How Many Universes Are There? episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 16, 2026 · 24 MIN

How Many Universes Are There?

from PBS Space Time · host PBS

PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE ↓ More info below ↓ Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord! https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Check out the Space Time Merch Store https://pbsspacetime.com/ The universe is big, but it’s peanuts compared to the eternally inflating multiverse. But just how many universes are there? What are they like? And most importantly, what can they tell us about … aliens? Challenge Answer Winners Steven Mertens David DeLaney Chris Lotery Eneko Fabien Sangouard Ian Bonnell *Please email your selection from the Space Time Merch Store along with your address to [email protected] with the subject line “Challenge Question Winner” Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Matt O'Dowd Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRl6-nb4iOnsij-vnpAjp0Q Imagine it: the observable part of our universe is 93 billion light years across, and that’s just a small fraction of the stuff created in our Big Bang. But in the eternal inflation picture, ours is just one among uncountable bubble universes. Bubbles that are continuously appearing and growing within a vastly larger spacetime that itself expands at an exponentially accelerating rate. A greater inflationary spacetime whose expansion never ends. We looked at the bizarre idea of eternal inflation in recent episodes – but we stopped short of exploring the full implications of this proposition. Those implications are, frankly, completely nuts. Some may also be true. Big Bang Supporters: Alexander Tamas Anton Lifshits David Barnholdt David Boyer David Nicklas Fabrice Eap Juan Benet Justin Lloyd Matt Miller Morgan Hough Quasar Supporters: Mark Heising Mark Rosenthal Vinnie Falco Hypernova Supporters: Chuck Zegar Danton Spivey Donal Botkin Edmund Fokschaner Hank S Joe Pearce John Hofmann John R. Slavik Jordan Young Joseph Salomone Matthew Matthew O'Connor Syed Ansar Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: A.G. Adrian Molyneux Alec Zero Andreas Nautsch Bradley Jenkins Brandon Labonte Brian Dan Warren Daniel Lyons David Behtala DFaulk Dustan Jones Geoffrey Short Greg Smith James Flowers James Quintero John Funai John Michael Kerr John Pollock John Robinson Jonathan Nesfeder Joseph Dillman Josh Thomas Kevin Lee Kevin Warne Kyle Hofer Malte Ubl Mark Vasile Nick Virtue Nick Wright Paul Rose Scott Gossett Sean Warniaha Steve Bradshaw Tim Stephani Tonyface Yurii Konovaliuk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 16, 2026

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How Many Universes Are There?

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