121 FAQs about Big Bang Cosmology (The Astronomy Cafe)

 

 

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Beginner:

  1. What is the universe made of?
  2. Where in the universe did the Big Bang happen?
  3. In your list of 10 things supporting Big Bang theory, why do they not also support other ideas too?
  4. Is there an easy way to describe Big Bang cosmology?
  5. What are the simplest things we know about the Big Bang?
  6. If every star had 9 planets like Jupiter, would this account for the missing mass in the universe?
  7. What is the relationship between the terms 'universe', 'knowable universe' and 'visible universe'?
  8. If we looked far enough out in space, could we actually see the Big Bang itself?
  9. How many atoms are there in our universe?
  10. Can you name 10 things that contradict Big Bang theory?
  11. What is the history of a single proton from the Big Bang to the present?
  12. Do you believe in the Big Bang theory, or Creation?
  13. How far back in time can you see with a telescope?
  14. If I tell you how the universe works, how can I be sure I get credit for my theory?
  15. What fraction of the universe is made up of anti-matter?
  16. Have other Big Bangs happened before?
  17. What ever happened to the rival theories to Big Bang cosmology?
  18. Do people send you their ideas for new theories about the universe?
  19. Do you believe in Big Bang theory?
  20. Are there any places in the universe where the temperature is lower than 2.7 K?
  21. How probable is the Genesis theory of Creation?
  22. What is your personal opinion about big bang cosmology?
  23. If the Big Bang theory is such a good theory, why doesn't it explain the orgin of life?
  24. What facts disprove the Big Bang Theory?
  25. How could there not have been something before the Big Bang?
  26. Will our understanding of the universe change as much in the next 100 years as it has in the last 100?

Intermediate:

  1. What kind of shape does a 10-dimensional universe have?
  2. How many dimensions does our universe have?
  3. Could the Big Bang have been the beginning of a black hole in an external universe?
  4. How many fundamental particles are in the universe?
  5. What alternate theories of the universe are being actively tested today?
  6. What are the three most recent theories about 'missing mass'?
  7. Was there really no time at all before the Big Bang?
  8. If the Big Bang singularity dwarfed a black hole singularity, why did anything ever escape?
  9. What is nothingness?
  10. Did the Big Bang happen in a medium, or in a vacuum?
  11. What is the real evidence that there was a beginning of time?
  12. Could another Big Bang ever happen inside our own universe, thereby destroying it?
  13. Why can't a universe with more than 4 dimensions have life?
  14. Why is there no anti-matter in the universe in equal amounts to matter?
  15. What do you mean by 'multiple universes' given the definition of the word universe?
  16. How can we still see the cosmic background radiation when its source has vanished, and all radiation has to have a source?
  17. What were the key observations that eliminated previous theories of the universe?
  18. Have scientists proven that other universes exist?
  19. How could the universe have been spatially infinite even at the Big Bang?
  20. If space has a boundary, then how could a 'void' have existed before the Big Bang when there was no universe?
  21. Does space have a boundary because it has a finite age since the Big Bang?
  22. What do you think of plasma cosmology?
  23. What is the compelling evidence that demands that the universe was smaller than an atom when the Big Bang happened?
  24. What is the status of theories that propose that the Big Bang never happened?
  25. Why don't the temperatures of all the stars in the Milky Way affect the temperature of the cosmic background radiation at 2.7 K?
  26. Isn't the real question all advocates of Big Bang theory should answer is what caused the Big Bang?
  27. What did the dense matter soon after the Big Bang look like?
  28. How far back in time can you see with a telescope?
  29. If the cosmic background is so smooth, why is matter in galaxies so clumpy?
  30. Why wasn't the Big Bang a black hole?
  31. What is a space time continuum?
  32. What is the latest on the nature and existence of 'dark matter'?
  33. If the pre-Big Bang state was timeless, what is the best guess as to what it was like?
  34. What modifications to Big Bang cosmology have ben made to account for all its problems?
  35. If space and gas started everything going, where did these things come from?
  36. Will modern cosmology survive into the future?
  37. What is it that keeps the universe 'going'?
  38. Is the universe really a 'multiverse'?
  39. Could the first generations of stars have been pure hydrogen so that all of the helium in the universe came from stars and not the big bang?
  40. Are there any other explanations for the cosmic background radiation?
  41. Could the big bang have been a white hole?
  42. What is the stuff that caused the Big Bang?
  43. How large was the universe about 10^-34 seconds after the Big Bang?
  44. Does it make sense to speak of a temperature at the Big Bang?
  45. Was the destiny of the universe determined at the Big Bang?
  46. Where did the dense mass come from that started the Big Bang?
  47. If equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created in the Big bang, why is there only matter now?
  48. Where did the heat from the Big Bang go?
  49. When did the elements for forming planets first form after the Big Bang?
  50. What happened to all the antimatter created in the Big Bang?
  51. If there are other universes, would they be detectable from within ours?
  52. Are there any other theories for the origin of the universe other than God and Big Bang Theory?
  53. Is Big Bang Theory true like 1+1=2 is?

Advanced:

  1. Is there any connection between the Higgs field and dark matter?
  2. If quantum fluctuations happen 'in time' how could they have existed before the Big Bang when time was first created?
  3. Are universes with more than 3+1 dimensions unstable, theoretically?
  4. How were the physical constants fine tuned to make our kind of universe possible?
  5. Did the laws that govern quantum fluctuations exist prior to the Big Bang?
  6. Could virtual particles make up dark matter?
  7. When was matter created after the Inflationary Epoch?
  8. Where did the initial momentum come from that caused the universe to expand?
  9. Why does the rest mass of a neutrino make any difference to cosmology?
  10. Do you see any relationship between the subatomic microcosm and the macroscopic universe?
  11. How could a quantum vacuum state have produced our universe when the universe has such regular physical laws rather than random things just happening?
  12. Is there really any order in the universe, or is it all the result of random patterns that happen from time to time?
  13. What is quantum cosmology?
  14. What will happen to cosmology when physicists discover the Theory of Everything?
  15. How does superstring theory affect our understanding of the cosmos?
  16. Is it really true that the laws of physics are randomly selected at the Big Bang?
  17. What is the relationship between the energy of the vacuum and the Cosmological Constant?
  18. Why did nature produce a Big Bang at all?
  19. Since the universe must have been inside its own Schwarschild radius after the Big Bang, how did it get out?
  20. What is the contribution of virtual particles to the mass of the universe?
  21. Did the birth of the Universe violate the Conservation of Energy?
  22. What are cosmic strings and superstrings?
  23. Did physical laws exist before the Big Bang?
  24. Why was there a slight imbalance between matter and antimatter just after the Big Bang?
  25. What is the mass equivalent of all forms of energy in the universe?
  26. Can virtual particles still be created in a vacuum where the temperature is absolute zero?
  27. How can an infinite universe have a beginning in time?
  28. How can 'nothing' do anything at all, let alone create an entire universe?
  29. What is a 'cosmic string'?
  30. Did the Big Bang singularity happen in everywhere in the space that now exists today?
  31. Can energy exist without matter as in before the big bang?
  32. Was energy conserved in the big bang?
  33. How could laws have been created AFTER the big bang if the universe started out as a 'fluctuation' of some kind?
  34. Where does space come from?
  35. Is vacuum genesis compatible with observation?
  36. How can the expansion of the universe violate relativity and the speed of light limit?
  37. What are some of the most bizarre cosmological theories you know about that have no chance in hell of being correct?
  38. At what rate were stars formed in the Big Bang?
  39. What is the difference between Alex Vilenkin's tunneling out of 'nothingness' and Hawking's idea?
  40. If the Big Bang happened in a vacuum, what was it that was fluctuation without time present?
  41. What sort of quantum field could possibly have triggered the Big Bang outof nothingness?
  42. If matter cannot be created or destroyed, where did the universe come from?
  43. How is the fact that 3 types of neutrinos exists, predicted by Big Bang Theory?

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