Multiple collections of energy, very far apart

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter coktail
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Energy Multiple
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the nature of the Big Bang, questioning whether it represents a singular event encompassing all energy in the universe or if there could be multiple collections of energy, potentially indicating ongoing Big Bangs in distant regions. Participants explore the implications of these ideas on our understanding of the universe's origins and the concept of existence outside the Big Bang.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants propose that the Big Bang could be just one of many collections of energy, suggesting that Big Bangs might occur far apart and remain undetectable.
  • Others argue that the Big Bang model primarily describes the universe's evolution after the initial singularity, with no factual understanding of events at t=0.
  • A participant questions the definition of energy being used in the context of the discussion.
  • There is a contention regarding the interpretation of the Big Bang as an explosion, with some asserting it was not an explosion in space but rather a rapid expansion from a hot, dense state.
  • Participants express confusion about the idea of anything existing outside of the Big Bang, with some stating that there was no "outside" to consider.
  • One participant notes that the universe was much closer together in its early state, leading to high density and temperature, which then expanded and cooled, resulting in the matter we observe today.
  • There is a shared sentiment that discussions about what occurred before or outside the Big Bang often lead to speculation without concrete answers.
  • Some participants question the assumption that the Big Bang encompassed everything, suggesting that it may only pertain to the observable universe.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree that there is uncertainty regarding the nature of the Big Bang and what preceded it, with multiple competing views on whether it encompasses everything or just the observable universe. The discussion remains unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the speculative nature of discussions about pre-Big Bang conditions and the definitions of energy, which are not universally agreed upon among participants.

coktail
Messages
118
Reaction score
1
Is it possible that the big bang, and all the energy we know of in the universe, is just one big collection of energy of many? Is it possible that big bangs are happening all the time, but just so vastly far apart that we could never detect them?

This seems to get into the "Could anything exist outside of the big bang?" question, to which I'm told the answer is "no" because there WAS no outside of the big bang, which is still confusing to me.

Is the idea that the big bang truly encompasses absolutely everything in the entire universe, including the universe itself?

Help, please. And thank you.
 
Space news on Phys.org
Well, we don't know. We have absolutely no (factual) idea regarding what happened at t=0. The big bang model is more of an 'after the bang' model. We know the universe was extremely hot, and extremely dense, and expanded rapidly. What happened before that? As I said, we don't know. It's pure speculation.

To add: If you are wondering about 'multiverse' scenarios, you should read Tegmark's article. If that's what you're interested in, I'd recommend reading over the innumerable amount of threads regarding it. As you will notice, any discussion that involves any talk of a multiverse devolves pretty quickly into nothing useful.
 
coktail said:
Is it possible that the big bang, and all the energy we know of in the universe, is just one big collection of energy of many?

What definition of energy are you using here?

Is it possible that big bangs are happening all the time, but just so vastly far apart that we could never detect them?

According to our current understanding of the early universe and what the big bang was, I don't believe so. To my knowledge the big bang was not an explosion in space, it actually isn't even a real event at all, but a name made up in an attempt to discredit the initial theory. The Big Bang theory as it is commonly called simply states that the very very early universe was much hotter and much denser than it is now. It expanded from there and has been expanding since. It doesn't say there was a giant explosion or anything else about where the universe came from.

This seems to get into the "Could anything exist outside of the big bang?" question, to which I'm told the answer is "no" because there WAS no outside of the big bang, which is still confusing to me.

Is the idea that the big bang truly encompasses absolutely everything in the entire universe, including the universe itself?

I would guess that you are imagining this large explosion in space that everything expanded outward from. This is incorrect. As I said above the universe, ALL of it, everything within it, was simply much closer together about 14 billion years ago. So close that the density of the universe was exceedingly high, driving the temperature up to phenomenal levels as well. The entire universe existed as an extremely hot plasma where light created matter and antimatter which then annihilated with itself to create light, with the cycle repeating over and over. Luckily for us the universe wasn't static, it was expanding. And as the universe expanded it cooled off until the matter-antimatter created ceased. At this point something weird happens that we are still investigating. For some reason, when the final matter-antimatter pairs annihilated there was still matter left over. Enough matter to create everything we see in the universe today. That means that somehow matter was created in slightly larger amounts than antimatter, the exact reasons we don't know yet.
 
Thanks very much for the replies.

So basically, we don't know and can't talk without wild speculation about what happened before, or outside of, the big bang? That's what I think I'm hearing here.

Why do we think that the big bang encompassed everything, instead of just everything in the known universe?
 
coktail said:
Thanks very much for the replies.

So basically, we don't know and can't talk without wild speculation about what happened before, or outside of, the big bang? That's what I think I'm hearing here.

Pretty much.

Why do we think that the big bang encompassed everything, instead of just everything in the known universe?

Given what we know about the early universe there isn't any reason to believe that any part of the universe is different from our observable one in terms of how it evolved from it's earlier state or what it was like 14 billion years ago.
 

Similar threads

Undergrad What Are the Origins of the Universe?
  • · Replies 17 ·
Replies
17
Views
3K
High School Could Black Hole Collisions Trigger a Cyclical Big Bang and Universe Rebirth?
  • · Replies 19 ·
Replies
19
Views
3K
Undergrad Could it be that the Big Bang had no cause?
  • · Replies 3 ·
Replies
3
Views
2K
High School Big Bang Question -- How was the first matter formed?
  • · Replies 69 ·
3
Replies
69
Views
7K
Undergrad Vacuum up-tunneling with high-energy events?
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
3K
High School Estimates — True Size of the Universe?
  • · Replies 33 ·
2
Replies
33
Views
8K
Undergrad Shouldn't the Big bang be physically impossible?
  • · Replies 25 ·
Replies
25
Views
4K
Undergrad Wheeler's Mutability principle and multiple universes?
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
High School Did the Big Bang follow multiple bangs? How did matter come to collide?
  • · Replies 43 ·
2
Replies
43
Views
5K
High School Big Crunch, Big Bang and information loss
  • · Replies 56 ·
2
Replies
56
Views
8K