Can we see the big bang?

Answer 1

http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0009F0CA-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147
http://universeadventure.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_cosmology
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/cosmo_01.htm
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html

the earliest we can observe is the universe as it was when it was about 380 000 years old. at that time, the universe had expanded and cooled enuf for electrons to combine with atomic nuclei to become neutral atoms (about 74 percent hydrogen and 26 percent helium) so light was then free to pass unscattered by the free electrons. the universe became transparent. it had been much like a heavy fog before that. today, we see that light stretched to microwave wavelengths and call it the cosmic microwave background, and we see it in every direction in which we look even tho the universe was much smaller then. depending on the mathematical model astronomers use to analyze the observations by nasa's microwave anisotropy probe, the cmb is at least 50 or 75 billion light-years away, but the universe is only 13.7 billion years old.

the universe is four-dimensional, but if you can imagine a two-dimensional version then it seems to be something like the surface of a sphere. the universe is finite in size yet it has no center and no edge. the entire universe was the big bang, and everywhere in the universe was once the big bang.

Answer 2

Well, yes---not all the way back to time zero itself, but almost all of the way back. Generally, the Big Bang theory is thought of as a theory about the evolution of the Universe, and we can see almost all of that evolution directly.

The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation consists of redshifted photons from a time only 400,000 years after the Big Bang. That is 99.997% of the way back to time zero. And we can see all the subsequent events---the growth of structure, the first stars, the first galaxies, the first quasars. All of that evolution is part of the Big Bang theory, and it can all be observed directly.

In principle, we could see back even further toward time zero, using neutrinos, gravity waves, or some other weakly-interacting massless particle we haven't discovered yet.

There is also evidence about the first 15 minutes that comes from nuclear physics and the nucleosynthesis of elements in the first few minutes after the Big Bang.

Answer 3

No. But we can detect the remnants of the Big Bang. It's called the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation.

Everywhere astronomers look, they can detect this microwave radiation with a wavelength of 1.9 mm. It permeates the entire universe.

They theroize that this is the left-over energy that was created during the Big Bang. Check out the link for more.

Answer 4

Not directly - but we can see the remains of it as the CMBR (cosmic microwave background radiation). This is radiation originating from when the hot plasma from the Big Bang became cold enough for the electrons to stop interacting with the photons.

The CMBR is generally considered the best proof of the Big Bang theory

Check out this website for the latest research concerning the CMBR done by the NASA-satellite WMAP

http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Answer 5

Theoretically, no. We can see the effects of the big bang by looking further and further out into the universe, hence looking back in time. I don't think we will ever be able to see 15 billion light years away to the beginning of the universe as we know it.

Answer 6

Not directly, but NASA satellites like COBE ( Cosmic Background Explorer) do observe the remnants of the Big Bang in the microwave and infrared spectra.

More info:

http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/

Answer 7

No, only the after effects of it....cosmic background radiation, galaxies accelerating away from each other and the 25 percent of the total mass of the universe that is helium formed during the first few minutes, an amount that agrees with observations.

Answer 8

Hi. Several answers mention the COBE experiment. George Smoot, author of "Wrinkles in Time" and developer of the instrument which compared the background radiation with exquisite sensitivity, just won the Nobel Prize for the accomplishment.

Answer 9

NO gravity,no electromagnatism, including heat and matter existed for some time [maybe hundreds of years] after the initial burst so no phnomenon that we could make sence of would allow us to see the very beggning!

Answer 10

No but there is a background noise (radiation not sonic) and heat (About 1.7K) from the BB.