For Instructional Purposes Only - 1st Semester SY 2020-2021 113

For instructional purposes only • 1st Semester SY 2020-2021 113
In this lesson, we will travel nearly 14 billion years back in time to see how the
Universe emerges from an extremely hot and dense state, a moment which
we call the Big Bang, and evolves into the cold and sparsely populated
Universe of stars and galaxies we see today.
At the end of the lesson, are expected to:

1. Describe the basic observational facts of the structure and evolution
of the Universe.
2. Define the history of the universe after the Big Bang: inflationary
phase, dark matter dominated universe, recombination, and the
formation of cosmic microwave background radiation.
What is the universe like? Was there a beginning to time? How do

we fit into the cosmos?
The universe started its expansion 13.8 billion years ago in an event called
the Big Bang, and it has been expanding ever since.
Now let's take a look at the evolution of the universe from the moment the Big
Bang occurred to the Cosmic Microwave Background, through the Dark Ages,
and to the formation of stars and how galaxies have evolved over time and
continue to evolve.
The Big Bang
If we accept an expanding universe, then it was smaller before. So, we can go

back to the past and conclude that at some finite time in the past, all matter
in the universe was far more concentrated than it is today.
Hubble’s law suggests that it was blown apart in an immense explosion
(Figure 8.28). We call that moment of first expansion (t=0) as the Big Bang.
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114 ScTS 11: Science, Technology and Society
Big Bang
t=0
Figure 8. 28. The Big Bang (Hossenfelder, 2017)
The Big Bang is a moment in time and not a point in space. At that moment,
all of space-time, matter, and energy were squeezed into a point of infinite
density called the Singularity.
When the Big Bang occurs, cosmologists do not know what happens to the
bang in exactly t=0. Still, it does describe the fractions of a seconds later after
the big bang.
However, without any observational proof that supports the Big Bang, the
expanding universe only suggests that it may have started to expand after the
Big Bang.
At the time, the most prominent theory was the steady-state model that
explained the expansion of the universe but unfortunately, this theory was
proven wrong since the theory doesn’t explain a temporal beginning.
With the discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background it adequately suggests
a leftover radiation from the Big Bang that explains a temporal beginning.
Cosmic Microwave Background
a) George Gamow (1948)
In 1948, George Gamow (Figure 8.29) was the first to

support the idea of a “Hot Big Bang.” He suggested that;
“As we go farther back in time, the universe gets not only
smaller but also denser, and therefore hotter. So, the very
early universe was in a very hot dense state and as the
universe expands it cools down allowing matter to form.”
From his calculations, there should be a leftover remnant Figure 8. 29. George
of that initial radiation, and that should it should be Gamow (1904-1968)
(Wikipedia, n.d.)
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detectable throughout the universe unfortunately, no one took him seriously

at the time.
b) Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (1965)
In 1965, Penzias and Wilson (Figure 8.30), two radio astronomers working for
Bell Laboratories, accidentally made one of the greatest discoveries in
cosmology.
Figure 8. 30. Penzias and Wilson (1965) (Ressmeyer, n.d.)
At the time of their discovery, they had no idea that they had discovered the
remnant of the Big Bang known today as the Cosmic Microwave Background
(CMB). It is the needed observational evidence to support the Big Bang.
For their discovery of the CMB, they were awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize even
though they had no idea what they had discovered.
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the farthest and earliest thing
anyone can possibly see. The CMB is like an opaque wall or horizon at the
edge of the observable universe. A map of the Cosmic Microwave
Background (Figure 8.31) of the universe was 380, 000 years old.
Figure 8. 31. Map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (Merali, 2017)
Through this discovery, the Big Bang Theory placed on firm footing in all other
theories to rest.
So now that we know that the universe has a temporal beginning. We can
now know the age of the universe.
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Age of the Universe
How long the universe has been expanding?
Figure 8. 32. Expanding Universe (Vanstone, 2012)
By looking back in time, we can calculate how long the universe has been
expanding since the Big Bang by measuring the expansion rate of the
universe. The expansion time is equivalent to the age of the universe.
Though mathematically it would give us the equation,
1
𝑇=
𝐻0
the expansion time 𝑇 is equal to the ratio of 1 and the Hubble constant 𝐻0 .
Although the equation is very simple, it is not as easy to get the correct value
of 𝐻0 .
So, what exactly is the age of our universe?
The current calculations based on the observations will give the age of the
universe 13.8 billion years.
Therefore, the universe started its expansion 13.8 billion years ago in an event
that we call the Big Bang and still expanding now.
So how do we travel so far back in time? Well, the answer is by seeing into the
past. We can't travel into the past, but we can see into it.
Seeing into the Past
Most of the data astronomers work with light. So what is light?
▪ Light
Light is an electromagnetic wave. In Error! Reference source not found., you c

an see a simplified version of the electromagnetic spectrum. The human eyes
can detect just a small portion called the visible or the optical light. At the
right end, we have the Gamma rays, X-rays, and then the Ultraviolet (UV). At
the left end, we have Radio, etc.
When we detect light, that means we detect electromagnetic radiation. Some
of which we can see with our eyes, and others cannot be seen by our human
eyes. A wave of light from an object must travel through space to reach us.
Therefore, it must take time to reach us.
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Figure 8. 33. Electromagnetic Spectrum (Raghunath, 2019)
So light travels through space at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Since
astronomical distances are large, astronomers use a unit of length called the
Lightyear, the distance that light travels in one year.
Why do we need to understand light? Because the deeper we see in space,
the farther we go back in time.
For instance, the Sun is approximately eight light minutes away from the
Earth. As we go deeper into space, such as Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million
light-years (Figure 8.34). So, that is how we get the information about the past
by seeing deeper into space.
Figure 8. 34. Seeing into the Past
Structure Formation
How does a structure form in our expanding universe? The basic ideas in
explaining how structure evolves are;
a) Gravitational Instability
- Gravity is the only known possibility to bring together

material to form stars, galaxies, and large-scale structures.
- Gravity is the architect of the universe.
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b) Density Fluctuations in the very early Universe
- the map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (Error! R

eference source not found.) has tiny temperature
variations shown by the different colors.
- The slight fluctuations are critical since they provide the
“Seeds” from which all structure in the universe developed.
c) Hierarchical Structure Formation
- small structures collapse and merge to give rise to larger

structures such as Stars, Galaxies, Cluster, Superclusters,
and Void.
Dark Matter
Dark Matter plays a very important role in the evolution of our universe (Figure
8.35), such as;
a) It accounts for 85% of all the matter in the universe.
b) Dark matter filaments form first in the early universe.
c) Provides the “framework” onto which ordinary matter collapses to
form stars and galaxies.
Figure 8. 35. Dark matter (Irving, 2020)
Without dark matter there would not have been sufficient mass in the
universe for structures to collapse and form stars and galaxies
d) Dark matter has not been discovered yet, but there is
overwhelming gravitational evidence to infer its existence.
Cosmic Inflation
Big Bang theory is a very successful and beautiful theory that explains the
broad expansion and evolution of the universe. Still, there are a few
unexplained problems that the standard Big Bang model is not able to
explain. The theory does not explain these two significant problems:
a) Flatness Problem – does not explain why the space-time is so flat.
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b) Smoothness Problem – the heat map of the cosmic horizon has

an explicable smoothness.
Alan Guth (1947- )
In 1980, Alan Guth proposed the idea of cosmic inflation

or inflation theory. The Inflation Theory, offers solutions to
the Big Bang theory problems and several other open
questions in cosmology. During the inflation, the universe
expanded much faster than the speed of light before the
more gradual Big Bang expansion. Inflation also explains
why the universe is full of stars and planets instead of
being completely empty. Figure 8. 36. Alan
Guth (1947 - )
Both flatness and smoothness of the horizon can be (Anonymous, 2014
explained if the universe underwent inflation. The KAVLI PRIZE
inflationary era began a tiny fraction of a seconds after the LAUREATES IN
ASTROPHYSICS,
Big Bang. 2014)
Here is an analogy of how inflation solves the smoothness and flatness
problems (Figure 8.37). Suppose you examined a billiard ball with a
microscope. In that case, you might find imperfections that are as big in
relation to the ball as mountains are on the surface of the Earth. But if you
imagine scaling the ball up to the Earth's size, any given spot on the ball
would appear relatively smooth.
Figure 8. 37. Inflation smoothed out the Universe (Tate, Cosmic Inflation: How It Gave the
Universe the Ultimate Kickstart (Infographic), 2014)
Therefore, the entire observable universe was once a single, tiny area in space
with the same overall temperature. Inflation also caused a massive increase
in scale, diluting space-time’s curvature (solving the flatness problem). In
another tiny fraction of a second, inflation slowed to a more leisurely
expansion that continues to this day and is accelerating.
Although most cosmologists believe in the inflation theory, inflation itself has
not yet been observational and proven. Inflation merely extends and refines
the Big Bang Theory to include a very brief inflationary period of exponential
expansion during the first moments of the universe's existence.
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Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe
Every bit of matter in the universe exerts a gravitational pull on every other bit
of matter. So, this creates a drag that should slow down the expansion of the
universe.
In the late 1990s, two separate teams of astronomers set out to measure the
rate at which the expansion has been slowing down in the past few billion
years. In other words, they wanted to compare the current rate of expansion
with the past rate of expansion. Still, amazingly, both teams came up with the
same shocking and unexpected conclusion. They discovered that the current
rate of expansion is accelerating, not slowing down.
But what could cause such an acceleration? They called it dark energy. Dark
energy propels the accelerated expansion of the universe. Cosmologists
know that it is a property of space itself, which is pushing things apart.
Dark energy is so exciting because we know so little about it, yet it makes up
approximately 70% of our universe.
Remember Einstein’s cosmological constant? He introduced a repulsive force
that was a property of space to maintain a static universe and then called it
his greatest blunder. The cosmological constant is now the leading candidate
for dark energy. Even when Einstein thought he was wrong, he was probably
right.
Timeline of the Universe
Now let’s take a look at the timeline of the universe (Figure 8.38).
Figure 8. 38. Timeline of the evolution of the universe (Tate, The History & Structure of the
Universe (Infographic), 2011)
Universe started to expand, which we call the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago,
when all matter, energy, space, and time were in one point called a
cosmological singularity.
It has been expanding and evolving ever since a tiny fraction of a second
after the Big Bang. The universe underwent a very brief period of extremely
rapid exponential expansion called inflation.
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In the period between inflation and 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the
universe was basically a hot plasma. As the universe expanded and cooled
individual particles were able to combine and form nuclei and, eventually, the
first atoms of hydrogen and helium. This is when the universe becomes
transparent for the first time, and we see this light today as the Cosmic
Microwave Background.
The next period is called the Dark ages. It is called dark since stars had not
yet formed, so there were no star lights. During this period, the universe was
basically an expanding cloud of hydrogen and helium, and gravity was
starting its work of collapsing denser regions.
Around 200 million years after the Big Bang, those denser regions finally
collapse to form the first stars. As gravity continues its work, the first
galaxies start to form
Around 1 billion years, the universe then expands and evolves small
primordial galaxies, merges the second and third-generation stars, and
planetary systems are formed.
Around four and a half billion years ago, the universe's expansion started to
accelerate and be propelled by what we called the dark energy. Today here
we are in our accelerating universe.
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For instructional purposes only • 1st Semester SY 2020-2021 113

At the end of the lesson, are expected to:

What is the universe like? Was there a beginning to time? How do

The Big Bang

If we accept an expanding universe, then it was smaller before. So, we can go

Page 113 of 131

Figure 8. 28. The Big Bang (Hossenfelder, 2017)

Cosmic Microwave Background

a) George Gamow (1948)

In 1948, George Gamow (Figure 8.29) was the first to

Page 114 of 131

detectable throughout the universe unfortunately, no one took him seriously

b) Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (1965)

Figure 8. 30. Penzias and Wilson (1965) (Ressmeyer, n.d.)

Figure 8. 31. Map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (Merali, 2017)

Page 115 of 131

Age of the Universe

How long the universe has been expanding?

Figure 8. 32. Expanding Universe (Vanstone, 2012)

Seeing into the Past

Most of the data astronomers work with light. So what is light?

Light is an electromagnetic wave. In Error! Reference source not found., you c

Page 116 of 131

Figure 8. 33. Electromagnetic Spectrum (Raghunath, 2019)

Figure 8. 34. Seeing into the Past

- Gravity is the only known possibility to bring together

Page 117 of 131

b) Density Fluctuations in the very early Universe

- the map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (Error! R

c) Hierarchical Structure Formation

- small structures collapse and merge to give rise to larger

Figure 8. 35. Dark matter (Irving, 2020)

Page 118 of 131

b) Smoothness Problem – the heat map of the cosmic horizon has

Alan Guth (1947- )

In 1980, Alan Guth proposed the idea of cosmic inflation

Page 119 of 131

Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe

Timeline of the Universe

Page 121 of 131

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