Post big bang matter/energy distribution

[jarroe]

The matter/energy was not evenly distributed after the big bang is this correct? I like to think of the big bang as all matter/energy in a perfect sphere that explodes out perfect and symetrical, but the evidence proves otherwise I guess? Other branes pulling perhaps on our universe altered the expansion in different areas? The rate of expansion has increased over time making it difficult to extrapolate back as well I suppose?

Perhaps a supermassive black hole resides in the spot in our current universe where the big bang occurred due to its age and the probability that a lot of matter would have been in closer to the origin?

 

[Drakkith]

The matter/energy was not evenly distributed after the big bang is this correct?

No, the fluctuations at the beginning of the universe were responsible for allowing the collapse of hydrogen by gravity to form the first stars and galaxies.

I like to think of the big bang as all matter/energy in a perfect sphere that explodes out perfect and symetrical, but the evidence proves otherwise I guess? Other branes pulling perhaps on our universe altered the expansion in different areas? The rate of expansion has increased over time making it difficult to extrapolate back as well I suppose?

Your view would be incorrect. There would be no sphere of finite size that contained the universe, but instead there would be an infinite amount of very dense very hot material in every direction. The expansion caused this material to become less dense and cool over time, eventually resulting in the universe as it is now. As for branes, there is no evidence of them so I can't say much on that.

[/quote] Perhaps a supermassive black hole resides in the spot in our current universe where the big bang occurred due to its age and the probability that a lot of matter would have been in closer to the origin?[/QUOTE]

Nope. We do not believe there is a center of the universe. The hot dense material of the early universe is believed to be infinite in extent and without a center. If you were to place yourself at ANY point in the early universe and watch as the expansion unfolds you would see that from every point you are at, everything else expands outward from you. Like raisins inside bread in an oven as it rises. The nearer ones move away from each other at a slower rate than the ones further away, yet no raisin ever gets closer to another raisin. (See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raisinbread.gif) Remember, it's just an analogy. Obviously the raisin bread has an edge and a center, but we don't believe the universe does.

 

[jarroe]

Thanks for the info! Hard to comprehend, but it I think I get it.