Kuiper belt! Your point is well taken.
Our moon wasn't mentioned and that's bigger than poor little Pluto 😅
@jamieclarke2694pluto is a little PUNK! Lol. Hangs out by himself, no friends orbiting him, cold, dull.....not worthy of our solar system!
One question that blows my mind is "for what purpose?"
The most plausible explanation of the expanding Universe is that the Universe expands into itself. In other words, the Universe is all that there is (and it does not expand into an even bigger “bubble” as quite a few astronomers seem to believe). Also, the Universe must be doing so on a time frame that is just too big for us, the minuscule but rather arrogant beings, to observe.
Eye candy YEAH!
Professor Al-khalili? I never saw him as eye candy. But whatever.😒
❤ INSPIRING
EDUCATIONAL
BOLD ELEGANCE
Are the only words
In my Humbled view..
A True Genuine Performance
Accademic regor Delivered Magnificently
By a truly Dedicated
Science Enthusiasts Who has the Remarkable Gift to allow us allTo fully grasp complex
Subjects..
😊Really So Glad 😊
I stumbled-upon
So much Grace
& Eleagance
Thank you for
An Unforgettable
Experience Sir..
❤ @Horizon
When watching these it makes me think just how small and insignificant we are. If the universe is an experiment running on some one's or some thing's desk, then the solar system would be a molecule with the earth spinning around it. For any one-thing to find us would be like us discovering the quark.
That’s a powerful reflection. Thinking in those scales can be humbling, and it often leads to the same question these films raise: how perspective changes meaning, not necessarily importance.
I think I can explain 'Spooky Action at a Distance' - at least for photons, and perhaps for all types of particles - even atoms as they also show wave-particle duality in the double-slit experiment.
You have told us that a free photon moving at the speed of light does not experience the passage of time.
So - when one entangled photon (or perhaps any other type of particle) is observed - because there is no time - the other particle instantly assumes the opposite state to the observed one because there is no time difference between them.
This will be true even to the other side of the universe.
There is no action in spooky action at a distance , it was merely Einstein trying to show the collapse of the wave function instantaneously two places at once was a problem. It's still a problem. Entanglement was still theoretical at the time and had never been showing experimentally , these were merely thought experiments for arguments sake
You missed the whole issue of spooky action at a distance. Even though photons may not experience the passage of time, standard physics (mostly) says that forces are mediated by particles and/or fields (depending on how pedantic you want to get). This communication takes time since the speed of light is a limit. Photons may not experience the passage of time, but this is be cause they travel at the speed limit - c, so even they can not propagate information faster than light. Thus quantum mechanics (via the wave function) is the only way to explain it. This is what made Einstein nervous.
@mmmmmwha There is a recent video on spooky action at a distance called "There is something faster than light" by Veritasium. In it the narrator/interviewer speaks with the author of the book "What is real? The unfinished quest for the meaning of quantum physics".
In this video the author, the interviewer and the owner of another channel in physics argue that history has become muddled and Einstein was essentially closer to being right than Bohr in realizing that there actually is a tension as it were between quantum mechanics and localism. Bohr treated this simply as some sort of philosophic dispute, a matter of interpretation. But despite staking out the wrong position, siding with localism instead of quantum mechanics and entanglement, Einstein was right that such a tension existed. This is what was demonstrated by Bell experiments by statistical means, and I will add, more solidly by non statistical demonstration in terms of GHZ experiments.
As an additional gem, the interviewer begins with an even earlier thought experiment given by Einstein at the beginning of the 1927 Solvay Conference, a thought experiment that suggests Einstein in arguing for local realism he began with the assumption that the quantum wave of a particle as something that exists out in the world independently of us in order to argue a reductio ad absurdum against entanglement as violating localism and thus presumably causality whereas Bohr regarded the wave (and particle, for that matter) simply as theoretical devices for making predictions about the outcomes of experiments - which seems closely allied to a long since abandoned school of thought in the philosophy of science known as logical positivism.
However, they point out that one increasingly popular position is that the evolution of quantum systems (including the particles and ensembles that compose the observer) is always unitary and thus the wave function never collapses, but instead entanglement spreads out through the interaction of the system being observed with it's environment, which includes the observer. If I may elaborate, the observer is dethroned, no longer occupying a privileged position in quantum mechanics as the measurement process is itself regarded as a physical process fully subject to the unitary laws of quantum mechanics.
This is oftentimes referred to as the multiple worlds interpretation of Hugh Everett III, but this is as inaccurate as referring to a qubit as being both false and true at the same time when it is in fact in a well-defined state of linear superposition where the coefficients for each of the basis states consist of complex numbers and the application of the Hadamard gate a single time to a basis state results in a state of superposition but a second time results in the original basis state. The quantum state isn't some probabilistic mixture of two classical states. It is it's own well-defined state.
Everett didn't presuppose the existence of multiple worlds. Rather, he simply took quantum mechanics, including the deterministic, unitary evolution of quantum systems at face value as a description of reality and then asked how measurement as a physical process is to be understood in terms of this. His answer was the relative state formulation of quantum mechanics, which is derived from and fully equivalent to the theory of quantum mechanics itself.
However, ultimately there is a sort of "multiple worlds" that results from Everett's approach, one that consists of pseudo-Classical worlds that become distinct from one-another as the result of a process of decoherence that results from the quantum entanglement of a system with it's environment. The process of decoherence is an emergent process (as described by H. Dieter Zeh), and likewise, so is the branching of pseudo-Classical worlds that results from that process. They are not assumed but derived from a quantum mechanics that is limited to the unitary evolution of the wave function.
[Added --->]
One good modern reference regarding this approach is the semi-technical book "The Emergent Multiverse - Quantum Theory According to the Everett Interpretation" by David Wallace, but one one can find Everett's original paper online as well as a review some by his academic advisor, John Archibald Wheeler.
I like your thinking. If the particle has any mass it will experience time. Although a bit slower than we precive it. Yes, Photons are massless.
They are entangleing molecules and diamonds now apparently.
@Justmyenergy Yes a molecule of up to 2000 atoms has been entangled
I can't imagine the work these guys put in, because to measure half the stuff they show, they'd need to calculate how gravity light, and unseen forces affect every planet in the solar system, and then the oort cloud, and then then every single object, including rogue planets that don't emit light, and every star, celestial event, everything between us and everything we want to measure, because if we don't, then we have to factor in how gravity affects light, and without factoring in dark matter, and the gravity affecting it (and based on what we know, we could infer the existance of dark gravity), and if we didn't do this, then every measurement we made to calculate the distance of things based on light, there would be a near countless amount of conflicting factors and interferences that warp light as it travels through space in every direct, and if a supernova occurs, then the insane gravitational warping this causes, would affect the light..not to mention the light from that event will collide with all the surrounding light..
Granted, if they made these calculations and the result didn't make sense, they would create theories, and use mathematical models to explain their answer, and by the time they are done, they'll have so many theories on everything that they won't be able to see the forest from the trees.
That said, I like some of those theories, and a lot of them make sense and are still anchored in reality. A lot of others though, are just mumbojumbo used to justify anomalous results. I'd be the same though if my life's work was depending on my work being solidified, so I'd have an extreme interest in making sure it stays that way... Although I doubt they factor in the unmeasurable quantum effects that are acting in strange ways off-world in the space around everything, and the effect it has on literally everything, because the scaling measurements we make on earth using different sizes, have to also be applied across everything both on and off-world. Since we are still figuring out what caused the big bang theory that we currently use (although it's not the only theory we use, but the most prominent), we should be able to consider that something caused this starting event that made everything expand outwards, and if that catalyst has after effects that still linger through space, both known and unknown.
"We know more about space than we do about our own oceans." - No you don't, shut up.
In here justice quick given...
I would watch a video of professor Al-Khalili reading a dictionary. I love how he truly focuses on TEACHING in his documentaries. He’s brilliant.
and he treats us as equals. Very refreshing attitude
Pretty good but made for a more beginner thinker
100,000 light years, billions of years, and we all sit on this ball working to pay taxes till death...
It just don't seem right.
We have finally reached Kardastein Type 1 Civilisation ... We collect taxes from the entire planet
Soon with Elons help we will reach Kardastein Type 2 where we collect taxes from the solar system
Then the Entire Galaxy
Now get back to work you're break is over Sir
What else do you want to do? Sit around Al day and smoke a joint until your brain turns into mush?
That contrast is part of the tension the documentary highlights, vast cosmic timescales alongside very human routines. It doesn’t make everyday life meaningless, but it does invite us to question how we define purpose within that immensity.
@AV8B_Flyer never known a brain to turn to mush with cannabis. Alcohol on the other hand is scientifically proven to inhibit brain function even in the long term with prolonged usage. Guess which drug is legal 😂
get kids on it ...
Does anybody know what the car was on the Doppler Effect demo?
I think it was a Porsche but I'm not sure...
Porsche 550 RS Spyder ??
The "open ends" of the suns magnetic field are not open ended. North connects to south on the poles also. This forms the boundary of the heliosphere. Not interstellar medium.
Make you realise we will never fully understand our place in the immenseness of the Universe. Out tiny spec of life is nothing when viewed against what's out there. Isn't the internet wonderful despite all the obnoxious stuff out there, it also brings us real gems like this
Is that a Borg cube there in the background?
😅 That's a good one hahahha you made me laugh 😅Respect to my fellow comedians
Love ❤️ it ..
@francescopianese4890 Thank you 🎉😂
Dana Scully at 17:53..... The truth is out There.
What you have done here is brilliant. Thank you. I posit something unheard of. Galaxies are just neurons and dendrites. That implies an incalculable massive brain. Look at pictures of a human brain. Galaxies are just bigger (than us) by 1000s of scale squared. and squared again... Think about that.
maybe a has something to do with it....
They just had to get the Porche Spyder 550 for the Doppler experiment🤣
Size matters.😀
Thank you for being real. RUclips has been absolutely over run with AI celebrity voice over science videos that are all just rehashing/stealing content from real human creators.
It's disgusting actually and youtube should be ashamed of itself for allowing it. I don't look forward to this future of endless AI slop theft.
Didn't think it was possible to describe the size and shape of our galaxy, its impossible to see all of it from our position.
You are a very good communicator. I love your program. I look forward to seeing much more from you thank you!
Thank you so much!
Sunshine...?
Dude said] people don't realize the sun has a magnetic field....
I come to this type of content to be exposed to the staggering brilliance of human intelligence, of which I sadly don’t aspire to but I’m left wondering if humanity shouldn’t take a moratorium on the acquisition of knowledge unless it can be proven to improve or protect the human condition especially in current times as ignorance and greed have risen to represent the most profound existential threat to life on this planet.
Maybe the arc is a giant bacteria and we are seeing through its molecular structure because we are so small?
What's happening on earth ,?
Size of the milky way galaxy? If it was transposed onto the USA (∅2870 miles) Our sun would have half the diameter of a red blood cell. About 250 human red blood cells, each roughly 8 micrometers wide, can fit in a line across the diameter of a standard pinhead, which is about 2 milli-meters across. Our galaxy (100,000 light years across) is big! And just one galaxy among trillions. Average distance between each star? And 2.5 light years.
UHL THE MAHTHS
? If the universe is expanding ( stretching ) then how can the Andromeda galaxy collide with us as we are told we ( the milky way ) is flying away at the same speed into infinite space with dark energy keeping the cosmic brakes on ( so to speak ) . ?
The Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies are colliding because their immense mutual gravitational pull is far stronger than the universe's expansion on this local scale
Job 38:7, Psalm 148:3
Blue dot egos
Pause at 49:43. Could this be the Demiurge's (Yaldabaoth's) true form? You look at this, and you say wow this is beautiful." Me, I look at this, and I think about how much suffering must happen in those galaxies. The Monad form is a sphere, a circle, but this thing at 49:43 looks so deformed.
Jim is like Brian Cox, minus the ego and narcissism
Great program, thanks. So, do we understand what Space actually does? And that is separate from the matter-verse. I have some things to say that will help. I will say this, our perspective might be hindering our understanding of the systems. EMFSYSTEMS are the most important part of everything. Peace ✌️ 😎. Happy Holidays.
❤️
Write a paper send it to some physics magazine earn nobel prize profit!
@pennywise5095or they bury it and someone they like pretends they wrote it. I want the money 💰 too. It's my model and theory. Peace ✌️ 😎. But everyone has to get on board. Its really important for all of us to move forward in our physics capabilities. Which mag is the best Mag?
Happy mental illness day
Yay! I was dying for the second part to drop!!!😃
Awesome! Thanks for watching! 🙏
So... if far away galaxies are redshifted and are moving away, the conclusion is that the universe is expanding. If Andromeda is blueshifted, can't we say the universe is shrinking here locally?
Yes and it is, due to gravity from the Milky Way.
So if every atomic number, energy, force, were the size of a grain of sand that makes up my very being. Would I be as great as the sun?
all i know is that there is alot of stuff out there, but why.
If space is a vacuum. Wouldn't that explain gravity and also why the further away a galaxy is from us, the faster it moves? Wouldn't that mean that the vacuum of space is from some kind of a universal black hole?
Thank you for your comment!
Sure. Head pats.
Maybe this wasn’t meant for adults?
Repeat!
👍🏼❤️
the dark matter portion is absolute BS the problem is what they get wrong about gravity not some undetectable matter that somehow makes their model work ( funny that )
Hello Professor Al-khalili.
I have been trying to get you and others to consider an explanation for exacly what you say you do not understand about Dark Matter. In my hypothesis and book, " The Two Monopole Particle Universe ", I explain logically that Dark Matter is an incredibly small Negatively charged Monopole Particle called a ' Harveytron ', which fills the whole of the universe in a dense cloud, and the force of repulsion it produces is ' Dark Energy ' which is also one of the two forces of gravity I propose.
I have sent you a copy of my manuscript in the past, but am happy to send it again if you are interested. Kind regards,
Tony Marsh.
My man. This is just a random RUclips channel. What are you expecting?
😂
Has he got back to you tony 😂
Applaud the effort Tony but kenoby is right bro this is you tube you might want to make a better pitch maybe in person?
@riceandpeaboglebogle No, but if you are interested in an alternatin to the ' Same old , Same old 'below are links to a few short videos I have made. Have a look, and let me know your thoughts. You will note, I am not a professional video maker. Kind regards,
Tony.