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The Big Bang: Origin of The Universe

The Big Bang theory proposes that the universe began as a very small, dense point that expanded rapidly approximately 13.7 billion years ago. The theory is supported by evidence such as the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation and the widespread presence of helium in the early universe. According to the theory, the universe expanded from an initial extremely hot and dense state and after 200 million years the first stars began to form. Precise measurements find the universe is made up of only 4% atoms, with the remainder consisting of dark energy and dark matter.

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Allysa Jennifer Bautista
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77 views2 pages

The Big Bang: Origin of The Universe

The Big Bang theory proposes that the universe began as a very small, dense point that expanded rapidly approximately 13.7 billion years ago. The theory is supported by evidence such as the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation and the widespread presence of helium in the early universe. According to the theory, the universe expanded from an initial extremely hot and dense state and after 200 million years the first stars began to form. Precise measurements find the universe is made up of only 4% atoms, with the remainder consisting of dark energy and dark matter.

Uploaded by

Allysa Jennifer Bautista
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Big Bang: Origin of the Universe

Before the universe as we now know it existed, there was no space or time. The Big Bang and its associated
theories try to explain or describe the moment of change from nothingness and no time to the existence of the
universe filled with space and marked by time. Many physicists describe this event as an explosion, or flash,
hence the name Big Bang. The Big Bang is a process of expansion in our universe that is still active today.
The universe flashed into existence (according to the Big Bang theory) from a very small agglomeration of
matter of extremely high density and temperatures. As a dense, hot globule of gas, containing nothing but
hydrogen and a small amount of helium, it began expanding rapidly outward. There were no stars or planets.
The first stars probably formed when the universe was about 200 million years old. Our Sun was formed 4.5
billion years ago, and through telescopes we can now see stars forming out of compressed pockets of hydrogen
in outer space.
In 1992 instruments aboard the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, launched in 1989, showed that
99.97% of the radiant energy of the universe was released within the first year of the Big Bang event. This
evidence seems to confirm the Big Bang theory. In March 1995 astronomers found more supporting evidence
for the big bang when they concluded that data obtained from the space shuttle's Astro 2 observatory showed
that helium was widespread in the early universe. The Big Bang theory holds that hydrogen and helium were the
first elements created when the universe was formed.
The Steady Sate theory: It states that the counting of the galaxies in our Universe is constant and new galaxies
which are forming continuously are filling the empty spaces which are created by those heavenly bodies which
have crossed the boundary lines of observable Universe.
The Pulsating Theory: In this theory it is assumed that there is continuous expansion and contraction in
universe. A word which can replace the above definition is Pulsating.
Pulsating theory states that it is the possibility that after some passage of time the expansion in the universe may
stop. Then their may be the possibility of contraction. When this contraction will approaches to a particular size.
Again the explosion will take place. As a result of this explosion the expansion of universe will start again.
Hence it results in a pulsating universe in which there is alternate expansion and contraction of universe.
The Age and Composition of the Universe
In one of the most important cosmological discoveries in years, NASA scientists have captured the most precise
image of the universe, shedding light on its origins, age, and providing further evidence for the long-standing
Big Bang and inflation theories. In Feb. 2003, a joint NASAPrinceton University satellite, the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropic Probe (WMAP), produced a high-resolution map that captured the oldest light in the
universe. This ancient light, called the cosmic microwave background, is the cooled remnant of the hot
explosion known as the Big Bang. The cosmic microwave light is a fossil, explained David Wilkinson, after
whom the probe was named, Just as we can study dinosaur bones and reconstruct their lives of millions of
years ago, we can probe this ancient light and reconstruct the universe as it was. (Wilkinson died just before
WMAP's amazing findings were published.)
The age of the universe has now been accurately determinedwith just a 1% margin of erroras 13.7 billion
years old (previous estimates ranged between 820 billion years old). The birth of stars has been pinpointed to
just 200 million years after the Big Bang, a surprise to most scientists (predictions had ranged from 500 million
to 1 billion years after the cosmos formed). The WMAP image also revealed the contents of the universe: only
4% is made up of atoms, or the physical universe as we know it. The remainder is made up of poorly understood
substances: dark energy (73%) and dark matter (23%). These findings are consistent with the Big Bang and
inflation theories, which assert that the universe materialized in a big bang and immediately began cooling
and expanding. I think every astronomer will remember where they were when they heard these results, said
John Bahcall, a Princeton University astrophysicist. I certainly will. This announcement represents a rite of
passage for cosmology from speculation to precision science.

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