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The Beginning of The Universe: Halley's Comet

The document discusses the Big Bang theory of the origin and evolution of the universe. It provides evidence that supports this theory, including: 1) Observational evidence shows the universe is expanding and very distant galaxies are moving away from us. 2) The cosmic microwave background radiation provides thermal evidence of the hot, dense conditions early in the universe. 3) Abundances of light elements like hydrogen and helium match predictions of nuclear fusion in the early universe. The Big Bang theory is widely accepted as it best explains observations of the structure, composition and evolution of the universe over billions of years.

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50 views3 pages

The Beginning of The Universe: Halley's Comet

The document discusses the Big Bang theory of the origin and evolution of the universe. It provides evidence that supports this theory, including: 1) Observational evidence shows the universe is expanding and very distant galaxies are moving away from us. 2) The cosmic microwave background radiation provides thermal evidence of the hot, dense conditions early in the universe. 3) Abundances of light elements like hydrogen and helium match predictions of nuclear fusion in the early universe. The Big Bang theory is widely accepted as it best explains observations of the structure, composition and evolution of the universe over billions of years.

Uploaded by

dfrostuba
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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THE BEGINNING OF

THE UNIVERSE
Universe is the name that we use to
describe the collection of all the things that
exist in space. It is made of billions of stars
and planets and enormous clouds of gas
separated by a gigantic empty space which
is called the universe.

Astronomers can use telescopes to look at very


distant galaxies. This is how they see what the
universe looked like a long time ago. This is
because the light from distant parts of the universe
takes a very long time to reach us. From these
observations, it seems the physical laws and
constants of the universe have not changed.

Further observational improvements led to the


realization that our Solar System is located in the
Milky Way galaxy, which is one of many galaxies in
the Universe. It is assumed that galaxies are
distributed uniformly and the same in all directions,
meaning that the Universe has neither an edge nor
a center.

Discoveries in the early 20th century have


suggested that the Universe had a beginning and
that it is expanding at an increasing rate. Roughly
eighty percent of mass in the Universe appears to Halley's Comet Halley, officially designated
exist in an unknown form called dark matter which 1P/Halley is a short-period comet visible from Earth
cannot be directly observed. every 74–79 years.

Many people in history had ideas to explain the universe. Most early models had the Earth at the center of
the Universe. Some ancient Greeks thought that the Universe has infinite space and has existed forever.
They thought it had a set of spheres which corresponded to the fixed stars, the Sun and various planets. The
spheres circled about a spherical but unmoving Earth.

Our universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in a massive expansion that blew space up like a
gigantic balloon. That, in a nutshell, is the Big Bang theory, which virtually all cosmologists and theoretical
physicists endorse. The evidence supporting the idea is extensive and convincing. We know, for example,
that the universe is still expanding even now, at an ever-accelerating rate.

Scientists have also discovered a predicted thermal imprint of the Big Bang, the universe-pervading cosmic
microwave background radiation. And we don't see any objects obviously older than 13.7 billion years,
suggesting that our universe came into being around that time.
As a whole, the universe is growing and the Other observations that support the Big Bang
temperature is falling as time passes. Cosmology is theory are the amounts of chemical elements in the
the study of how the universe began and its universe. Amounts of very light elements, such as
development. Scientists who study cosmology hydrogen, helium, and lithium seem to agree with
agree that the Big Bang theory matches what they the theory of the Big Bang.
have observed so far.
Scientists also have found "cosmic microwaves
Fred Hoyle called the theory the "Big Bang" on his background radiation". This radiation is known as
radio show. He did not believe the Big Bang was radio waves, and they are everywhere in the
correct. Scientists who did not agree with him universe. This radiation is now very weak and cold,
thought the name was funny and decided to use it. but a long time ago it was very strong and very hot.

Chronology and the Big Bang It could be said that time had no meaning before
the Big Bang. If the Big Bang was the beginning of
Scientists base the Big Bang theory on many time, then there was no universe before the Big
different observations. The most important is the Bang, since there could not be any "before" if there
redshift of very far away galaxies. was no time! Other ideas state that the Big Bang
was not the beginning of time 13.8 billion years
Redshift is the Doppler effect occurring in light. ago.
When an object moves away from Earth, its color
rays look more similar to the color red than they
actually are, because the movement stretches the
wavelength of light given off by the object.

Scientists use the word "red hot" to describe this


stretched light wave because red is the longest
wavelength on the visible spectrum. The more
redshift there is, the faster the object is moving
away. By measuring the redshift, scientists proved
that the universe is expanding, and they can work
out how fast the object is moving away from the
Earth.

With very exact observation and measurements,


scientists believe that the universe was a singularity
approximately 13.8 billion years ago. Because most
things become colder as they expand, scientists
Dark Matter is a hypothetical type of matter
assume that the universe was very small and very
distinct from baryonic matter (ordinary matter such
hot when it started.
as protons and neutrons), neutrinos and dark
energy.
At that point, they believe, the universe underwent
an extremely brief and dramatic period of inflation,
expanding faster than the speed of light. Soon, Features of the model
scientists may know for sure which theory — The Big Bang theory depends on two major
inflation or the cyclic model — is a better repre- assumptions: the universality of physical laws and
sentation of reality. the cosmological principle. The cosmological
principle states that on large scales the universe is
For example, inflation likely would produce much homogeneous and isotropic.
stronger gravitational waves than an ekpyrotic
"bounce," Filippenko said. So researchers are These ideas were initially taken as postulates, but
looking for any signs of these theoretical today there are efforts to test each of them. For
distortions of space time, which have yet to be example, the first assumption has been tested by
observed. observations showing that largest possible
The European Space Agency's Planck satellite, deviation of the fine structure constant over much
which launched in 2009. of the age of the universe is of order 10−5.
Earth and Moon The history of Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the
present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to the understanding of the main
events of Earth's past.

If the large-scale universe appears isotropic as been observed in terrestrial laboratory experiments
viewed from Earth, the cosmological principle can or incorporated into the Standard Model of particle
be derived from the simpler Copernican principle, physics.
which states that there is no preferred (or special)
observer or vantage point.

To this end, the cosmological principle has been


confirmed to a level of 10−5 via observations of
the CMB. The universe has been measured to be
homogeneous on the largest scales at the 10%
level.

Observational evidence

The earliest and most direct observational evidence


of the validity of the theory are the expansion of
the universe according to Hubble's law (as
indicated by the redshifts of galaxies), discovery Timeline of the metric expansion of apace where
and measurement of the cosmic microwave space is represented at each time by the circular
background and the relative abun-dances of light sections. On the left, the dramatic expansion occurs
elements produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis. in the inflationary epoch; and at the center, the
expansion accelerates.
More recent evidence includes observations of
galaxy formation and evolution, and the distri- Precise modern models of the Big Bang appeal to
bution of large scale cosmic structures, These are various exotic physical phenomena that have not
sometimes called the "four pillars" of the Big Bang been observed in terrestrial laboratory experi-
theory. ments or incorporated into the Standard Model of
particle physics.
Precise modern models of the Big Bang appeal to Of these features, dark matter is currently subjected
various exotic physical phenomena that have not to the most active laboratory investigations.

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