How did the universe really begin? Most astronomers would say that the debate is now over: The universe started with a giant explosion, called the Big Bang. The big-bang theory got its start with the observations by Edwin Hubble that showed the universe to be expanding.
If you imagine the history of the universe as a long-running movie, what happens when you show the movie in reverse? All the galaxies would move closer and closer together, until eventually they all get crushed together into one massive yet tiny sphere. It was just this sort of thinking that led to the concept of the Big Bang.
The Big Bang marks the instant at which the universe began, when space and time came into existence and all the matter in the cosmos started to expand. Amazingly, theorists have deduced the history of the universe dating back to just 10-43 second (10 million trillion trillion trillionths of a second) after the Big Bang. Before this time all four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces—were unified, but physicists have yet to develop a workable theory that can describe these conditions
During the first second or so of the universe, protons, neutrons, and electrons—the building blocks of atoms—formed when photons collided and converted their energy into mass, and the four forces split into their separate identities. The temperature of the universe also cooled during this time, from about 1032 (100 million trillion trillion) degrees to 10 billion degrees. Approximately three minutes after the Big Bang, when the temperature fell to a cool one billion degrees, protons and neutrons combined to form the nuclei of a few heavier elements, most notably helium.
The next major step didn’t take place until roughly 300,000 years after the Big Bang, when the universe had cooled to a not-quite comfortable 3000 degrees. At this temperature, electrons could combine with atomic nuclei to form neutral atoms. With no free electrons left to scatter photons of light, the universe became transparent to radiation. (It is this light that we see today as the cosmic background radiation.) Stars and galaxies began to form about one billion years following the Big Bang, and since then the universe has simply continued to grow larger and cooler, creating conditions conducive to life.
Three excellent reasons exist for believing in the big-bang theory. First, and most obvious, the universe is expanding. Second, the theory predicts that 25 percent of the total mass of the universe should be the helium that formed during the first few minutes, an amount that agrees with observations. Finally, and most convincing, is the presence of the cosmic background radiation. The big-bang theory predicted this remnant radiation, which now glows at a temperature just 3 degrees above absolute zero, well before radio astronomers chanced upon it.
2006-12-30 21:27:28
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answer #1
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answered by Byzantino 7
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The tiny sphere mentioned in the Big Bang Theory was a small marble in the midst of a bunch of marbles in the bag of toy marbles carried to school by an Alien child 14 billion years ago.
2006-12-31 19:48:43
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answer #2
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answered by zahbudar 6
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There was no sphere of solid mass that blasted. The big bang was not a conventional explosion into 3D space as we are used to thinking of explostions, it was an expansion of 3D space itself and the coming into existance of the matter itself.
It did not spread out from a point which we can measure a distance to. It occured here and everywhere because it was space itself that expanded, and still is expanding at an increasing rate.
2006-12-30 21:43:47
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answer #3
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answered by minuteblue 6
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Sphere? I think you are referring to the singularity which is an infinitely small and dense point. There are theories and speculation regarding things of this nature where the laws of physics break down.
One such theory is that the universe continually expands and contracts going from singularity to expanded-universe and back again. This happens over and over again eternally with no real beginning or end.
Another theory is that parallel "branes" (essentially parallel dimensions) come in contact with each other as they oscillate Imagine 2 pieces of paper layered next to each other with a small gap in-between while wind blows between them. As each piece of paper waves in the wind their surfaces will occassionaly make contact with each other. The energy released by this contact could then spawn a new universe which we might describe as looking like "the big bang".
Another theory is that time does not really exist. This is important in this view because in such a case, all possible configurations of matter and energy would exist simultaneously. Our history would be like tracing a winding line throughout this "sea" of possible configurations, one such configuration being the state of the universe at the Big Bang and another configuration being the state of the universe as we see it now. Our perception of time may simply be an illusion based on the fact that certain systems (like our brain) keep a record of these other configurations (like remembering what the world was like yesterday for instance).
There is also another possible theory which I read about recently which proposes that all matter/energy in the universe is actually a manifestation of the fabric of space-time itself. That is, areas of space-time can "twist" and contort itself into certain "shapes" which appear to us as sub-atomic particles (this particular concept somewhat similar to string theory in that string vibrations manifest themselves as particles). If this is the case, it could mean that nothing really exists except for space-time itself. This gets awfully abstract. Who knows, maybe our entire existence is just the fleeting thought of some being beyond our potential to exist? =P
2006-12-30 21:34:39
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answer #4
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answered by narcissisticguy 4
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Its consistently been there, its in simple terms the character of the universe. With the enormous crunch sorta been disproved, you are able to desire to visit thread thought (m-thought)...all of it confuses me. i do no longer understand adequate approximately it to even attempt to describe what takes place with that. the enormous bang thought isn't all that solid anymore. that's sorta what takes place, yet in itself it would not tell the story. yet yeah, that sphere....greater like an infinitely small element.... has in simple terms consistently been there. i'm gonna attempt to skim the exterior, i could desire to be very incorrect, yet incredibly it says there are those issues stated as branes. Our universe is in a brane. i do no longer understand if there are diverse universes in a single brane or in simple terms ours. yet there are different branes. The brane we are in is amazingly close to to different branes, the distances variety, yet while they actually touch. The universe ends up in a huge bang like journey. so as ours ends yet another universe is created. lower back those branes have consistently been there. Infinitely backward and forwards in our thought of time. If it enables, to instruct the complexity...our understand of time in simple terms exists provided that our universe has been created. i think of its like 10^-30 seconds after the enormous bang, thats while time began. i forgot the place i grow to be going with that final statment.
2016-10-28 19:27:31
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answer #5
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answered by bason 4
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well theresa a theory that one universe leads to another through a series of big bangs and big crunches.
It just happened know one knows. Only GOD knows
2006-12-31 04:21:51
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answer #6
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answered by lostonthevoid 2
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A sphere is homogenous...
equally distributing ratios are in it...
Thus you cant find a Cube or some 2d shapes
2006-12-30 21:27:49
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answer #7
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answered by want~an~IQ 2
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that's the question that was right in mind mind i have got new theroy over it when it will be proved by my professors then i gonna answer u.
2006-12-30 21:19:41
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answer #8
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answered by question master 2
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