Question: is there any evidence behind the big bang

James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

Hi th1597: that’s what I call a curve ball of a question! Yes, there’s plenty of evidence for the big bang. It’s a lot to do with looking at how the stars in the universe move relative to each other – the way we can detect this is to analyse the light that is coming from different stars – you know how when an ambulance passes you by, the noise seems to go higher in pitch then lower as it goes away from you… it’s the ‘doppler shift’; and the same principle applies for light. The other thing people look at is the energy levels in different parts of the universe and see whether things are heating up or cooling down. It’s pretty complicated cos we’re analysing things that are so far away it takes light millions of years to reach us!! and also there are all sorts of wierd things that we haven’t quite worked out and are in the way – things that we can’t really see – like worm holes and black holes that seem to suck light in.. it’s pretty crazy out there in space!! Why, are you interested in physics?? I did astrophysics at a-level and that was pretty crazy!