In broad strokes, then, the big bang’s instructions for creating a universe like ours require that we gather a gargantuan amount of mass and compress it to a fantastically small size. But having achieved that, however improbable, we would face another challenge. How do we ignite the bang? It’s an obstacle that becomes only more daunting when we recall that the big bang is not an explosion that takes place within a static region of space; the big bang propels the expansion of space itself.
