KMC Forums - Big Bang

Astronomers and cosmologists generally accept that the universe began with the Big Bang. The Big Bang was the primal explosion that created space-time, energy and matter. While it is often called an "explosion," it was not an explosion in the ordinary sense. What happened was that space-time began expanding from a point called a singularity and in doing so, carried energy and matter along with it. Matter did not explode into space, but space was made as the singularity expanded. The Big Bang created space. What happened before the Big Bang or where the singularity came from are questions beyond the scope of science. Science cannot prove whether or not God exists. In every practical sense, the universe was self-creating.

Cosmologists believe that the Big Bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago. The universe was hot and dense in the beginning. Energy and matter were interchangeable. Gravity, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces were the same thing.

There is ample evidence that the Big Bang model describes the genesis of the universe:

1 Big Bang cosmology was implicit in Albert Einstein's General Relativity. Einstein defined gravity as a distortion of space-time.

2 Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe was expanding. He proved that galaxies are moving away from each other. It was easy to conclude that if the galaxies are receding, they must have been much closer in the past and at some point all together.

The expansion of the universe is compared to blowing up of a balloon. Dust motes on the balloon's surface represent galaxies which grow further apart as the balloon inflates.

3 Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian priest, spoke of a "primeval atom." This became the basis of the Big Bang theory.

4 George Gamow added to the work of Lemaitre. He predicted in 1948 that radiation from the Big Bang still filled the universe.

5 Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson proved Gamow correct. They detected "Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation" in 1964 using a radio telescope. CMB is heat left over from the Big Bang. It comes from all directions.

6 NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer satellite COBE and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe WMAP mapped cosmic background radiation. The WMAP map is highly detailed.

This afterglow comes from when the universe was 500,000 years old. It is almost like viewing the Big Bang itself.

As the universe cooled, "inflation" took place. The universe grew. It became transparent as energy changed into matter. There were quarks and neutrinos. Protons and neutrons formed. The elements hydrogen and helium came into existence. After 10,000 years, heavier particles began to appear. At 300,000 years, atomic nuclei captured electrons to form atoms. As the universe continued to expand, structures evolved. A billion years on, there were stars, galaxies and black holes.

Before 1996, it was thought that mass and gravity would slow the expansion of the universe. Observations of supernovas showed that the expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down. The force causing it came to known as "dark energy." It now appears that the universe will expand forever.

Ultimately galaxies, stars, atoms and all matter may be torn apart by a so-called Big Rip.

Dealing with the origin of the universe, the Big Bang has touched philosophy and religion. Some think that the Big Bang implies a creator. Others argue that it makes the idea of a creator superfluous.

But both cosmology and religion view the universe as having had a beginning. The Vatican has endorsed the Big Bang.