1. Origin of Universe
Universe…all the space, time, energy and matter that exists
Because things are so far from Earth, and light takes so long to travel to us, when we look in the sky, we look into the past
Most of space is empty … um … space

2. Early thoughts
Steady State Theory: everything is now as it always has been and nothing will ever change…stars, planets, galaxies are the same as they always have been and will never change
The Scientific Theory at turn of last century (1900’s)

3. Early thoughts
Einstein…1916…theory of general relativity redefines gravity and space to space/time
Implies that universe must be moving (not static/unchanging), but doesn’t say expanding or contracting
Lemaitre…1927…says universe should be expanding (observed red shift) and therefore once had a beginning
People ignored Lemaitre in favor of Einstein until…

4. Edwin Hubble, 1929
Noticed that light from stars is shifted towards red end of spectrum
Means they’re
moving away
from us
More it’s shifted,
faster they’re
moving

5. Opposite is blue shift (means it’s moving towards us)

6. Edwin Hubble, 1929
Hubble noticed that most galaxies are moving away from us and the farther they are, the faster they’re moving
If go backwards, means everything was in a small point and exploded and is moving from that point out.
Was called Big Bang to make fun of it and the name stuck!

7. Big Bang Theory
EVERYTHING (space, time, matter, energy) was in one small point (singularity) that “blew up” and is still moving outwards today
Not really an explosion, so much as a very rapid expansion…like blowing up a balloon
About 13.7 billion years ago
Microwave radiation detected in the 1960’s supports this theory. It’s left over energy from the Big Bang

8. Penzias and Wilson In addition to Hubble’s evidence
1960’s discovered microwave radiation all throughout the universe, but couldn’t explain where it came from
Only possible source is it’s left over from Big Bang
Later shown not to be “evenly spread”

9. WMAP…background radiation

11. Other evidence
First elements to form should be simplest….Hydrogen and Helium, and that’s what most of the universe is (>99%)!
Other heavier elements made by stars (fusion up to Iron) and supernovas (other heavier elements)
Called nucleosynthesis

12. Timeline Inflationary period: 10-43 sec after
Rapid expansion, temperature billions of degrees…way too hot even for atoms to exist!
10-43 sec after
seconds
4 forces separate (electromagnetism, gravity,
weak nuclear, strong nuclear)
Rules of physics we know now start to work

13. Timeline 10-35 seconds after 10-1 seconds after 3 minutes after
Protons and neutrons form
10-1 seconds after
Electrons form
.01 sec.
3 minutes after
1st atomic nuclei form Temperature down to 1 billion degrees
300,000 years after
First atoms (H and He)
Light shines for first time (CMBR)

14. What’s next?
Amount of mass will decide what’s going to happen to the universe:
May continue expanding forever
May continue expanding and then stop at some size
May expand to a point and then collapse and explode again
Hard to measure amt. to of mass. We see the effects (gravity) of some matter we can’t see, so we call it dark matter (e.g. WIMPs)

15. What’s next?
Galaxies don’t seem to be slowing down (so Big Crunch is doubtful, or we’re still in a period of expansion)
Open universe: idea that not enough matter to keep it all together, and things keep expanding (like molecules from open jar)
Closed universe: idea that enough mass to pull everything back in to Big Crunch
Flat universe….expands to certain size and stops
Oscillating Universe: Bang, Crunch, Bang, Crunch forever and ever