What blew up in the Big Bang?
461329
no one knows what existing in the earliest fractions of a second (i.e. nano seconds) - but in the first millisecond or so all the matter in the universe was quarks and gluons - this quickly cooled and these particles combined to form HARDONS (the subatomic particles we know today - protons, neutrons, etc.), but they existed in a plasma (like lightening)  After about 380,000 years the hardons cooled enough to form neutral atoms
1164204
Everything started off with The Big Bang. As there is the Big Bang Theory, there is also the big crunch theory if im not wrong. During the Big Bang, the universe is formed and it is expanding. But scientific discovery have showed that the Universe is expanding at a decreasing speed. It will come to a point of time where the Universe will stop expanding and due to the internal gravitational force, the Universe will also start contracting but at a slow rate. It will be really contract really slow at first but the rate of contracing will speed up. Think it as a exponential curve. Yup... Then everything will be suck back to the point of sigularity again and when energy in it becomes unstable it will explode again thus forming the new Universe. But anyway we wouldnt be ard to witness this by then. Not even a million lifetime. HAhahah... So dun worry!
297935
Big Bang is a theory that tries to explain the formation of the universe, its galaxies, its stars and planets etc.\n\nIt says that the Universe was created by an explosion of a Primeval Atom thus causing it to expand and move away from each other. This was actually based on the Hubble Law which says that Galaxies around us are expanding at speeds directly proportional to their distance from Earth, based on the observation of Edwin Hubble, 1929.\n\nIts a huge topic with lots of technical arguments and counter arguments. Here is the link that will satisfy your quest on Big Bang, atleast for starters...\n\n.:Fishie:.
169798
With only your vague description to go on and a year you arent sure of, it is very hard to ansswer your question, but I assure you, you did not see the "biggest explosion since big bang".\n\nPerhaps it was a meteor exploding in the atmosphere?
638759
The question assumes that the matter was compacted, but before the big bang, there was no universe as we understand it, so the idea of "volume" is somewhat meaningless.  What was the sound that came before silence?\n\nPre-BigBang makes your head hurt doesn't it? It does mine!
588112
Just check this link and go thru the following article also\n\nhttp://www.big-bang-theory.com/\n\nBig Bang Theory - The Premise\nThe Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a beginning. Prior to that moment there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something: our universe. The big bang theory is an effort to explain what happened during and after that moment. \n\nAccording to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and where does it come from? Well, to be honest, we don't know for sure. Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at the core of "black holes." Black holes are areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite density (a mathematical concept which truly boggles the mind). These zones of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity. Where did it come from? We don't know. Why did it appear? We don't know. \n\nAfter its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe. It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory. \n\nBig Bang Theory - Common Misconceptions\nThere are many misconceptions surrounding the Big Bang theory. For example, we tend to imagine a giant explosion. Experts however say that there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size of our current universe. \n\nAnother misconception is that we tend to image the singularity as a little fireball appearing somewhere in space. According to the many experts however, space didn't exist prior to the Big Bang. Back in the late '60s and early '70s, when men first walked upon the moon, "three British astrophysicists, Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention to the Theory of Relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time. In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to include measurements of time and space.1, 2 According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy."3 The singularity didn't appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity. Prior to the singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy - nothing. So where and in what did the singularity appear if not in space? We don't know. We don't know where it came from, why it's here, or even where it is. All we really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn't exist and neither did we. \n\nBig Bang Theory - Evidence for the Theory\nWhat are the major evidences which support the Big Bang theory? \n\nFirst of all, we are reasonably certain that the universe had a beginning. \nSecond, galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law,"
196817
The second answer above is dead wrong. Well, not all of it ; )\n\nThe big bang DID create sound, although they are termed "acoustic oscillations" but they work just like sound does, with overpressure and underpressure but just on a larger scale. The "sound" of the big bang also had harmonics, just like any other sound does.\n\nThe big bang itself was likely an inflation of a high energy vacuum state and subsequent decay. That is why it is possible that it did not require any matter or energy to begin with, just virtual energy. We see this virtual energy in vacuums all the time, because our universe' vacuum state is non-zero.\n\nSo in short, the idea is that energy and matter decayed out of a vacuum state, and the acoustic oscillations, complete with harmonics, is visible in the CMB, so there was sound. How about that?
178557
The Big Bang didn't happen in a place.  Space and time were created in the big bang. The Big Bang is a theory to explain universal/spatial expansion. \n\nI think it's easiest to look at the idea this way. Scientists have observed that everything past our local galactic cluster seems to be retreating from us. All observations point to the universe being infinite and roughly uniform in all directions. \n\nIf it's expanding at given rate now, chances are it's slowed down. Go back in time, the universe was denser and expanding faster. Rewind the timeline far enough and you'll come to a period when everything was all bunched together in a massive, undiscernable clump. Then, suddenly, Bang!!! Space! And everything in it... which has been spreading out and slowing down (pretty much) ever since. \n\nTry thinking about it like the air expaning in bread as it rises, or in a balloon as it fills. Everything is moving apart from everything. Only the universe has been infinitely large from the get go. It's almost like someone just keeps adding empty space in between everything.\n\nIf it helps at all, the center of the big bang for the visible universe was the same place the center of the visible universe always is. Wherever you are. From that point, everything you can see was at some moment in the past gethered together in a lump with infinite density.
1073548
The Big Bang theory is the most popular one. It is hypothesized that the universe was a collection of dust and other particles forming to one huge mass, until heat and gases formed and pressure from gravity and mass caused it all to erupt in one "big bang" causing everything to project and very high speeds in all directions.\n\nOur world was theorize to have originated through this process. The debris and particles that were projected from the point of origin (now the sun) and locked into its gravitation rotation. The larger mass debris attracted other smaller debris by its gravitational pull to form an even larger mass.\nThis mass growing in size of gases, dust and other particles started to alter by factoring conditions such as distance from the sun and compostion of gases and such. Eventually providing the right conditions and atmosphere to form water which is the basis of life. From that life was made sustainable by the oxygen created by water and plant life... so a billion bunch years later we have our planet earth and the universe we live in surrounded by other planets and stars.\n\nThere are also legends and tales from various religions and cultures that tell the begins of our universe and earth. You'll have to look these up and see.
26538
Surely you know the proponants do not have an answer. On the same note, neither can anyone answer (yet) what was there before Big Bang?
899198
After 1 to 3 minutes from the initial explosion of the cosmic egg (Big Bang), when temperature has cooled to about 3 trillion degrees kelvin, it is speculated that composite particles such as protons & neutrons become common state of matters.\nKey phenomena that support Big Bang Theory are:\n1) Universe is expanding, and from measurement of the proportional velocities of stars in relation to their distances from us, there is strong probability that an "Event" (such as Big Bang) occurred simultaneously,\n2) detection in 1964 of microwave radiation from not only one location in the universe (but from all directions at once), lends credence to the theory,\nShape/sizes of galaxies or rather the sizes of the galaxy clusters (to aid in estimating distance of faraway galaxies from us)nmay shed more light into the age of the universe as it is postulated that such galaxies and and milky way were at the same point in time at the time of explosion.
801365
Technically it would probably be wrong to say the original matter in the universe was smaller than a grain of sand. The big band is the start of the universe, according to scientists. It's the start of the 4 dimensions(3 dimensions of space and one dimension of time). It's the beginning of all matter and energy. What was there before the big bang? Nothing(if you don't believe in God). So what was it that exploded in the big bang? It couldn't have been the grain of sand sized speck of matter because all matter was a result or bi-product of the big bang. Whatever exploded had to be there before the explosion but matter didn't exist before the explosion. It was a bi-product of the explosion. So, what exploded? Nothing exploded. That, in essense, is what the big bang theory says.........nothing exploded and in the process everything was created. Everything was created out of nothing.\n  You might say "but don't christians believe everything was created out of nothing". Yes. I (as a christian) believe that God created the whole universe out of nothing. He literally spoke it into existence. God said "let there be light and there was light" or so it says in Genesis chapter 1. You say "then what's the difference"? The difference is that the atheists is saying that everything came from nothing and no one since he doesn't believe in a supreme being. Christians believe that everything came from nothing but NOT from no one. There was a God there to make it happen.\n  I guess another problem I have with the big bang is that you have unbelievable order and design coming from an explosion.\nExplode a grenade sometime and when all of the metal pieces fall back to the ground, see it you have a rolex watch lying there.
757860
One of the latest theories (not widely accepted) is that it was caused by the interaction of two other universes at the sub-atomic super-string level. This collision caused a catclysmic explosion at a  point of singularity, creating all the matter and energy we now have in our universe, which then began to expand and cool. \nSimple isn't it?\n\nAnother theory is that the universe is a state of perpetual pulsation. It expands, and then crashes in on itself to a singularity point, and then explodes again, this has been going on forever.\nEven simpler isn't it?\n\nThis could explain why so many people believe in God. It is simpler to understand. \n\nWhich theory you believe is up to you.
1106194
Explosions in Space\n\nhttp://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1998-08/899689009.Ph.r.html\n\nMain excerpts:\n\nOn Earth, the interaction with the surrounding matter, be it air, water, or whatever, means that the initial energy is very quickly, in a few milliseconds, spread out over a fairly large amount of matter, no matter what the nature of the explosive. This material, typically air, forms a luminous fireball that expands at the speed of sound in the air that has been heated by the explosion, which is faster than the speed of sound in ordinary cool air. The result is a shock wave at the surface of the fireball. As the fireball expands it compresses and heats the surrounding air, while losing energy by radiation and also because of the work it is doing on the outside air, all of which causes it to cool. Eventually it cools to the point where it is no longer luminous, the shock wave moves out ahead and makes the BANG! that we hear and that may knock down buildings, and a cloud of swirling debris, smoke, and maybe brownish nitrogen oxides are left behind.\n\nIn space, the first few milliseconds proceed as they would in air (say), but then the transfer of energy to the surrounding air never takes place. As a result the initial small, intensely hot fireball simply keeps expanding at very high speed, and the expanding gases and any fragments fly off in straight lines. The fireball cools by radiation at first, but as its density drops it becomes so transparent that radiation is suppressed. For a chemical high explosive, the expansion speed would be a few thousand feet per second. So for a moderate size explosive -- say 1 meter across -- the products will expand to 100 meters in probably less than 0.1 sec, meaning the density will have decreased by a factor of a million, and the visible explosion will effectively be over. Visually the effect would be of a very brief, brilliant flash in a region only a little bigger than the actual extent of the explosive material. Of course there would be no billowing swirling smoke, and any fragments would almost certainly be moving too fast to be visible. The effect would probably be something like that of a big flashbulb.
681947
Yes it all started with dark matter and energy that were under enormous pressure in a molecule and then the big bang was sparked because of this pressure building up. However what was before this and more importantly why it happened no one will ever know. I prefer to follow the scientific explanation of the origins of the universe as opposed to religious ones because it makes more sense and there is proof.
356868
how else would the universe have come into creation?  Before time existed, there must have been nothing, and at the first possible moment of time, there must have been some minute form of matter.  Whether or not the universe was created in a big bang, I cannot know, since if the big bang theory is true (as well as the Big Crunch theory), then it is possible that the universe has already cycled many times.\n\nBeyond that though, the Big Bang theory does NOT say that the size of the initial chunk of matter was infinitessimally small, it just says that it was supercompact.  It was probably insanely large, but relatively small for all the matter it withheld.
590066
I recommend reading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkings (think that's how you spell it.) He discusses the big bang quite a bit. It seems like an intimidating book, but it is really very easy to read.