We all talk about the big bang as this moment the Universe begins by popping into existence with simple hydrogen and some helium. Hydrogen and Helium are gases that are able to carry sound. Today, space has expanded so much that there is vacume beyond where matter clumps together to form stars/planets, which means the sound couldn’t propagate, but the early early Universe wouldn’t have clumped like today; there would have been hydrogen everywhere. This means it would have been loud everywhere.

*Edit: I know we call it the Big Bang because of the rapid expansion of spacetime, but I always just pictured the general motion of expansion as the “bang”. Never thought of how loud it would have been.

  • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
    67·
    5 days ago

    the Universe begins by popping into existence with simple hydrogen and some helium

    Not quite. The universe begins with a (mostly) homogeneous soup of sub-atomic particles that are far too hot and have far too much energy to be able to form stable atoms, not even simple ones like hydrogen – they’d get blasted apart again just as fast as they formed. It takes some expanding and cooling until heat/energy levels drop low enough for electrons to start orbiting protons and form atoms. (Not even protons could exist in the extremely early universe – fundamental quantum particles coming together to form protons, neutrons, and others would have been quite the development just a bit earlier in expansion.)

    Hydrogen and Helium are gases that are able to carry sound.

    And they did. This isn’t just speculation, we can actually see it!

    The sound waves in this very early universe (called baryon acoustic oscillations) went on to develop into the high and low density parts of the universe. They effectively ‘froze’ in place once the gas became too sparse to carry sound waves, and the pressure waves that were left at that moment formed regions of high and low pressure, high and low density. High density areas formed more stars and more galaxies (and attracted more dark matter) than low density areas. The sound waves in the early universe are actually what created the large-scale structure of the universe as we know it today.

    And that’s not just hypothetical speculation. These wave patterns have been detected and have been known for decades. Yes, the early gas-filled universe was very loud – and we can still see that today!

  • myrmidex@belgae.social
    7·
    5 days ago

    Obligatory Karl Pilkington:

    was it a big bang or did it just seem big because there wasn’t anything else to drown it out at the time?

  • slazer2au@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    Think about how high pitched our voices would be at that event, assuming we survive the heat.

  • Michal@programming.dev
    6·
    5 days ago

    If a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound?

    Some argue it does not, since sound is. An interpretation of pressure waves in a particular frequency range.

    I personally believe it’s still sound. Even if it’s not heard, it can be recorded and replayed, therefore any time there are pressure waves within specific range they should be considered sound. If you play music on the radio and nobody is listening, it makes a sound, but if you transmit it only using AM/FM it does not make a sound.

    Having this definition down, yes, it must have been one Hell of a bang, but so what?

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      but so what?

      Maybe how sound waves collided influenced how matter clumped?

      Maybe the soundwaves colliding is one of the many reasons for these:

      • Thorry@feddit.org
        2·
        4 days ago

        I think you have to differentiate between simple pressure waves or even shockwaves and soundwaves.

        Like Michal said, usually something is only defined as sound if there is something to hear/interpret that sound. Otherwise it’s just waves in a medium, like any other kind of wave. What we humans consider sound and what a whale or a dog considers sound is not the same.

        For the most part the beginning of the universe was very hot. Sure there was fluid dynamics going on, but would we consider that loud? Or just very hot?

        As for the reason something essentially random had structure is very interesting, but I don’t think fluid dynamics or soundwaves had anything to do with it.

    • prettybunnys@piefed.socialEnglish
      1·
      4 days ago

      but if you transmit it only using AM/FM it does not make a sound.

      That you can perceive, if something else can … is it then sound?

      • Michal@programming.dev
        1·
        4 days ago

        Depends how you define sound, i just wouldn’t count electromagnetic waves as sound, only pressure waves.

    • Sunflier@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Well, from what I understand, the protons clumped from the subattomic particles, but the electrons all just swarmed around unbound until the Universe cooled and the electrons bound to the protons. But, maybe PBS Spacetime or StarTalk can explain it better.

        • Haquer@lemmy.today
          3·
          3 days ago

          From the subatomic soup of particles.

          Where did that come from? If you can answer that, I think there’d be a prize in it.

          (It was not from a man in a bedshirt and sandals)

          • dyslexicdainbroner@lemmy.world
            1·
            3 days ago

            Where did that come from? Is the question indeed

            However labeling or criticizing just how anybody is looking for the answer, is just wrong and usually insulting, even to scientists.

            • 0xDREADBEEF@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              3·
              1 day ago

              Science is about answering the unknown and making it known. We know it wasn’t a guy in sandals so far and have yet to see evidence of a god in space so far, at least the one that puts cancer in children to teach them a lesson on life and demands you to read a book made by King James.