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The Doppler Effect
This effect can be heard when a formula 1 car drives past you. As the car approaches
you the sound it produces is higher pitched than when it drives away from you,
where the sound becomes lower in pitch.
When the sound source moves towards you to wavelength decreases and the
frequency of the sound increase (higher pitch).

When the sound source moves away from you the wavelength increases and the
frequency of the sound decrease (lower pitch).

Red Shift
When the light from a galaxy which is moving away from you is observed the
wavelength of the observed light appears longer, it moves towards the red end of the
spectrum. This is called RED SHIFT.

White light can be split up into its component colours using a prism or diffraction
grating. The colours from short wavelength to long are;
SHORT WAVELENGTH

violet

indigo

blue

green

yellow

orange

red

LONG WAVELENGTH

The observed wavelength of the light is longer when objects are moving away from
us. The light is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum, RED SHIFT.

The Big Bang

Red shift supports the big bang theory.
The big bang theory is that the universe began from a very small initial point. The
universe then expanded from that point to give us the universe we see today.
The light from distant galaxies is red shifted (this tells us the galaxies are moving
away from us) and the further away the galaxy the greater the red shift (this tells us
that the more distant the galaxy the faster it is moving).

Cosmic Background Microwave Radiation (CMBR)

A second piece of evidence that supports the big bang theory is cosmic background
microwave radiation. Electromagnetic radiation which was present shortly after the
big bang is now observed as background microwave radiation.

Evidence of the Big Bang

There are two key pieces of evidence for Big Bang theory. These are red
shift and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.
Red shift
You may have noticed that when an ambulance or police car goes past, its
siren is high-pitched as it comes towards you, then becomes low-pitched as it
goes away. This effect, where there is a change in frequency and wavelength, is
called the Doppler effect. It happens with any wave source that moves relative to
an observer.
This happens with light too. Our sun contains helium. We know this
because there are black lines in the spectrum of the light from the sun, where
helium has absorbed light. These lines form the absorption spectrum for helium.

Spectrum of the sun

When we look at the spectrum of a distant star, the absorption spectrum is
there, but the pattern of lines has moved towards the red end of the spectrum,
as you can see below.

Spectrum of a distant star

This is called red shift. It is a change in frequency of the position of the
lines.
Astronomers have found that the further from us a star is the more its light
is red shifted. This tells us that distant galaxies are moving away from us, and
that the further a galaxy is the faster it is moving away. Since we cannot assume
that we have a special place in the universe this is evidence for a generally
expanding universe. It suggests that everything is moving away from everything
else. The Big Bang theory says that this expansion started billions of years ago
with an explosion.
Cosmic Microwave Background radiation
Scientists discovered that there are microwaves coming from every
direction in space. Big Bang theory says this is energy created at the beginning
of the universe, just after the Big Bang, and that has been travelling through
space ever since.
A satellite called COBE has mapped the background microwave radiation
of the universe as we see it. Big Bang theorists are still working on the
interpretation of this evidence.
Interpreting the evidence
A summary of some of the evidence of the Big Bang and its
interpretation
Evidence
The light from
other galaxies is redshifted.

Interpretation
The other galaxies are moving away from us.

The further away

the galaxy, the more its
light is red-shifted.

The most likely explanation is that the whole

universe is expanding. This supports the theory that
the start of the universe could have been from a
single explosion.

Cosmic Microwave
Background

The relatively uniform background radiation

is the remains of energy created just after the Big
Bang.