Surprising Science — November 20, 2010

Before the Big Bang

Legendary physicist Sir Roger Penrose says he has found the first evidence of an eternal, cyclic cosmos that is refreshed by Big Bangs, of which there have been many.

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The current cosmological census is that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago with the Big Bang. … The Big Bang model holds that everything that now comprises the universe was once concentrated in a single point of near-infinite density. Before this singularity exploded and the universe began, there was absolutely nothing. … Sir Roger Penrose, one of the most renowned physicists of the last fifty years, takes issue with this view. He points out that the universe was apparently born in a very low state of entropy, meaning a very high degree of order initially existed, and this is what made the complex matter we see all around us possible in the first place.

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Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Does the CMB really “prove” the Big Bang?

Since the mid-1960s, the CMB has been identified with the Big Bang’s leftover glow. Could any alternative explanations still work?

Diagram of the expanding universe concept with cosmic inflation, light cone, and time axis.

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: What’s the deal with cosmic inflation and the Big Bang?

Almost everyone asserts that the Big Bang was the beginning of everything, followed by inflation. Has everyone gotten the order wrong?

Starts With A Bang

Ask Ethan: Why is the Big Bang shown as a tube?

The most common visual depictions of the history of the Universe show the Big Bang as a growing tube with an “ignition” point. Why is that?

Starts With A Bang

Why do we count the Universe’s age from 13.8 billion years ago?

The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, going back to the hot Big Bang. But was that truly the beginning, and is that truly its age?

Starts With A Bang

If the Big Bang wasn’t the first thing ever, what caused it?

Many contrarians dispute that cosmic inflation occurred. The evidence says otherwise.

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