Expert Voices

How to Build a Universe (Gallery)

How to Build a Universe cover
The cover of "How to Build a Universe: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe." (Image credit: Reprinted with permission from How to Build a Universe © 2015 by Ben Gilliland, Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. Illustrations by Ben Gilliland.)

Ben Gilliland contributed the infographics for this gallery to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The universe is vast and almost entirely unexplored, and yet humanity has been able to tease out some of its most fundamental secrets.  In these infographics excerpted from his book "How to Build a Universe: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe" (Sterling, 2015), Ben Gilliland explains some of the universe's most fundamental processes. Read more in his essay "An Evolving Guide to the (Unfinished) Universe " and explore an excerpt from his book here. (Images credit: Reprinted with permission from How to Build a Universe © 2015 by Ben Gilliland, Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. Illustrations by Ben Gilliland.)

A multiverse

How to build a multi-verse.

Shining hole

How to make a black hole shine. 

Piece by piece

The pieces that make the particles in the universe.

From small beginnings

This graphic illustration by Ben Gilliland explains how a solar system forms out of a nebula.

Gravity

Gravity explained.

A gas giant

How to build a gas giant. 

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