Chapter 19: Big Bang Animation

All Big Bang animations suffer from the same challenges – trying to represent the start of the Big Bang itself. and its subsequent evolution. Essentially, the animations typically place the observer “outside” of the universe, showing the Big Bang as an explosion at a specific location at the beginning of time. After the flash engulfs the observer, the observer finds themself somewhere inside the universe, but not being carried along with its expansion of spacetime. The galaxies, on the other hand, are properly depicted as being carried along with spacetime, but they ARE NOT ejected from a central explosion! The “fireball” appears to move off into deep space and deep time in a particular location. In reality, all of spacetime should be seen as cooling since the Big Bang happened everywhere at the same time, but as we look deep into time we are seeing the universe as it was in the very distant past, approaching the time of the Big Bang. The problem with the animation regarding this point is that the distant past, and therefore the appearance of the universe itself in deep time, is all around us, not in an apparently fixed location.

Oddly, the animation seems to imply a horizontal preference to the apparent “fireball” with horizontal extensions to the otherwise nearly spherical “fireball”. There is no evidence to suggest any preferred direction to the universe!

All of this is why the Big Bang should not be thought of as a “big bang”, but rather as a Big Stretch of the entire universe at the beginning of the universe, stretching the fabric of spacetime itself! Additionally, the most distant regions of the universe should appear far back in time with various stages of the evolution of the universe from the distant past to present day, such as the development of the cooling of the universe, the clumping of dark matter, the formation of the cosmic web, the first stars, primeval galaxies, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and galaxy mergers and galaxy building throughout time. Not easy to represent in an animation!!!

Try viewing the animation multiple times with these issues in mind; this may help you visualize your own animation of the Big Bang/Big Stretch in your head.