Nina: Nana, Nana!

Nana: What is it now?

Nina: Something that’s really exciting.

Nana: That’s what you say at the beginning of every conversation.

Nina: No, this time it really is! Have you heard of the Big Bang theory of the universe?

Nana: Who hasn’t? It says that the entire universe started as just a single concentrated point of infinite mass before exploding and expanding into the universe that we know today. George Lemaitre first proposed the theory and Edwin Hubble confirmed it. What of it?

Nina: It’s just that theoretical physicists have a new theory that they are calling as Big Bounce now. They are basically saying that the Big Bang theory mayn’t be the correct version. Big Bounce theory visualizes a cyclical universe in which there is no beginning or end. When the existing universe gets clumpy and runs out of cosmic energy (which is currently visualized as dark matter), it contracts into the concentrated point of mass that is proposed as the origin of the universe by the Big Bang theory before inflating again into a universe similar to what we see today. They expect these cycles of contraction and expansion happens infinitesimally and hence the idea that there is no beginning or end to the universe.

Isn’t this exciting?

Nana: Wait a minute. Isn’t that similar to what we have read in some of the religious texts?

Nina: Indeed, Nana! That’s what makes this new theory all the more interesting. The universe may be infinite after all!

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This post is a part of the #NinaAndNana series I co-host with Kanika G.