Our wonderful universe?

Question

Our universe is supposedly constantly expanding correct? Well, that must mean that at some point long ago, it was merely an atom. Where did that atom come from? Was it in another universe? and if so, where did that universe start?

Answer 1

That is what science is trying to figure out.

One theory is that all matter and energy exploded in a Big Bang from a point particle or singularity.

However, current technology prevents us from going back to time zero or the origin of the universe. At a point in time (just s tiny fraction of a second before the Big Bang) all laws of physics break down and yields meaningless answers.

There are several other theories as well. Another thought (that has been largely abandoned) is that the universe was continually expanding, in cycles, from a Big Bang to a Big Crunch.

There is another theory that the universe is constantly folding over on itself, continuously annihilating and creating itself.

And in quantum physics, the is a concept which even suggest that reality, all of human experience, may be nothing short of a personal subjective concept without substance at all.

Quantum physics is a mysterious world that suggests that many of our concepts are too limited and that there are worlds we can't even imagine (parallel universes, many worlds, branes, dimensions, steady state, etc.)

Our knowledge and understanding of the universe is akin to the knowledge and understanding that an ant has of the world economy.

Answer 2

Good observation.

Scientists have made the same one and have come up with the big bang theory, which also has a certain amount of evidence to support it. Basically, it states that the universe came from an infinitely large amount of matter in an infinitely small space. It then "exploded" and began expanding, whirrling around and creating the universe we now know. But where did it come from?

Another good question. Scientists have come up with the big crunch theory to potentially explain this. Basically, after the universe stops expanding, it begins contracting again until it reaches that infinitely large amount of matter in a tiny space stage, at which the process begins again.

This, of course, leads to the thought that the universe must have been around forever, which to us humans and our ideas that everything must have a beginning and end, is rather confusing.

Regardless, there are theories out there that explain these things, and one almost thinks they're out their to confuse us profusely.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

This is something we will never know - at least not in our lifetime. Bing Bang Theories, single point, etc etc. They are all just theories.

Man once thought that the earth was the center of the universe. Man once thought that the earth was flat. And slowly, slowly the true perspective started to unfold.

We still have a lot of that perspective to unfold before we can even begin to intelligently speculate how the universe started. The current speculation in my opinion is about as "correct" as that the earth is flat.

You cannot begin to fathom the vastness of the universe with its 125 billion galaxies and billions and trillions of stars in each galaxy.

To say that it started as a "big bang" - doesn't gel with my intuition. How can this amount of mass in the universe have started from a single point?

Answer 4

It wasn't an atom, all the matter of the universe was confined to a singularity. Then with the big bang, space and time started.

Answer 5

You are right it is a wonderful universe.
Many theories abound about its existence and evolution,
Neither logic nor experiment may ever allow us to completely understand it.
It probably started as a single space-time pulse sometime above zero.
The push from zero is a very tantalising conjecture!!

Answer 6

According to Genesis, it's all God's fault. According to science, we can only guess. If the law of diminishing returns is correct, there will come a time when the universe ceases to expand, and will contract. (And atoms aren't the smallest components.)

Answer 7

No...
The theory is that the universe seemed to originate from a
single point of neither energy nor matter....Matter nor Antimatter...
No one knows how large or small this point was..
No one know where this point came from, how it got there, what came before it ....Nothing...
That was simply the central origin point of our expanding universe...
No one knows how long this point was in existance before it became unstable and blew up to create our universe..

Answer 8

Everything was confined in a very small space. It was never an atom because atoms did not exist then.

Answer 9

Let me know when you come up with a difficult question.