I've heard where the universe/big bang is like a rubber band constantly expanding & contracting. After a big bang reaches it's limit, it basically looses power and collapses back in on itself till everything is so concentrated in one swall area, another big bang occurs. Which throws the lightest items(lightest atoms) the furthest & the denser ones not so far. A solar system example being that the inner planets like earth have iron cores while the gas giants are hydrogen & helium. My question(causing a brain cramp)is where did the original elements of the very first big bang come from and it the big bang is thowing out all the galaxies, suns, planets, what-have-you forming the Universe. Then what is it expanding out into? If there's "space" in which the Universe can expand then the Universe isn't everything. And if there is an area to expand into, is there anything in it? Sorry my brain hurts, I'm going to bed. Night all...Merry Christmas.
I believe you are just hung up on the terms of acceptance of the scientific community.
The expansion/contraction of this Universe is merely an idea and not actual science.
Its a combination of two separate understandings and while one or the other makes sense, both in repetition does not.
I am an absolute zero thinker.
In the Universe I can contemplate it eventually condenses into a static state. This is dependent on the cosmological decades that are ten-fold from our present condition.
For me, the Universe will freeze solid, eventually.
As to what happens after the "great freeze' is anybody's guess.
The "Big Bang" was initiated by something. You could call it intelligent design or you might think of it as a sudden change of state, something thawed and started moving again.
That movement ripples thru the atoms frozen and a great thaw starts.
However, being that everything in the Universe is frozen solid, that state change then explodes in a reaction that changes everything as it propagates.
The 'frozen' prior Universe is converted to energy and that energy is released allowing a next "Big Bang" to occur and then we have a repeat of the formation of the prior Universe.
The "key' is the change of state.
Since there is no way we can measure the Universe before it exists we don't understand what might cause the change of state that initiates a 'Big Bang'.
The 'Big bang' is a result of the initial change of state but not the reason for the state change.
Then we need to figure out what mechanism caused the initial state change from an Absolute Zero (AZ) condition.
At true absolute Zero, there is a cessation of ALL movement, even at the quantum level.
AZ is the key condition.
The state change is the resultant factor.
The "Big Bang" is the resultant factor.
If all atomic structures are frozen, literally, frozen, a state change from that condition must come from an outside source or is there a condition within matter that promotes an AZ change of state?
No way to know. We can't measure it because in that Universe condition, we too are frozen at AZ.