What was the 'big bang'?

Answer 1

The Big Bang is the name applied to a cosmological event in the history of the universe, about 13.8 billion years ago. According to this theory, the entire universe began as a singularity, with an incredibly immense concentration of energy at a single point. The "Big Bang" was the release of this energy (source unknown) into a uniformly hot, dense primordial state, which expanded to form clumps of traditional "matter" in an expanding region of what we now call "space." The universe itself has the appearance of a growing ball, which transports the energy and the matter formed from it, so that the volume occupied is expanding to this day, and locations in space become farther from each other over time, as well as moving in relation to each other.

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This is NOT a page for debating about whether The Big Bang created the universe, or God did. DO NOT use this page to try to force your religion on other people. You must respect other people's opinions. It seems confusing that the Big Bang could have happened even though there was no matter or energy in the universe. But really, scientists speculate that there could have been a time before matter, energy, and time itself even existed. The "Big Bang" is a term that describes the event that created the universe. It goes like this: There was no time, no energy, and no matter. basically, NOTHING existed. Then, a tiny volume of space, smaller then the head of a pin, suddenly expanded and grew to an enormous size. As the volume of space expanded, it created all the energy and matter in the universe. It created nebulas and galaxies of stars and planets. (and many other things, of coarse.) This is when time began to flow. There is plenty of evidence to support that this theory is true. The Big Bang would have been such a huge event that the waves of energy it created are still traveling in space today! People have actually detected these waves with a device called a spectroscope. Not only that, but scientists think that the universe is still expanding. So the Big Bang is still continuing today. We know this because astronomers have determined that the galaxies of our universe are all moving away from each other. They are all moving away from the center of the universe, where the Big Bang started, and the universe is still getting bigger.

Answer 2

It is the theory that the universe began as a single point containing all the matter in the universe, all squashed up. Then, something happened which caused it to expand rapidly. The proof of this, most believe, is the fact that galaxies in the universe are moving away from each other, hence there must've been a time when the universe was much smaller then it is now.

Recently, scientists have come to believe that there is a thing called a 'gravitational singularity' in the centre of a black hole. This 'singularity' is a point that has no dimensions, yet contains an infinite amount of matter, much like the object that led to the 'big bang'. So, some believe that the universe was created within a black hole within a previous universe.

Please note: I'm only 16, I might be wrong.