• Question: Are there more theorys sbout the start of the universe other than the big bang?

    Asked by molineux to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 16 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by tibbles.
    • Photo: Louise Stanley

      Louise Stanley answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      No other scientific theories that I know of. The big bang theory is really lots of smaller theories put together. All other theories that I have heard of involve religion.

    • Photo: Joanna Giles

      Joanna Giles answered on 17 Nov 2012:

      I think that there not much doubt in the science world that at one point (13.7 billion years ago) there was nothing (no space, not time, no matter, no energy) then a “BANG”then the universe started expanding. There are lots of different theories that attempt to explain this bang and how the universe began though. It is not just one theory.

      We know the universe is expanding because In 1929 Hubble noticed that galaxies are all moving away from each other (including our galaxy).

      But the big question scientists are working on is what caused this bang?? It has scientists baffled! If nothing existed…what caused the bang?! Pfffft, I’m confused! You have any ideas?

    • Photo: Louise Walkin

      Louise Walkin answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Not that I know of, there is basically the big bang and also the creationism argument. The only scientific argument is the the big bang. There is so much evidence for the big bang that it is hard to try and deny it. There are many theories about what caused the “bang” but not really about about what else it could have been instead of a “bang.” What do you think??

    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      I agree with the others, the big bang is a great model of the universe that explains a lot about what we can see. The big question is, what was there before the big bang.

      One suggestion is that the big bang explodes a universe into life which expands until gravity slows it down and makes it collapse again. It shrinks back into a black hole (the big crunch) which then bounces out again creating a new big bang and a new universe.

      Another suggestion is that big bangs are continually happening throughout the universe and each one creates a new universe that is completely separate from ours. We cannot contact it or observe it.

      This kind of physics has lots of weird theories based on slightly different mathematical models. But the theorists make predictions of what our universe would be like if the model was correct. Then experimental scientists do experiments to prove if our real universe agrees with the model or not. If not, the model is wrong and is rejected. The most recent example of this model testing is the idea by Higgs that there is a particle (the Higgs boson) which communicates between all subatomic particles and is what causes them to have mass. The large hadron collidor recently found evidence that the Higgs boson does exist – confirming that Higgs’s model is likely to be true.

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