Questions about the Big Bang?

Question

Often, the question comes up regarding what caused the Big Bang, where the matter/energy for the Big Bang came from, etc. I have heard it said that perhaps events such as the Big Bang have happened over and over again. (i.e. a Big Bang happens, the universe expands, and then eventually contracts again, and so on). My question is, how reputable is this idea?

Answer 1

Nobody has any real idea.  That particular idea is one of many that exist.  The best that can be said about it is that with the evidence available it is theoretically possible, but there is no evidence that specifically supports it.

Answer 2

Let's say its the best guess of a lot of smart people who've spent most of their lives thinking about it.  There is no proof.

The Big Bang is the answer which fits into the current Standard Model of Physics.  At least, its the answer to how everything started that fits best with the present theories on how everything works.

As a theory it is accepted as the most likely answer by the majority of cosmologists, astronomers and physicists.

There are known problems with the Standard Model and if it is found to predict something wrong, or if a better theory is found to explain how everything works, then there may be an alternative to the Big Bang as well.  

Answer 3

The science and theories pretty much stop at the Big Bang. It's the farthest one can go and scientifically theorize without guessing or speculating. It probably can never be known what started the big bang, or whether it happened once, or will happen again, or happens infintely. One can only know about the physics of the big bang itself.

Answer 4

The Big Bang is a well established theory, and there are more detailed theories about its very early evolution (like inflation theory). But, beyond that (you can't even meaningfully say before that), the things you mention fall under the category of "speculation", not quite rising to the level of "hypothesis" (which requires an empirical prediction of some *new* observation), and not even remotely approaching "theory" (which requires a prediction to be verified empirically)..

Answer 5

Often, the question comes up regarding what caused the Big Bang

========================.

Maybe the cause is the actions:

a) when the God compresses  all Universe into his palm,

we have named " a  singular point".

b) And action, when  the God opens his palm,

we have named the "Big Bang".

==============.

Best wishes.

Israel Sadovnik. / Socratus.

Answer 6

Science deals with questions that can be answered by collecting information, analyzing it, creating theories to explain it, and repeating that process by disinterested individuals.

1.  What caused the Big Bang?

This question is outside of science because, at present, we can not make any observations that are relevant.

2.  Where did the matter/energy for the Big Bang come from?

Same as #1.

3.  Does the Big Bang end in the Big Crunch and then the cycle repeat?

It has recently been shown that "dark energy" is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate.  As a consequence and according to the current state of our knowledge, galaxies outside the Local Group will disappear one by one as they pass beyond our Observable Universe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy...

4.  How reliable are these ideas.

About 95% of the energy and matter in the Universe is Dark Energy and Dark Matter.  We only learned this about 10 years ago.  Before that, we thought the 5% of the Universe that is ordinary energy and matter was all there was; we didn't know anything about 95% of the Universe.  The questions you ask are either beyond the questions that science addresses, or they involve extrapolating tens of billions or trillions of years into the past or future.  I doubt that any such questions can be answered reliably.  We will never know, though.  We won't be around to check the results!

Here are some links you may find interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_of_the...

http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/univer...