10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

NEWS TECH HEALTH PLANET EARTH STRANGE

Live Science Space.com

Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

MORE
By Clara Moskowitz | March 18,2010 03:14pm ET

The Big Bang is science's best explanation for how the universe began. According to the
theory, the universe started out much hotter and much denser than it is today, and expanded
and cooled over time.

Though the term may sound like the universe began with a giant explosion, many scientists
say that's not part of the theory. An explosion implies that something exploded, or expanded,
from one center point outward into space. In fact, the Big Bang theory suggests that space
itself expanded.

"If it were an explosion it would have a center," said physicist Paul Steinhardt, director of the
Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. "We actually
observe that everything is moving away from everything else. It's really about an expansion of
the universe ."

Instead of a center from which everything expanded, scientists think space is expanding
everywhere, in all directions, equally.
https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 1/6
10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

"Space isnt just something that sits there and things happen in it space is a dynamical
NEWS TECH
thing," said Andreas Albrecht, a theoretical physicist at the University of HEALTH PLANET
California, EARTH STRANGE
Davis.

Though to some, the question of whether there was an explosion is just semantics.
NEWS
"I think anything that starts out at 10 to the 40th degrees, and is doubling in size every tiny,
tiny fraction of a second I think you'd want to call that an explosion," Albrecht said. "But it
has di erent features
TECH
than someone setting o a bomb in the desert."
MORE
Another confusing aspect of the theory is the idea that at the very moment of the Big Bang,
HEALTH
the universe existed in a single point, a singularity of in nite temperature and density.
Although this is what the theory says, scientists think that's where the Big Bang theory
PLANET EARTH inadequate. Those
becomes in nities are signs that the mathematics have broken down and
fail to truly describe the universe.
STRANGE NEWS
In order to fully understand what happened then, scientists think we need a better
fundamental theory of physics that can incorporate our current description of the very small
ANIMALS
(general relativity ). As of now, those two theories are irreconcilable, and they collide at the
moment of the Big Bang.
HISTORY
Caption: The above photo is not of the Big Bang (there are no photos of it). The Hubble Space
Telescope image is of the Crab Nebula. Credit: NASA/ESA and Je Hester (Arizona State
CULTURE
University)

SPACE.COM
Get More from Our Newsletter Enter Email Address Subscribe

Editor's Recommendations

Image Album: Visualizations of In nity

String Theorists Simulate the Big Bang

7 Everyday Things that Happen Strangely In Space

Author Bio
Clara Moskowitz,
Clara has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a
graduate certi cate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has
written for both Space.com and Live Science.

Clara Moskowitz, on
https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 2/6
10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

NEWS TECH HEALTH PLANET EARTH STRANGE

Science Newsletter: Subscribe

enter email here submit

MORE
Follow Us

Most Popular
Facts About Beryllium

Amazing Images: The Best Science Photos of the Week

The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

Bird Photobombs the Space Station and Sun in Awesome Photo

How Bad the Opioid Epidemic Really Is in 6 Simple Charts

Home About Us

FOLLOW US

https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 3/6
10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

NEWS TECH HEALTH PLANET EARTH STRANGE

SUBSCRIBE
enter email here ... SUBMIT

MORE

Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved.

https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 4/6
10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 5/6
10/7/2017 Was the Big Bang Really an Explosion?

https://www.livescience.com/32278-was-the-big-bang-really-an-explosion.html 6/6