From Infinity & Beyond
When I was little, I would stare out into the night sky in fascination and awe. The moon, the stars, and the comets all seemed to float about in such perfect synchrony. There was so little I knew about it, yet I knew it was beautiful, and it greeted me each and every night, as the sun dimmed.
In school, I learned about the stars, planets, and galaxies, and their place in the overall universe, yet there was one question that plagued me most: how big was the universe? I asked my teacher, and she was clearly startled by my question. Nevertheless, she responded, "The universe is infinite." That meant, there was no end to the universe – it went on forever! It was a baffling answer - how can something go on forever?
Several years later, I was introduced to the Big Bang Theory, which suggests, "The universe expanded from a primordial hot and dense point, and continues to expand to this very day." This begs the question, if the universe began as some hot, dense point in time, what was around that point (or next to it)? And if the universe continues to expand, is there an edge to the universe? What does that look like?
I still don't know the answers to these questions, but I'm comforted that nobody else knows, either.
The funny thing about the Big Bang Theory is its origin. The premise behind it is not rocket science (no pun intended) – in fact, it's actually quite simple. A while back, astronomers noticed that stars (and other objects in the universe) had been consistently moving farther and farther away from each other. Therefore, they postulated that at some point in time during the past, these objects must have been closer– so close, in fact, that they were clumped together in a hot dense point of mass. This is probably not the high-tech scientific explanation you were expecting, but it does involve some inference, and a lot of faith.
Pretty weird that hundreds of years of science have given us the perception that we've unlocked all the mysteries of the world, only to discover that in reality, we've only scratched the surface.
In school, I learned about the stars, planets, and galaxies, and their place in the overall universe, yet there was one question that plagued me most: how big was the universe? I asked my teacher, and she was clearly startled by my question. Nevertheless, she responded, "The universe is infinite." That meant, there was no end to the universe – it went on forever! It was a baffling answer - how can something go on forever?
Several years later, I was introduced to the Big Bang Theory, which suggests, "The universe expanded from a primordial hot and dense point, and continues to expand to this very day." This begs the question, if the universe began as some hot, dense point in time, what was around that point (or next to it)? And if the universe continues to expand, is there an edge to the universe? What does that look like?
I still don't know the answers to these questions, but I'm comforted that nobody else knows, either.
The funny thing about the Big Bang Theory is its origin. The premise behind it is not rocket science (no pun intended) – in fact, it's actually quite simple. A while back, astronomers noticed that stars (and other objects in the universe) had been consistently moving farther and farther away from each other. Therefore, they postulated that at some point in time during the past, these objects must have been closer– so close, in fact, that they were clumped together in a hot dense point of mass. This is probably not the high-tech scientific explanation you were expecting, but it does involve some inference, and a lot of faith.
Pretty weird that hundreds of years of science have given us the perception that we've unlocked all the mysteries of the world, only to discover that in reality, we've only scratched the surface.
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