Where did the stuff come from that went bang (the BIG BANG) and what made it go bang?

Question

I smell bullshit on this theory, but not as strong as the bible and its followers and beilvers.

Answer 1

Science can't yet answer what "started" the big bang or even if such a statement makes sense. The big bang could just be another moment along a longer timeline. What the big bang produced was every Joule of energy and every gram of matter in the known universe. Everything that is around us was present in the big bang. All that's happened since is simple phase changes (ie. pair production, matter/antimatter annihilations etc.).

Answer 2

The following is how it has been explained to me, but new ideas are coming along all the time, including the inaccurately named enterprise, "String Theory".

One idea is that it was the remains of a previous Universe that had ended by collapsing in on itself, called a "Big Crunch".

Unfortunately this sort of thing, by necessity eliminates all evidence of a previous universe, resetting the ultimate entropy of the last by restoring perfect order- homogeneous energy.

Another one has something to do with quantum fluctuations, and I have no clue what this means. Stuff like this is unfortunately non-falsifiable, much of it cannot be tested. However, they do result from calculations, and these calculations are based on the observation of the universe, so the more we study what we can know, the better idea we can get about what we otherwise couldn't know.

At least we are trying, by investigating the best we can. There is nothing more exciting in science than a mystery, and hypotheses and theories will improve or be replaced as we continue to study the universe.



It wasn't actually a bang. There is a unfortunate amount of misunderstanding about this, due in no small part to the fact that the term "Big Bang" was in fact coined by a vehement sceptic of the idea shortly after its proposition.

It is better described as an unimpressive wink into existence, for where? That is the Question. What is often thought is that some tiny object exploded and then worlds immediately formed, which couldn't be further from the truth (of the theory).

Firstly, there is no "outside" of the universe, due to there being nowhere to exist in outside of it, since there are no dimensions. Up, down, left, right and so on are all contained within the universe. Even time, so really there was no "before" since the time line began with the birth of the universe. You can't find the edge, because space is it thought to be curved- you'd keep going for trillions of years then arrive where you started. Imagine a two-dimensional creature living on a sphere, then scale this up by another dimension. At this scale (atomic) there was no distinction between matter and energy.

Then the impressive thing happened- inflation. We have no idea what caused this, but without it the universe may well have collapsed again, after less than a second of existence. In a fraction of a second the universe grew from being something that could hypothetically be held in your hand, to millions of light years across. With all the energy spread out like this, the universe could cool somewhat, but was still saturated. Soon particles and their antiparticles would spontaneously appear, formed from energy, then be caught in each other's gravity, reunite and be destroyed, releasing their energy again, though some would be able to break free of each other. Large particles such as Bosons and their Anti bosons appeared, and each decaying into a mixture of more common particles such as quarks and anti-quarks. Apparently the amount of matter out-massed the antimatter, and prevailed (or the other way around, it doesn't matter).

The only elements produced in the Big Bang were various isotopes of Hydrogen, a little Helium and trace amounts of Lithium. All the rest would be created by nuclear fusion within stars and supernovas.

Hydrogen gas collected due to gravity, and the center of each gathering collapsed into super-massive black holes. The effect of their gravity may have been responsible for causing similar effects throughout the rest of the cloud, forming stars. These were the galaxies. Until stars began dying and scattering their remains there were not the elements to form planets, and anything that might, amazingly, begin to grow and multiply on their surfaces.


I think much of this has been replaced by more complex and more accurate theories, but this is the sort of gist of it that will suit a non-astronomer or non-physicist for the time being.

Answer 3

The Big Bang is the only way we can formulate the collection of space, time and consciousness. It doesn't really exist because the universe never began and it will never end. Time is an artificial construct.. imagine a clay sculpture and you slice out a razor thin piece... Now you are looking at a 2D part instead of the full 3D picture. That is how we perceive the Universe, because we are not yet capable of seeing in 4D.

Answer 4

The stuff was hydrogen. It collected in a single location and when there was enough of it, it went bang. That gave birth to the first generation stars. The stars are chemical factories that produced the other elements. As the first generation stars died they released the other elements which formed new solar systems with planets.

Not sure I agree with this theory completely. It seems to me to be a one way progression and I would expect it to be a cycle.

Answer 5

That stuff, which incidently is called 'ylem' (no kidding) just went bang. Why? and What made it? are just matters for speculation, but the observations we've made about radiation coming from far galaxies and the composition of the universe, all seem to fit with a big bang theory. What happened before? Ask your Rabbi or Priest.

Answer 6

The Big Bang theory originated from someone who needed affection. He wanted to be out there and known by everyone. If there is such a thing called "Big Bang" then I humped Marlyn Monroe...!!!

Answer 7

Before the universe came into existence there was nothing but a potential.
The potential had to be finite or the universe could never have emerged.
A single space-time pulse initiated the universe and it evolved into the universe that we see and experience to-day.

Answer 8

Seriously

Answer 9

TELL ME ABOUT IT!-
They go on about "well if God created everything, who created God?" so assume the God theorys no good, then what do they come up with? a theory on how some bricks and mud and stones etc decided to come together and explode, no one pushe them (there was no one) and bricks dont have lives of thier own. (or do they, in which case we really should be asking who made the stones and bricks?!)

hmmmmmm,
smell fish too!!

Answer 10

in accordance to 'super string theory there grow to be a10 dimensional universe earlier ours. that(10) broke into 2 universes:a million)4 dimensional one 2)6 dimensional one.this resulted in super BANG