Expert: James Gort - 4/10/2010

Question
I do not know much about the Big Bang Theory, but I was hoping that you might be able to explain to me what could have possibly started the Big Bang, theories on what prerequisites would be necessary to have to cause a Big Bang, etc. If possible, can you go into detail?

Answer
Hi Joseph,

First of all, I want to remind you that the origin of the universe by a "Big Bang" is very much still a theory, and there are alternative theories.  Some observations do not support an expanding universe or the Big Bang.  There are several references concerning this, but perhaps the most authoritative person is Halton Arp, a leading astronomer and researcher on galaxies, who wrote "Seeing Red".  That book is highly recommended to get an alternative view.

The Big Bang, if it occurred, wasn't a "Bang" at all.  Many people think of it as an explosion, where all matter was in some place and then violently exploded outward into space.  This WAS NOT the Big Bang.  The Big Bang was the expansion of space-time into "nothingness".  (The region outside of space-time is not defined).  So the expansion didn't originate "somewhere", it originated "everywhere", because everything that exists today was part of the expansion.  

One cannot talk about what started the expansion, or prerequisites, because then you're talking about "time" before the origin of space-time.  It simply didn't exist, at least how we define time.  Time started with the Big Bang.  Some people think the universe may oscillate, so "before" the Big Bang was a contracting universe that reached a minimum, and then started expanding again.  But this is conjecture.  

I know this is a difficult concept to grasp (we exist in space-time, so the region outside of space-time is a fuzzy concept at best), but that's the best we can do.  But if you're interested, please read some of those alternative views.  It will really open your mind to other ideas.

Hope that helps.

Prof. James Gort