Quickie Questions - Astronomy Anomalies - Big Bang
| Date Answered | Questioner (age, location) | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7, 2010 | divya (age , mauritius) | what is cosmic inflation? | Cosmic inflation is the theorized exponential expansion of the universe at the end of the grand unification epoch, instants after the Big Bang. |
| January 7, 2010 | pancracio (age 21, philippines) | when and how was the universe formed | The Big Bang is the prevailing scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the theory, the universe was created (between 10 and 20 billion years ago) from a cosmic explosion that threw matter in all directions. Visit our web page The History of the Universe and links therein for more information on this topic. |
| January 5, 2010 | Sam (age 12, Kentucky) | How did scientists come up with the big bang theory? | It took manny years and many amazing minds to develop the Big Bang theory. This article offers a good general explanation of this topic. |
| February 24, 2009 | roberta (age 15, california/usa) | I was wondering,how was the univers formed.my six grade teacher said it was formed out as a little mass ball,then blew up and became a sun. | What your teacher was more likely explaining was the Big Bang theory. Please, go to our web page The History of the Universe for a detailed explanation. |
| February 24, 2009 | roberta (age 15, california/usa) | I was wondering,how was the univers formed.my six grade teacher said it was formed out as a little mass ball,then blew up and became a sun. | What your teacher was more likely eplaining was the Big Bang. Please, go to our web page The History of the Universe for a detailed explanation. |
| January 21, 2009 | Vinay (age 13, India) | What is the future of our universe | There are two main theories The Eternal Universe and The Big Crunch. Visit these links for related information. |
| September 18, 2008 | chris (age 13, canada) | can u tell me every thing there is to no about the big bang i realy want to no about how every thinh was created | The Big Bang theory states that all of the matter and energy in the Universe was initially confined in a very small region. An explosion occurred which caused the Universe to begin expanding. This expansion continues today. Then, if there is enough matter in the Universe, eventually gravitational forces will stop its expansion. When this happens gravity will cause the universe to reverse its direction and begin to collapse under its own weight. This phase of the Universe's life is known as the Big Crunch. |
| September 4, 2008 | akshata (age 13, maharashtra/india) | is really the universe is expanding due to the process of cosmic inflation? if cosmic inflation is a process then this would not be the first big bang may be this universe will tun into a big crunch the beginning of the new universe? | You are right. This is one of the predicted outcome for the universe. The Big Crunch : If there is enough matter in the Universe eventually gravitaional forces will stop its expansion. When this happens gravity will cause the universe to reverse its direction and begin to collapse under its own weight. This phase of the Universe's life is known as the Big Crunch. Eventually all of the matter in the Universe will collapse into a super dense state and possibly even collapse into an unimaginably massive black hole. Some theorize that the Universe could collapse into the same state that it began as and then blow up in another Big Bang. In this way the Universe would last forever but would continually go through these phases of expansion and contraction, Big Bang and Big Crunch and so on... |
| September 19, 2007 | Lindsey ( Kentucky) | What was the early universe like? | The Big Bang is the prevailing scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the theory, the universe was created (between 10 and 20 billion years ago) from a cosmic explosion that threw matter in all directions. This article offers the results of recent experiments. |
| May 21, 2007 | Lorena (London) | How do you explain the evidence and the reasoning that enables scientists to estimate when the big bang happened? | The origin of the Big Bang theory is credited to Edwin Hubble. Hubble made the observation that the universe is continuously expanding. He discovered that a galaxys velocity is proportional to its distance. Galaxies that are twice as far from us move twice as fast. Another consequence is that the universe is expanding in every direction. This observation means that it has taken every galaxy the same amount of time to move from a common starting position to its current position. Just as the Big Bang provided for the foundation of the universe, Hubbles observations provided for the foundation of the Big Bang theory. More information can be found at our website The Big Bang, and, in more detail, at the University of Michigan web site. |
| May 10, 2007 | Andrew (Earth) | What is your opinion on how to the universe was created? Besides the big bang theory. | The Big Bang is the prevailing scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the theory, the universe was created (between 10 and 20 billion years ago) from a cosmic explosion that threw matter in all directions. |
| November 10, 2003 | CHRIS(PASADENA MD) | Who is Maria Mitchell? | Maria Mitchell was faculty at Vassar College (the first person appointed actually!). She was an astronomer, teacher and librarian. She received many awards during her lifetime and even has a comet named after her! |
| October 14, 2003 | brittany(Illinoise america) | what is microbacteria ranae? what is mycrobacteria ranae? can I get pictures of microbacteria ranae? can I get pictures of mycrobacteria ranae? |
Mycobacterium ranae is a bacterium that sometimes causes disease in frogs (rana is the Latin word for frog). It is spread through the water, and enters the frog through skin abrasions or cuts. |
| August 26, 2000 | Joe(England) | What is the Big Bang and how did it happen ? | Here's a page that will help explain what the Big Bang theory is. As to what made it occur - that's a question for the ages! |
| October 13, 1998 | Dave (New Jersey, USA) | Why can we 'hear' the big bang but cannot see it? | We cannot actually hear the Big Bang with our ears, nor can we see it with our eyes. However, we do have instruments like antennae which can detect the cosmic radiation waves which scientist can analyze, and wh ich give supporting evidence for the Big Bang. |
| September 21, 1998 | Alex (California, USA) | My question is related to the expansion of the universe. I would like to know if it is possible to use a simple model such as a bomb to calculate how fast the universe is expanding and also to predict when, if it does at all, the universe will stop expanding. I am wondering if by observing how a bomb,of known explosive power, explode, and how the fragments are scattered, and how the far the fragments travelled we can model the expansion of the universe.With such observations and an approximate 'explosive power' of the universe when it was singularity, can we 'scale up' to answer those questions above? | Unfortunately, this comparison wouldn't work. The Big Bang is not actually an explosion. When bombs explode, they convert their internal energy to kinetic energy and heat. This cause the explosion of the bomb and surrounding matter. In the Big Bang, however, energy and matter were created, not just transformed. Also, here space-time itself is actually expanding, not just matter in space. |
| March 27, 1998 | Steve (Kansas, USA) | I have been told that the Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the actual 'Big Bang'. If this is true would you please guide me to some links and images. | There are no pictures of the Big Bang. There have been observations of background radiation at radio frequencies which may be associated with the Big Bang, but there are no pictures. |
| March 24, 1998 | Simon (Australia) | If everything in the universe is accelerating away from us in every direction, are we at the center of the universe? If not where did the 'big bang' happen? | We are not at the center of the universe. Everything is moving away from us because the universe is expanding. It is kind of like dropping a stone into a pond. The points on the circle are all moving away from each other, even though none of them i
s at the center. As for where the Big Bang took place, the best description is that it occurred in every single point of space in the universe. It had no single starting point. This is because it did not occur in space, it created space. |
| March 19, 1998 | Thomas (Ireland) | If the Big bang was localised wouldn't all of the light have passed us out since we are travelling in space at a velocity hugely smaller than the speed of light. How is it then that we can see very far back in time. | Although light may have passed us, stars and galaxies are continually emitting light. Since the light takes so long to reach us, we see the objects as they were when the light was emitted. Hence we are 'looking back in time.' |
| March 5, 1998 | Simon (Australia) | What evidence supports that there was a big bang considering you don't know what caused it? Is it possible that the universe we live in was always there and there is no time in space? | The Big Bang is the generally accepted theory as to how the Universe began. However, it is only a theory, and there are other theories, among them the Steady State theories, which assume the Universe has always existed and always will. There are many facts supporting the Big Bang, and most astronomers feel that other theories do not explain the facts as well. One piece of evidence in support of the Big Bang is the fact that the Universe is currently expanding. Since everything is moving apart, it can be guessed that a long time ago, everything was very close together, probably infinitly close. Another supporting fact is that there is a lot of radiation present in space, which is similar to what we would expect from a large explosion such as the Big Bang. As for time, time is simply a way we catalog a series of otherwise unrelated events. If no events/changes occured, there could be no time. |
| February 26, 1998 | Alex (Ontario, Canada) | My question is regarding the Big Bang; just before singularity, was 'nothingness' bright or dark? | Not having been present at the Big Bang, I can't say for sure, but my guess would be that if all matter was concentrated at a single point of infinite density, the gravity would have been so great that no light could have escaped. Thus, nothingness would have been dark. |
| February 11, 1998 | Benjamin (Singapore) | Do you think that the Big Bang theory shows that God created the universe in the beginning? | The theory of the Big Bang definitely does not disprove the existence of God. However, it does not prove God's existence, either. What could have happened to cause the Big Bang is outside the limits of our physical universe, and as of yet we have no idea as to what caused it. So, it is possible that God engineered it all. |
| January 8, 1998 | Bobby (USA) | In you best judgment or hypothesis, 'what happened before the BIG BANG?' Would the Big Bang be considered a supernatural occurence? | No one really has any idea what went on before the Big Bang, or what caused it. The theory is that it was a "singularity," a moment when the laws of physics did not hold true. At the moment of the Big Bang, the density of the universe and the curvature of space-time seem to have been infinite. Because of this, all physical laws broke down. All science can tell us is that this is the way the universe is now, because of what happened then. But it cannot tell us exactly how, or why. |
| January 8, 1998 | Andrew (Iowa, USA) Jacob (Colorado, USA) |
What caused the Big Bang? | The theory that best explains the current universe is the Big Bang theory. This theory states that, in the beginning, the universe was all in one place. All of its matter and energy were squished into an infinitely small point, a singularity. The laws of physics which applied at that instant are not understood at all. Something unknown caused the universe to explode, and this began the expansion that we see today. |
