Universe/Talk

The Universe originated in the Big Bang, the expansion of everything that exists from an initial infinitesimally small point . . .

Is the Big Bang considered a fact or a theory? I'd like to see a softening along the lines of "According to science . . ." or "Modern science believes . . ." I mean, if it's called the Big Bang Theory and not the Law of Stellar Origin or something like that, doesn't this mean that scientists aren't completely sure.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to vandalize the page, I'm just asking. Ed Poor

You're not wrong: many scientists don't take the big bang theory that seriously either. It's certainly the most well-accepted model among the many proposed, but there are many other less-popular theories that have not yet been ruled out by the evidence, and some of those have some strong support. --LDC

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The size of the observable universe can be calculated as a sphere with a radius equal to the age of the Universe in light years.

First, "age in light years" doesn't make sense, since light years are a unit of length.

Second, the above sentence is a crass oversimplification, since it doesn't take into account that the universe has been expanding. This expansion "pulls light along" and therefore the radius of the observable universe is larger than 15 billion light years. --AxelBoldt