suppose the universe started with a big bang. most people today believe it did i hope. do we have any idea where it happened? there should be a certain time of day in a certain day of the year in a certain year for that when you point to the sky, you are pointing at where the big bang occured. what is this time/day/year/angle?
how far have we traveled since the beginning? what's at this place where the big bang happened. it would be funny if there was a huge huge planet there with life and it was inhabited by the smurfs
2007-01-22 17:57:20 · 13 answers · asked by smokesha 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
One of the biggest misconceptions about the big bang model is that it is like an ordinary explosion. it is not. The expansion of the universe is not a matter of things flying through space from a big explosion. Instead, it is space itself that is expanding. And this expansion of space happens everywhere. So, every single place in the universe is where the big bang happened (and continues to happen, by the way).
All this may seem very strange, but it is how the mathematics of general relativity works out. Remember that gravity is described by a distortion of the geometry of space and time. In the same way, the universe as a whole is described by an overall geometry where the spatial part is expanding over time.
As to when it happened: our best estimate is about 13.7 billion years ago.
2007-01-22 23:46:32 · answer #1 · answered by mathematician 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The big bang is a good theory and somwhat a god like action,but you must then beleive the universe is not infinet.and that it has a start and stop point and all matter would be expanding outward from some cental point. but its not its swirling more like a stew than going out and you you can see this in evidence of galaxy collitions buy eh direction they were coming from, two differant points of origin.so then you cant say that all galaxies were formed by a single event in one place unless one of them did a 180 wich would imply an orbit of some kind and not linear movment that would kill their time table for a big bang. Not for an infinity. Thats not to say that there havent been huge explosions just not one primordial one.
2007-01-27 04:58:55 · answer #2 · answered by Tony N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's an interesting question. Scientists could probably estimate the approximate spot by using Hubble's calculations showing that galaxies are moving outward away from each other. You could then draw a vector in the opposite direction for each galaxy and see where these vectors intersect.
But unlike the earth where everything is fixed the univewrse is constantly changing. The point would really have no relevance.
2007-01-28 03:46:53 · answer #3 · answered by J B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In physical cosmology, the BIG BANG is the scientific theory that the universse emerged from a tremendously dense and hot state about 13.7 billion years ago. The theory is based on the observetions indicationg the expansion of space as indicated by the HUBBLE redshift of distant galaxies taken together with the cosmological principle.
The term BIG BANG is used in a narrow sense refer to a point in time when the observed expansion of the universe ( Hubble's law) began - calculated to be 13.7 billion years ago - and in a more general sense to refer to the prevailing cosmological paradigm explaining the origin and expansion of the universe, as well as the composition of primordial matter through nucleosynthesis as predicted by the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory.
HISTORY:
the big bang thory developed from observations of the structure of the universe and from theoretical considerations. Observers determined that the most "spiral nebulae" were receding from earth, but did not grasp the cosmological implications of this facts, or realize that the supposed nebulae were galaxies outside our Milky Way.
2007-01-22 18:43:03 · answer #4 · answered by Cyrisse 1 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I don't think there is a specific location. When the BB occurred, space itself expanded (inflated), which caused all points within space to move away from each other. If you take the old analogy of using a marker to draw dots on the surface of a balloon, when you inflate the balloon the dots get further away from each other - but you can't really say where on the surface of the balloon is the one place the dots are all moving away from. you might be right about the smurfs though.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation for more info.
2007-01-22 18:08:47 · answer #5 · answered by five v 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Based on what i know about the big bang, nobody knows and ever will know. The singularity that exploded contained all of space and time. Outside it, there was no time or space. So the exact moment and location the singularity exploded to scatter all of these galaxies is only known by the things that lived in the singularity. But when the singularity exploded, the temperature was like 100000000000000000000000000000000000 Kelvin and all possible life died as with their knowledge. How sad
2007-01-22 22:01:00 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It happened everywhere and all at once.
The Big Bang was the *whole* universe. There was no other "there" for it to occur "in". This is mind bending, and comes out of the mathematics. There are very few people who can get their head around this (Hawking).
2007-01-22 20:49:06 · answer #7 · answered by Jerry P 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The Big Bang occurred everywhere.
2007-01-22 23:29:42 · answer #8 · answered by bldudas 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Right now with our limited knowledge of the galaxy and the universe, assuming this theory is true, it would be impossible to tell. Maybe if we were to discover and pinpoint locations of x amount of galaxies we could calculate the central point where we can assume the big bang occurred.
2007-01-22 18:09:11 · answer #9 · answered by masterscribe888 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
it's gotta be somewhere close to the center of mass of the universe. or center of gravity w/e
2007-01-28 02:40:33 · answer #10 · answered by JizZ E. Jizzy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋