Surprise: the Big Bang isn’tau the beginning of the universe anymore
The Big Bang teaches us that our expanding, cooling universe used puro be younger, denser, and hotter per the past.
Mediante every direction we care esatto observe, we find stars, galaxies, clouds of gas and dust, tenuous plasmas, and radiation spanning the gamut of wavelengths: from radioricevente sicuro infrared sicuro visible light esatto gamma rays. No matter where or how we aspetto at the universe, it’s full of matter and energy absolutely everywhere and at all times. And yet, it’s only natural preciso assume that it all came from somewhere. If you want to know the answer onesto the biggest question of all – the question of our cosmic origins – you have sicuro pose the question preciso the universe itself, and listen preciso what it tells you.
Today, the universe as we see it is expanding, rarifying (getting less dense), and cooling. Although it’s tempting preciso simply extrapolate forward sopra time, when things will be even larger, less dense, and cooler, the laws of physics allow us to extrapolate backward just as easily. Long ago, the universe was smaller, denser, and hotter. How far back can we take this extrapolation? Mathematically, it’s tempting onesto go as far as possible: all the way back preciso infinitesimal sizes and infinite densities and temperatures, or what we know as a singularity. Sigue leyendo