Expert: Tom Whiting - 4/30/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hey,
I was just wondering: Do you have any information on the Big Bang Theory?? How did it created our universe??
  These questions are for a homework project.
         -Thank you

ANSWER: Hi Rachel,
Well, as yet no one knows what caused it, or how it came about,
but we're working on it.
I'm surprised that you used the word "theory" in both instances above, as it's kind of like Relativity theory.  That word doesn't mean what it used to in science, not because Relativity and Big Bang
are theoretical in nature, but only because we don't know every
little outcome about them.  But they both happened, and there is lots of data and proof for both. In fact, there is so much data supporting the Big Bang (and relativity) over any other scenerio, astronomers and scientists don't even question either Big Bang or Relativity anymore, in fact they now study the results of both.
(Both now being a foregone conclusion because any other scenerio
has been effectively ruled out).

So while we don't know how it happened initially, we can tell you
what did happen immediately right after, and I mean 10 raised to
the -43 power, second, ABB (After Big Bang).  We can't go back
any further right now, until we understand more about quantum
mechanics, the laws that govern the very very small subatomic
world, because that's what was in place at that short instant in
time ABB. In fact, many of us now hypothesize that the Big Bang started out from a random fluctuation at the quantum level, in the fabric of the Void that existed just prior to the Big Bang,
releasing all the latent energy of the vacuum into our newly
created Universe, but we can't prove that, as yet. (But it sounds good)!

As far as the Big Bang itself, the results and data, it all started
in 1924 when Edwin Hubble discovered that other more distant galaxies
were all receding rapidly from the Milky Way, then in 1929 he
announced that those same galaxies are flying away Proportionally,
that is, a galaxy 10 times further away is receding 10 times faster,
and one 50 times further out is receding 50 times faster.
(as if some beginning explosion event started the whole thing, and as if we are like a loaf of rapidly rising raison bread, the raisons representing the galaxies).  And realize it just the space expanding, not the raisons....the raisons just...go along for the
ride, like an unmanned canoe flowing faster and faster down a fast
moving mountain stream.
 
The Big Bang's biggest opponent, astronomer Fred Hoyle (of the Steady State Theory) asked, "Well, on an event of that nature, where's your residual radiation?"  The debate went on for some 30-40 years.  There should be some residual radiation somewhere.
Then in 1965 Arno Pensias and Robert Wilson of Bell Labs (two Bell Lab technicans, not astronomers!) accidently discovered the Microwave Background Radiation, the remnant light of the Big Bang redshifted clear down into the microwave radio part of the spectrum. (They later got the Nobel prize for that discovery).  But that wasn't enough for Hoyle...he said, well that could be caused by all those Quasars out there; I want to see some temperature differences across the entire sky in 1 and 2 degree patches, down at the 0.0001 Celsius temperature degree level.
Well, we didn't have that precision technology in 1965, but in the
early 1990's we did, so up went COBE into orbit (Cosmic Background
Explorer) and it was followed by WMAP to cover the entire sky
at the 0.0001 temperature level, and guess what? It came back
exactly as predicted IF their had been a Big Bang, see the results
at bottom of page at
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/dark_matter.html

Feel free to design and invent any other scenerio for our Universal beginnings, but of course your NEW hypothesis HAS to explain ALL the data mentioned above, AND you have to supply a NEW proof that yours is the correct scenerio and the Big Bang is not.
That's what faced Einstein when he rejected Newton's picture of
Gravity as a force....he had to not only supply a new idea
called General Relativity and curved space by presence of a mass,
he had to provide a Proof to demonstrate it.  So he said, there's
a total solar eclipse in 1919...photograph the sky 6 months prior,
then again at totality. With General Relativity, the stars close
to the sun will be displaced outward from the sun's disk thru the curvature of space around the sun, whereas under Newton's gravity idea, the stars will be in their exact same position, during totality.  The pictures were taken, the displacement outward was easily measured, and the rest is History!  One would have to do the exact same provision, if you want to establish a different initial scenerio today, otherwise your rejection of the Big Bang,....is meaningless.

And it's not enough to say, "Well God just did it that way"...that's
a non-proof and a non-sequitor.  We can say that for anything, anytime, anywhere, so that doesn't mean anything, it's not germane to the scientific position.  So, if you reject, be ready to provide an acceptable alternative, AND supply a proof, just like Einstein had to do for the proper explanation of gravity. That's the way science works. Otherwise, a rejection of the Big Bang today.....is meaningless.
(ie..No one will pay any attention to your rejection, and even laugh at it).

By the way, you can actually "see" the radiation from the Big Bang,
just de-tune your television set to a non working channel...the static, noise, and snowy picture IS the remnant radiation of the
Big Bang, but we didn't know that until 1965.

Hope all this helps, and of course, you can always Google Big Bang
for more information, and if I can be of more specific help, please
do write again.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA USA





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: If the Big Bang really did create our universe, then why is everything so perfect? ( For example, the earth has an atmosphere that protects us from the sun's UV rays) How can just one explosion make everything perfect for every organism?

Answer
But you are, in a way, correct...this is a very nice planet.
Look at it this way, WE hit the PowerBall Lottery!
(But then, if we were living on Mars, or another equally nice planet
like the Earth, wouldn't we be sitting here saying the same... exact.... thing about that planet? Of course we would.)

How many other Earth-like planets out there?  We don't know.
You'll hear some astronomers, just based on the numbers of stars,
state that there must be lots of them.  I disagree, just like
millions and millions of people play the Powerball Lottery, there
is typically only one winner every 6 months or so.  So, sheer
big numbers are no guarantee of...multiple Earth-like planets.

It takes the right distance from your parent star, as you said the right atmosphere, presence of the heavy elements for soil and life, perhaps the presence of a large moon, presence of a giant planet like Jupiter to 'sweep up' most of the incoming comets so they don't hit us, etc. etc...so as I said, we must have hit the "Powerball Lottery" some 4.6 billion years ago.  And we have no idea how many
other "Powerball winners" there are out there.  But we're working
on it.
FWIW,
Clear Skies,
Tom W.