The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion. Visualize it like this. | Michelle Thaller | Big Think

The Big Bang wasn’t an explosion. Visualize it like this.
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Where exactly did the Big Bang happen? Well, nowhere—and everywhere. As NASA's Michelle Thaller explains, thinking of the origins of our universe as an explosion with a central hub is misleading.

"The Big Bang wasn't an explosion of matter, it was an expansion of space itself," she says. We don't know how big the universe is, but the general consensus is that there is no edge to the universe, and no center either.

To visualize the Big Bang accurately, imagine an inflated balloon and pay attention just to the surface of it — "Pretend that there's no such thing as inside or outside of the balloon, just the two-dimensional surface of the rubber." We are living on the surface of that balloon, only able to shine a light in one direction or the other. All of it is expanding and every part of it is filled with galaxies—no matter where you are in the universe.
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MICHELLE THALLER:

Dr. Michelle Thaller is an astronomer who studies binary stars and the life cycles of stars. She is Assistant Director of Science Communication at NASA. She went to college at Harvard University, completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif. then started working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Spitzer Space Telescope. After a hugely successful mission, she moved on to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in the Washington D.C. area. In her off-hours often puts on about 30lbs of Elizabethan garb and performs intricate Renaissance dances. For more information, visit NASA.
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TRANSCRIPT:

MICHELLE THALLER: Elissa, you have asked one of the best questions in all of astronomy: The Big Bang was the start of our universe so where was the locale? Where did the Big Bang actually happen? And what I really love about this question is it gives me a chance to talk about some of the misperceptions we have about the Big Bang. And when I hear the term 'Big Bang' that implies an explosion. And we all know how explosions work from our experience: things actually fly out from a common center. And one of the things is scientists really don't like describing the Big Bang as an explosion at all, that sort of sets you up in the wrong direction right away because you can imagine that there are galaxies all flying apart away from each other, away from a common center, and flying out into empty space. And the universe we observe is absolutely nothing like that. For example, the whole volume of the universe that we can see with the Hubble Space Telescope — we can see to a distance of nearly 13 billion light years — all of that volume is filled with galaxies. There is no empty center to the universe. And the other thing that we don't observe and we're pretty sure that nobody else ever could either is being on the edge of that, being on a galaxy right on the edge of expansion and seeing all of the galaxies in one direction because you're looking inside and nothing but empty space on the outside. Space never looks like that. All around us we see galaxies; the universe is filled with them.

So what's really going on here? And this really gets at the crux of what the Big Bang was. The Big Bang wasn't an explosion of matter, it was an expansion of space itself. So that simply means that any amount of space in the universe is expanding and everything is getting farther away from everything else. I know that's very hard to visualize. Some people talk about blowing up a balloon and this always, to me, can put you in the wrong direction because they say 'Ah-ha! A balloon has an empty center, everything expands away from it.' What they haven't told you is you need to pay attention just to the surface of the balloon. Pretend that there's no such thing as inside or outside of the balloon, just the two-dimensional surface of the rubber. As you blow into it, that expands in every direction. If you were to draw little points on the surface of the balloon, every little point would start getting farther away from every other little point. But if you were a two-dimensional creature that could only travel on the surface of the balloon, you could only shine a light, you couldn't possibly even know about what's up or what's down, if you were completely two-dimensional, you would see every point expanding away from every other point but there would be no empty center...

[KellerTeamRealEstate]

Wow. Mind blown! ..err, I mean, , expanded

[tyrannosaurhex]

This raises more questions than it answers

[islamhany]

She's the female scientist version of Dave Mustaine

[bezpansky]

Why don't physicist change the name? For example to the simple "space expansion theory"

[mediawolf]

Another analogy I've heard is raisin bread expanding (from yeast and from baking), the raisins getting further from each other although they are not moving through the dough. The dough is expanding.

[xczechr]

Michelle has that Linda Hamilton from the first Terminator vibe. I love it.

[KiNGKuNTa]

This video makes me doubt even if I know what a space is anymore

[FlashRyu]

It hasn’t exploded yet, the rubber hasn’t torn yet

Edit: that’s what she said

[irenee]

Her enthusiasm for the topic is palpable 💟

[drumcircler]

That explanation raises more questions than it answers, expanding the mysteries directions analogous to confusion.

[cookiemonster]

Im so glad space is expanding.
I live in a room 3 x 4 meters.

[lyricsronen]

Michelle is one of NASA’s greatest treasures. The idea of the universe being the 3D surface of a 4D sphere is mind blowing

[Blurrybob]

Before, I had some clue (allbeit an incorrect one) about the Big Bang, now I have none

[exodiathegod]

Thank you Michelle for such a realistic, common sense answer to the Big Bang theory.

[BladeRunner-tdbe]

She's fantastic and I love the way she describes things. She really wants to share her knowledge and it gives her great pleasure to do this.

[integratedgraphicsgaming]

There is one simple answer. WE DON'T KNOW. that's it. Simple.

[heliosphere]

We need more women like Michelle Thaller! You have a fantastic, down to earth way of explaining complex matters in a very understandable way.

See, this is a true expert. No arrogance, no over complicated terms where not needed.
Thank you!

[ivanwilliams]

I get the idea of space itself 'stretching' in every direction leading to the universe we see now expanding.... but I don't understand how this model can lead to a universe that scientists/cosmologists describe as flat. How can this be if it has been stretched in all 3D directions? And also when we look with telescopes there are galaxies in each of these directions for as far as we can see?

Also, if we reverse this stretching of space and get a shrinking of space, are we shrinking everything within space? If so would it not just shrink even the smallest particles? Atoms, subatomic particles etc. so that theoretically all the universe would still be functional, just at an infinitely small (to us) scale.

I came here looking for a visual representation of the shape of this 'flat' universe and I haven't found a satisfying one. If anyone has come across one I would appreciate a link.

[ucchuman]

space is expanding at every point, doesn't that cancel out. Doesn't it mean we all and everything has grown bigger and fatter but since everything is doing the same we don't see the difference ? Aren't we moving away at the same rate? Why do we see a difference? And since atoms & particles are not increasing isn't the space between molecules is increasing? What am i misunderstanding? I'm so confused since I've known this thing. Someone please enlighten me?

[kristiansantosa]

This is an eye opening video. Some people believe in science as the truth in life but actually we can misinterpret scientific research and thus getting a wrong conclusion.
The irony is, some people consider that 'incorrect interpretation' as the truth for their life.

Make sure you know what you believe in is correct, do you really have that conviction, or is it just because someone / something tells you so?