Chris LaRocco and Blair Rothstein
present:
THE BIG BANG:
It sure was BIG!!
The Hubble Telescope's deepest view of the universeteaches us about the beginning
INTRODUCTION
We certainly know that our universe exists,however, this knowledge alone has not satisfied mankind's quest for further understanding. Ourcuriosity has led us to question our place in this universe and furthermore, the place of theuniverse itself. Throughout time we have asked ourselves these questions: How did our universebegin? How old is our universe? How did matter come to exist? Obviously, these are not simplequestions and throughout our brief history on this planet much time and effort has been spentlooking for some clue. Yet, after all this energy has been expended, much of what we know isstill only speculation.We have, however, come a long way from the mystical beginnings of the study of cosmologyand the origins of the universe. Through the understandings of modern science we have beenable to provide firm theories for some of the answers we once called hypotheses. True to thenature of science, a majority of these answers have only led to more intriguing and complexquestions. It seems to be inherent in our search for knowledge that questions will alwayscontinue to exist.Although in this short chapter it will be impossible to tackle all of the questions concerning thecreation of everything we know as reality, an attempt will be made to address certainfundamental questions of our being. It will be important to keep in mind that all of thisinformation is constantly being questioned and reevaluated in order to understand the universemore clearly. For our purposes, through an examination of what is known about the Big Bangitself, the age of the universe, and the synthesis of the first atoms, we believe that we can beginto answer several of these key questions.
THE BIG BANG
One of the most persistently asked questions has been: How was the universe created? Manyonce believed that the universe had no beginning or end and was truly infinite. Through theinception of the Big Bang theory, however,no longer could the universe be considered infinite.
The universe was forced to take on the properties of a finite phenomenon, possessing a historyand a beginning.About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe. Thisexplosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What exisisted prior to this event is completely unknown andis a matter of pure speculation. This occurance was not a conventional explosion but rather anevent filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away fromeach other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike anexplosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumpedtogether, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe.The origin of the Big Bang theory can be credited to Edwin Hubble. Hubble made theobservation that the universe is continuously expanding. He discovered that a galaxys velocity isproportional to its distance. Galaxies that are twice as far from us move twice as fast. Anotherconsequence is that the universe is expanding in every direction. This observation means that ithas taken every galaxy the same amount of time to move from a common starting position to itscurrent position. Just as the Big Bang provided for the foundation of the universe, Hubblesobservations provided for the foundation of the Big Bang theory.Since the Big Bang, the universe has been continuously expanding and, thus, there has beenmore and more distance between clusters of galaxies. This phenomenon of galaxies movingfarther away from each other is known as the red shift. As light from distant galaxies approachearth there is an increase of space between earth and the galaxy, which leads to wavelengthsbeing stretched.In addition to the understanding of the velocity of galaxies emanating from a single point, thereis further evidence for the Big Bang. In 1964, two astronomers, Arno Penzias and RobertWilson, in an attempt to detect microwaves from outer space, inadvertently discovered a noise of extraterrestrial origin. The noise did not seem to emanate from one location but instead, it camefrom all directions at once. It became obvious that what they heard was radiation from thefarthest reaches of the universe which had been left over from the Big Bang. This discovery of the radioactive aftermath of the initial explosion lentmuch credence to the Big Bang theory.Even more recently, NASAs COBE satellite was able todetect cosmic microwaves eminating from the outerreaches of the universe. These microwaves wereremarkably uniform which illustrated the homogenity of the early stages of the universe. However, the satillitealso discovered that as the universe began to cool andwas still expanding, small fluctuations began to existdue to temperature differences. These flucuatuationsverified prior calculations of the possible cooling anddevelopment of the universe just fractions of a secondafter its creation. These fluctuations in the universe
provided a more detailed description of the first moments after the Big Bang. They also helped totell the story of the formation of galaxies which will be discussed in the next chapter.The Big Bang theory provides a viable solution to one of the most pressing questions of all time.It is important to understand, however, that the theory itself is constantly being revised. As moreobservations are made and more research conducted, the Big Bang theory becomes morecomplete and our knowledge of the origins of the universe more substantial.
THE FIRST ATOMS
Now that an attempt has been made to grapple with the theory of the Big Bang, the next logicalquestion to ask would be what happened afterward? In the minuscule fractions of the first secondafter creation what was once a complete vacuum began to evolve into what we now know as theuniverse. In the very beginning there was nothing except for a plasma soup. What is known of these brief moments in time, at the start of our study of cosmology, is largely conjectural.However, science has devised some sketch of what probably happened, based on what is knownabout the universe today.Immediately after the Big Bang, as one might imagine, the universe was tremendously hot as aresult of particles of both matter and antimatter rushing apart in all directions. As it began tocool, at around 10^-43 seconds after creation, there existed an almost equal yet asymmetricalamount of matter and antimatter. As these two materials are created together, they collide anddestroy one another creating pure energy. Fortunately for us, there was an asymmetry in favor of matter. As a direct result of an excess of about one part per billion, the universe was able tomature in a way favorable for matter to persist. As the universe first began to expand, thisdiscrepancy grew larger. The particles which began to dominate were those of matter. They werecreated and they decayed without the accompaniment of an equal creation or decay of anantiparticle.As the universe expanded further, and thus cooled, common particles began to form. Theseparticles are called baryons and include photons, neutrinos, electrons and quarks would becomethe building blocks of matter and life as we know it. During the baryon genesis period there wereno recognizable heavy particles such as protons or neutrons because of the still intense heat. Atthis moment, there was only a quark soup. As the universe began to cool and expand even more,we begin to understand more clearly what exactly happened.After the universe had cooled to about 3000 billion degrees Kelvin, a radical transition beganwhich has been likened to the phase transition of water turning to ice. Composite particles suchas protons and neutrons, called hadrons, became the common state of matter after this transition.Still, no matter more complex could form at these temperatures. Although lighter particles, calledleptons, also existed, they were prohibited from reacting with the hadrons to form more complexstates of matter. These leptons, which include electrons, neutrinos and photons, would soon beable to join their hadron kin in a union that would define present-day common matter.After about one to three minutes had passed since the creation of the universe, protons andneutrons began to react with each other to form deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen. Deuterium,
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