How did the universe come to be?
The prevailing theory is everything thatisbegan with the Big Bang.
In a nutshell, the theory suggests everything, everywhere, all at once suddenly burst to life.
The caveat beingeverythingandeverywhereprior to the Big Bang is fairly hard to conceptualize.
The Big Bang theory is currently the best model we have for the birth of our universe.
This is simply not true.
The JWST has not provided evidence disproving the Big Bang theory, and cosmologists aren’t panicking.
Where did “the Big Bang didn’t happen” come from?
The piece was written by Eric Lerner, who has long argued against the Big Big theory.
He even wrote a book titled The Big Bang Never Happened in 1991.
Including Webb as the news hook here suggests there’s new data which overturns a long-standing theory.
Don’t get me wrong – there is new and intriguing data emerging from the JWST.
Just not the kind that would undo the Big Bang theory.
Lerner’s piece uses some of the early JWST studies to attempt to dismiss the Big Bang theory.
Thefull title of the paperis “Panic!
at the Disco with his title.
It’s a tongue-in-cheek reference, not a cosmological crisis.
This cherrypicked quote isn’t in direct reference to the Big Bang theory.
Why does this matter?
One of the chief reasons the Big Bang theory stands up is because of the cosmic microwave background.
This was discovered in 1964.
So to bolster evidence the Big Bang theory isincorrect, you’d need to explain the CMB another way.
Lerner’s dismissive of the CMB, and his proposal for the observationhas been disprovenin the past.
It’s also important to noteWebb is not built to see and undertake new analyses of the CMBitself.
The telescope can’t “see” that far back in time.
However, it will look at an epoch a few hundred million yearsafterthe Big Bang.
But it’s disingenuous to claim the early images and study results have contradicted the Big Bang theory.
Kirkpatrick notes JWST’s images actually do the opposite.
Science is about making incremental progress in our understanding, coming to increasingly stronger conclusions based on observations.
The observations astrophysicists and cosmologists have made over decades line up with the Big Bang theory.
They don’t line up anywhere near as neatly if we use Lerner’s alternative theory.
That’s doesn’t mean scientists won’t find evidence overturning the Big Bang theory.
But, for now, it remains our best theory for explaining what we see.
Scientific theories can – and should – be challenged by well-reasoned scientists presenting highly detailed and thoughtful arguments.
This is not one of those times.
And that means, despite the headlines, the Big Bang did happen.
Updated Aug 22: Added Kirkpatrick’s quotes.
