• Question: Why did the big bang happen just for it to end

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      That’s a little like saying why did the egg fall off the table, just to smash on the floor?

      Something caused it, and the question “what caused the big bang”, or “what caused the egg to fall of the table?” are good questions we can try to answer.

      However if you mean “why” as in “whats the purpose?”, then that presumes there is a purpose. The egg doesn’t necessarily fall of the table with a purpose (though it might – if I pushed it to demonstrate gravity), but “purpose” or “intent” aren’t really necessary for things to happen.

    • Photo: Edward Hughes

      Edward Hughes answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      In a sense the Big Bang hasn’t “ended”! The universe is still expanding at the moment, (sort of) an effect of the original explosion.

      But why did the Big Bang happen in the first place? Nobody really knows! The problem is that we don’t have a theory describing the very start of the universe. And it’s quite hard to do experiments, because we don’t have enough energy to recreate the Big Bang (and I imagine it would be pretty dangerous to do so)!

      My research might give us a better theory of particles smashing together near the Big Bang, so one day I’ll be able to tell you more about it!

      And maybe one day you’ll become a scientist and work out why the Big Bang happened :). You’d be really famous, if so!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      We still don’t know and there are lots of different theories -http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zgr7fg8#z8js9j6

      Scientists are working on finding out why it happened, maybe you could help one day!

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