Last Updated on September 18, 2023
All it takes is a quick glance up at the night sky to realize how wonderful this planet is. Although, with such feelings, you may be wondering what created this beautiful universe, too.
Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out.
The earliest explanations point to the almighty God as being the sole creator of the cosmos, using His omnipotent power to create matter out of nothing.
However, thanks to revolutions in science, there is a much more convincing explanation: The Big BangTheory.
With this in mind, this article aims to inform you about everything you need to know about The Big Bang and the ultimate question: what caused it?
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What Is The Big Bang Theory?
The leading explanation of how the Universe came into existence is The Big Bang Theory.
Regardless of how absurd it sounds, it is one of the most widely notable and accepted explanations thanks to its ability to fit the data.
While it has been contested by other theories over the years, it has always prevailed and is the most accepted theory for cosmology.
Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, put forward the idea of The Big Bang Theory after astronomer Edwin Hubble, in 1924, found out that galaxies were flying apart from each other – this was contrary to Einstein’s theory in a static universe – which implied that the Universe was continuously expanding.
When taking the whole scenario back, the discovery of Georges includes that at a certain point in time, the universe had to be much smaller. Thus, can be traced back to a singular starting point which would be when the universe exploded into existence.
Approximately 14 billion years ago, the concentration of universe’s mass was into a single form.
How Do We Know The Big Bang Happened?
The CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation)
The CMBR refers to the near perfectly uniform background of electromagnetic waves that encompass the Universe. Essentially, this is the leftover heat that paints the whole sky as a result of the Big Bang.
In addition, it is the oldest visible light. That said, it is invisible to the human eye since light has been traveling for billions of years.
This has caused the wavelength to elongate or become ‘red shifted’ from visible and UV light to the microwave category.
Its first discovery was during an experiment to understand the shape or ‘geometry’ of the Universe. This was measured by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Essentially, this is a space-based telescope that measures microwave radiation.
Here, the CMBR offered to use pictures of the infant universe – approximately 100,000 years after it was born.
To begin with, as a result of the extreme amounts of heat, the Universe could be observed in a state of plasma which made it opaque due to scattering protons and ionized gas.
This remained the case until the Universe eventually cooled down. Here, electrons were allowed to group together and create the basic elements we know together.
The resulting picture was something that consisted of various ‘spots’ – making it more or less dense.
The CMBR provided us with an explanation of how and why of the creation of galaxies.
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So, What Caused The Big Bang?
The Big Bang represents the moment space and time (otherwise known as ‘space-time’) become interconnected in existence. Until the Big Bang, space or time simply didn’t exist.
Therefore, when asking the question: what caused the Big Bang? This is somewhat meaningless since before this took place, there was no Universe that could have existed.
While this doesn’t seem like a very satisfying answer to your queries, there are other good reasons that propose the existence of the cause of the Big Bang might not exist.
For instance, quantum physics has told us that some events simply don’t require any cause. Some things can just happen spontaneously and randomly without any real reason.
Therefore, while this causeless and unpredictable nature of the Universe has been scientifically verified, it doesn’t discount our incapacity to observe the things around us correctly – it is a fundamental feature of the Universe.
Hence, while there may be no concrete cause for the Big Bang that humans are currently aware of, modern cosmology doesn’t require or define one, either.
Essentially, the Big Bang defines the history of the creation of the Universe, this incorporates the history of space, time, matter, and energy.
The Universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old and using observations from a telescope, scientists have determined that 13.8 billion years ago, the planet was incredibly small.
These observations also confirm that for a fraction of a second, the Universe was at a moment of rapid expansion, however, slowed down, once again.
Then, after a few hundred thousand years was the formation of the simplest atoms: hydrogen. From here, were the formation of stars and galaxies.
After many billions of years, the formation of Earth and everything we know were from the atoms in stars. In the last 13.8 billion years, all the complicated atoms inside your body were made from a star.
During this time, the universe continued to expand. In fact, current observations have told us that these expansions are becoming faster.
Thus, the Big Bang is an idea that agrees with all these different observations. Therefore, scientists believe it to be an ideal notion to describe the history of the Universe.
Final Thoughts
The Universe is a wide and beautiful thing. That said, even today, there are many wonders that exist in this space we simply have no answers to.
One of which includes the cause of the Big Bang. However, this doesn’t discount the theory. There are many things in life that simply don’t require an explanation, the Big Bang is one of these.
Hopefully, this guide has informed you on everything you need to know about the Big Bang theory and the potential causes and explanations of the event.
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