The Big Bang Theory Explained

The big bang theory is a proposed explanation to the origin of the universe that scientists have come up with over the years. Several postulations and evidences have been provided in an attempt to support the big bang theory. In 2014, a group of scientists announced that they have located gravitational waves which were formed after the big bang. Their analysis of the findings claimed that the probability of the event being random was nearly impossible, below 1 in 2000000. After their facts and discoveries were analysed, it was soon after the discovery discovered however, that some short comings were noticed implying that the search should be restarted (Steinhardt 9). The telescope which detected the waves did so at a single frequency therefore not able to differentiate waves from other places. Further investigation indicated that there were errors and thus future research should be designed in a manner that it be more reliable (10).

Evidence that the universe is expanding

The Redshift

The quest to confirm that the universe is expanding comes from what is referred to as the redshift of light. Light from distant galaxies can reach the earth. When this light nears our planet, the gap between the planet and the far away heavenly bodies widens leading to the increase in the wavelength of the radiation. This concept is analogous to Doppler Effect of sound waves. When a car with a loud music approaches, the pitch of the music seems to increase, and after the vehicle passes by, the pitch decreases. When the car is coming, the wavelength of the waves decreases hence expanding the frequency, and when it passes, the sound waves are further apart making the resultant frequency to reduce and decreasing the pitch proportionately. In like manner, if the galaxies are moving relative to the earth and relative to each other, the light widespread further apart and hence get longer. In the electromagnetic spectrum, the longer wavelength of which include light are red and hence the redshift (“Evidence for the Big Bang” n.p). The redshift provides cosmologists with facts about the speed and direction heavenly bodies are moving. The implication is that the galaxies are not only going away from the earth but also are moving apart from each other.

In the 1920s, a Californian scientist Edwin Hubble used a telescope to observe a particular galaxy, the Andromeda. After taking several pictures and analyzing them, he was able to find the speed of the galaxy and finally determined that all bodies were moved relative and away from each other and hence the expansion of the universe (“Beyond Einstein” 13). If the universe is presently expanding then extrapolating backward, the world was smaller in the earlier years.

Cosmic Background Radiation (CMB)

George Gamow, a Ukrainian physicist, was the first person to reason that if the universe exists, then the heat from the big bang should be there up to the present time. Gamow’s students argued that since the big bang occurred everywhere at the same time, the resulting energy should also be anywhere and hence should exist as CMB. The radiation was released nearly 300000 years after the big bang, before which space was extremely hot in that atoms occurred only as ions, preventing the free flow of the radiation. This energy should be visible currently because after the temperatures fell to below 3000K, the free moving ions were neutralized by a process referred to as recombination, and in effect, the light was once again able to travel freely through the universe. The phenomenon was confirmed by chance in 1965 by Arno Penzias and his mate Robert Wilson who were workers on a telephone company in New Jersey. The external microwave radiation they detected in their aerial appeared to be emanating from all directions and concluded that these waves must be the remnants from the big bang. The streams being the coldest in the natural world are at 3K, and their discovery led to the two men being awarded the Noble Prize (‘Cosmic Background Radiation” n.p).

Later experimentations proved that the intensity of the waves at various frequencies outlines a thermal curve in line with waves that have come into equilibrium with the surrounding, the way it would be expected if they originated from a hot stage. The phenomenon reinforces the Edwin Hubble’s episode that indeed the universe is expanding, having started as a host mass which has been progressively cooling. Therefore the first radiations soon after the big bang have been around, although decreasing in intensity due to the expression. The emission occurs everywhere at all times and even though at just 300 photons per cm3 form 99 percent of all radiation in the universe, the rest is being the light from the stars (Ananthaswamy 11).

As regards the significance of CMB radiation and the big bang, attempts have been made to confirm the relationship. One is the COBE satellite in 1989, and the other is the WMAP in 2001. Both these inquired found with reasonable precision and giving a more elaborate mindset how the universe appeared just after the big bang and was able to predict the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years (Bahcall 1484).

Another significant evidence of the big bang was put forth by a German astronomer Olbers and named it Olbers’ paradox. The scientist wondered why the sky we see at night is black. If indeed the universe is composed of billions of stars, why count the light from these many stars sum up and light the sky? The justification of this observation is based on the fact that many of the heavenly bodies including the stars are very far away from such that their light has not yet reached the earth. The only celestial bodies they are visible from the planet are those that are less than 13.7 years, since the occurrence of the big bang. Therefore the far away objects seen through the telescopes are recently formed bodies or just consists of scattered gases which have not yet recombined into stars (“Cosmic Background Radiation” n.p.

A critical dilemma is why, considering that the universe began as very hot, the hydrogen nuclei did none undergo a complete chemical process to form stable nuclei iron which is the last stage of the fusion process. Here, the sweltering environment after the big bang was short-lived and was only able to make 23% of hydrogen to be converted to helium and minute particles of lithium. Having the two elements in the universe is consistent with the fact that the earliest substance in the universe consists nearly 23% of helium and this proves the postulations that the two gases were the only one to be formed up instantly and in large quantities during the big bang.

Where did the big bang take place?

Einstein and other scientists after him made three essential predictions. One, the universe is expanding following the big bang. Two, space and time can craft into knots known as “black holes” in which time ceases. Three, space consists of a given amount of energy that is creating opposing forces in the universe. Although the predictions have been found to hold, three fundamental questions arise: i) what brought about the big bang? (ii) What are the fate of space, time and the black hole? (iii) What is this energy that is disrupting the universe?

What was the cause of the big bang? In the last ten years, space pictures of radiations which originated from the big bang have been captured by different groups of scientists including NASA’S Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and microwave Anisotropy (MAP). These observations had shown wrangles which were engraved on the universe when it was coming into being. The force of gravity has wrestled with these wrinkles turning them into a mass of planets and galaxies that we observe currently. Einstein theories facilitated the big bang theory but failed to clarify the origin of the forces that led to it. In an attempt to answer this question, the wrinkles as observed by COBE may have come from two fundamental primordial specks: the energy entity that was the cause of the episode and secondly, the gravitons (Hough n.p).

What was the aftermath of the space and time at the periphery of a black hole? The ultimate end of gravity is the dark black holes which came to be at the center of the galaxies where all bodies swirl. Studies in this area by cosmological groups such ESA’s XMM-Newton indicate the presence of gas whizzing around these said black holes as at velocities closer to that of light predicating that time is decelerating and gas falls into the region from which it cannot get away (Beyond Einstein 14).

What Is This Energy That Is Alienating The Universe?

In the 1960s a significant milestone in science was the determination that the universe was expanding that the rate of expansion was increasing with time refuting the earlier belief that the world was static. The scientist called this magical force that is antagonizing gravity “dark energy.” Scientists in formulating the quantum theory of matter came into a consensus that even the so-called “space” was occupied by some particles which were repeatedly creating and destroying themselves. Therefore the cosmologists the to conclude that in reality, a vacuum consists of a peculiar dark energy.

Evidence That the Big Bang Was Hot

100 000 years after the formation of the universe, the temperature lowered in a manner that it would allow for the creation of hydrogen atoms. Ever since radiations were blocked from intermingling with the background gas, they have been moving around freely by continually losing energy as a result of the expansion of the universe. Initially, the temperature of the radiation was nearly 3000k by today it has dropped to 3 degrees Kelvin. Scientists today are capable of observing the universe at its infancy stage on what they refer to as ‘surface of the last scattering.’ Radiation has moved towards the earth and has pushed through a great distance, billions of kilometers (“Cosmic Background Radiation” n.p).

The Curvature of Space

The term space can take several meanings, but in this case, it is used to refer to all probable places that matter can be in the universe.

Therefore it is not possible to get out of space and even understand what it is to get out of it. Hence any property that occupants of space wish to study must be undertaken while still inside, a departure from many common curved surfaces in nature. Currently, the only sure way to conclude that the earth is indeed curved it to observe from a distant position. To do so while in space is a significant challenge (Ryan 8).

The history of curvature of the universe is long whereas the instruments that can be used to measure it are not so old. 1n 1818, Carl Gauss, a German mathematician was refracting on geometry as it relates to the surface of the earth. In the course of his measurement, Gauss discovered that the plane geometry theorems that we know cannot be applicable on a curved surface. To understand this concept, consider this example. Assuming that an ant in the cause of search of food travels to a location to get food. The reach quickly, the ant has to move in a straight line. Assuming that the ant has no sense of “up” or “down,” on the next trip a person digs a hole in its path, the ant would travel to the top bottom of the house and climb to the top, but would not reason the depth however it would realize it takes longer. Therefore the following trip it would have to navigate around the hole in a curve to reach faster. Similarly to connect between two positions in the universe, the direct path may not be the shortest distance (9). The shortest distance between two locations is known as the geodesic and only on a plane do we have the direct path. Measuring distance in space is made more accessible by use of light. Light travels in a straight line through a medium, therefore, when the radiation is bent, it is an indication that it is traversing over curved region referred to as gravitational lensing closer to the earth’s surface space is only slightly curved which explains why the light is less likely to bend. However, lensing can be of high significance in planetary systems (Bahcall 1486).

The Universe Will Expand Indefinitely

NASA scientist in a study concluded that the universe would continue to extend forever. The researchers made use of Hubble’s telescope to capture what is thought to be the energy that shakes the world and an accelerating motion. Since this magical force was brought to attention in 1998, scientists have not defined it except that it cannot be seen ad accounts for 72% of the universes. 25% of this force is believed to be the ‘dark matter’ which exhibits gravitational manifestation (Hough n.p).

Conclusion

The quest to confirm that the universe is expanding comes from what is referred to as the redshift of light. Light from distant galaxies can reach the earth. When this light nears our planet, the gap between the planet and the far away heavenly bodies widens leading to the increase in the wavelength of the radiation. In the electromagnetic spectrum, the longer wavelength of which include light are red and hence the redshiftThe energy that was released many years ago should be visible currently because after the temperatures fell to below 3000K, the free moving ions were neutralized by a process referred to as recombination, and in effect, the light was once again able to travel freely through the universe. The phenomenon was confirmed by chance in 1965 by Arno Penzias and his mate Robert Wilson. The external microwave radiation they detected in their aerial appeared to be emanating from all directions and concluded that these waves must be the remnants from the big bang. In the 1960s a significant milestone in science was the determination that the universe was expanding that the rate of expansion was increasing with time refuting the earlier belief that the world was static. The scientist called this magical force that is antagonizing gravity “dark energy.”

Works Cited

“Evidence for the Big Bang Theory: Background Radiation, Red-Shift and Expansion.” Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/evidence-for-the-big-bang-theory-background-radiation-red-shift-and-expansion.html

Ananthaswamy, Anil. “Cosmic Voids Could Probe Dark Energy.” New Scientist, vol. 221, no.2951, 2014, p. 11.

Bahcall, Neta A., et al. "The Cosmic Triangle: Revealing the State of the Universe." Science, vol.284, no. 5419, 1999, pp. 1481-1488.

Beyond Einstein: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, www.bing.com/crIG=7C09A77F7765441F8C5358EEE1AA6243&CID=218E9C469EA269860AD197089FA4682D&rd=1&h=lxtO5SS0XvpgAql7YIYi-zYToB30E0Ckhr8X7MXVb8I&v=1&r=https%3a%2f%2fpcos.gsfc.nasa.gov%2fdocs%2fBeyond-Einstein.pdf&p=DevEx,5067.1.

Cosmic Background Radiation - The Big Bang and the Big Crunch - The Physics of the Universe, www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_bigbang_background.html.

Hough, Andrew . “The Universe 'will Expand Forever', New Nasa Study on 'Dark Energy' Concludes.” The Telegraph, 2010, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/7955379/The-universe-will-expand-forever-new-Nasa-study-on-dark-energy-concludes.html.

Ryan, Janish. “Cosmic Geometry and the Curvature of Space.” The Universe in The Classroom, 2016, www.astrosociety.org/uitc.

Steinhardt, Paul. "Big Bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble: premature hype over gravitational waves highlights gaping holes in models for the origins and evolution of the universe (World View: A Personal take on Events)." Nature, vol. 510, no. 7503, 2014, pp. 9-10.