Since light doesn't move instantaniously and the farther away an object your looking at in space is the farther back in time your looking. If you could build a telescope that could see far enough, could you theoretically see the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe?
2006-10-02 19:08:18 · 15 answers · asked by Alex 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Sadly, no, we cannot see the Big Bang, although your general concept is correct—looking out into space means looking back in time.
In order to see something, you need to receive photons (or light) from it. Unfortunately, our view of the Big Bang is blocked, as it were, by an epoch in the history of the Universe when everything was too dense and too hot for light to travel very far. It took the Universe a little while to cool down—not until about 380,000 years after the Big Bang did the temperature and density drop enough for light to travel any appreciable distance.
When we look back to that era, we see a baby picture of the Universe, dating to a time when the Universe was much hotter and denser than it is today. As soon as the Universe cooled and expanded enough for light to escape getting bounced around by tightly-packed atoms, light could basically travel forever (or until it gets collected by our telescopes), slowly getting stretched by the expansion of the Universe. We can observe this as “cosmic microwave background radiation,” or ”CMBR.” It lies farther out in space—and thus farther back in time—than any other structure we can observe.
The highest-quality image of the CMBR was created by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite.
As you point out, however, looking out into space means looking back in time—we see each galaxy as it existed in the past. We can’t see our own galaxy in the past, but with the massive surveys taking place today, we see galaxies as they were billions of years ago, during much earlier epochs in the history of the Universe.
Ryan Wyatt
Rose Center for Earth & Space
New York, New York
2006-10-02 20:06:50 · answer #1 · answered by ryan_j_wyatt 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Assuming that the Big Bang is correct, and evidence seems to agree that it is, you still couldn't "see" the Big Bang. The Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation is considered evidence of the radiation formed after the Big Bang, but looking at the visible universe would only be possible after the formation of at least one star which was millions of years after the formation of the universe. Until then there was only darkness with a lot of radiation and relatively small amounts of matter. Then, some of us say, someone (God) said "Let there be light!" Amazing that a book written before the year 1 A.D. somehow stated that the beginning of the universe was dark, just like the Big Bang theory says!
2006-10-02 19:47:19 · answer #2 · answered by Doctorplanet 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No because the Big Bang is a big dud. If the so called Big bang is true and everything in the universe was compacted into the size of a period ( . ), that's pretty small, and began to spin faster and faster building phenomenal amounts of energy until it exploded forming the universe, then according to the law of an object in motion will remain in motion every thing would be spinning, and rotating in the same direction, true? Why does Venous spin clockwise (backwards from every other planet)?
2006-10-02 19:27:01 · answer #3 · answered by Josh 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The big bang is just a theory of what may have happened eons ago. If you look through the telescope you may be able to see the universe expanding => which is considered as evidence of the big bang.
2006-10-02 19:18:19 · answer #4 · answered by B T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We can see evidence of it even now... Now are you going to look into your mythical telescope and see some huge explosin?... no sorry afraid not. Remember the big bang in theory is what created the universe and didn't happen "super far away" It was all there was in existance at the time ... including space itself... there was none It was all one infinatly massive singularity.
2006-10-02 19:56:22 · answer #5 · answered by travis R 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe the universe had to expand and cool enough so that the free-flying protons and electrons could hook up and make neutral atoms. At that point, the previously opaque universe became transparent to light. We see the release of radiation when this happened as the CMB. So no, you can't view the big bang itself as that window is too foggy.
2006-10-02 20:34:41 · answer #6 · answered by SAN 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, but you could "hear" the radio waves from it. There is apparently a very very low hiss (3 or 4 degrees above absolute zero, when translated into temperature) coming from all around us. The Big Brains have speculated that we are "hearing" the edge of the big bang, because it comes from every direction simultaneously).
2006-10-02 19:17:37 · answer #7 · answered by auntb93again 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. the big bang happened so long ago, that even with the delay due to light speed, you could not look backwards at time
2006-10-02 19:57:56 · answer #8 · answered by aklchris2000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
theoretically, but you would only see it for a split second. you couldnt zoom your telescope fast enough to keep up with it. But i do belive theoretically, yes, But we do know that the big bag is a theory.
2006-10-02 19:18:15 · answer #9 · answered by Don A 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, because of cosmic microwave background radiation, which is considered evidence of the big bang.
2006-10-02 19:13:53 · answer #10 · answered by Van 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋