• Question: What do you have to say for the big bang ? Can you explain it?

    Asked by jamiedoyle777 to Lauren, Colm, Eoin, Joseph on 11 Nov 2013. This question was also asked by robyn.
    • Photo: Lauren Mc Keown

      Lauren Mc Keown answered on 11 Nov 2013:


      The Big Bang Theory is the most strongly supported theory for the formation of the Universe. It is also a very funny television show, but we will deal with the first one for now! According to this cosmological model, the birth of the Universe began when it was in an infinitely hot, infinitely dense state at the proposed finite time of 13.6 billion years ago. However, according to the theory, this extremely hot dense state only lasted for a tiny fraction of a second..the Universe then began to get bigger and bigger very rapidly in a stage called inflation. At this point, the Universe was far too hot for atoms to form and so photons (which are “packets” of light), electrons, protons, neutrinos and neutrons (a load of particles) were all disconnected in what is known as a “primordial soup” of particles. Eventually, as the Universe expanded, it cooled enough after about 300,000 years to form atoms which make up life as we know it today! The original atoms of Hydrogen and Helium evolved much later into other elements in a process called nucleosynthesis which occurs in stars and the death of stars. There is a lot of evidence to support the Big Bang Theory, such the discovery of something called the Cosmic Microwave Background in recent years. This is thermal radiation which was formed in one of the stages theorised in the Big Bang model and which dates back to that time I mentioned when neutral atoms were formed from the cosmic soup. An interesting thing about the recent findings about the Cosmic Microwave Background is that it has been found to be the same temperature everywhere – apart from a few small places, and this also strongly supports the idea of inflation which I mentioned earlier. The Big Bang Model is a lot to get your head around for sure, but the agreement of the theory with recent experimental evidence is a great example of how we can make huge advances in science simply from sitting down with a brain, a pen and paper.

    • Photo: Joseph Roche

      Joseph Roche answered on 21 Nov 2013:


      The Big Bang is a really nice scientific theory, with some good evidence to support it. If all of the matter and energy exploded from the one point it helps explain why the Universe is expanding. I feel pictures help these descriptions. Here is a nice infographic:

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