Question

What is Big Bang? Explain it's characteristics and functions.

Answer 1

The Big Bang theory tells us that the entire universe was once condensed in the form of a primeval atom, or a dense mass. Then, between 10 billion to 20 billion years ago (the exact timing is not currently locked down), a gigantic explosion caused the universe to expand. The dense mass, or primeval atom, expanded very rapidly, spewing out all matter and energy in the vast void. As the universe expanded, it cooled down, and as it cooled down, the elements started to form: stars were born from the simplest elements, and the stars formed galaxies. Therefore, the explosion of a tiny seed of matter and energy formed into the universe that we know today.
Characteristics of Big Bang

SET 1: Physical characteristics

1. unfathomably small >>>13.82 Billion years>>>unfathomably HUGE
2. the space between clusters of stuff just keeps getting bigger
3. it might end with a bang or a whimper, probably a whimper
4. the edges of the universe that we can see are proscribed by the rate of universal expansion on the horizon out-running the speed of light (a relative phenomena, not a local one), meaning that, weirdly, our horizons keep expanding but our chunk of the universe keeps contracting
5. to make the characteristics we see work we needed to insert a super expansion phase in the equations for the early universe, so that has passed into gospel
6. the BB also launched Time As We Know It. That means there was no before the big bang; or else that there was a different flavour of time; or something quixotic that has to do with windmills…
7. the idea of a singularity (a microscopic dot containing TOTALITY) has been supplanted by the idea of an ‘Early Universe’ (a more fluid concept, less logically distasteful) where the rules of physics break down
8. particle physics causes parts of the standard model to sit in the corner and think about what it did
9. we live inside the biggest black hole of them all (the One Ring)

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

SET 2: Social characteristics

1. very misunderstood and badly represented in layperson literature
2. considered a joke or an indisputable fact depending on where you sit on the Big Bang Fence. Neither position accurate. Big Bang is a work in progress with a solid outline, a lot of detail and a lot of missing detail. There is no doubt at all that the universe is expanding and, therefore, it was smaller in the past. If you follow the timeline back far enough you get to a region of spacetime where something interesting happened. That is what we call the Big Bang
3. the term “creation event” gets theologists excited, really excited.