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The Big Bang Theory

The Big bang theory is about the start of the universe where the theory advancement

happened over a long period and depended on different people's brains. According to the Big

Bang theory, everything started as a boiling, tiny and dense point. The small little end expanded

in the inside quickly, and the first elements, lithium, hydrogen, and helium, were formed. Due to

gravity, the first elements were pulled together to form the stars, and this explains why the big

bang theory is used to explain how everything came to existence – matter, energy, time, and

space. However, while everything was forming, continuous expansion of the point happened, and

it has not stopped since then.

The history of this theory stretches back to 1848 until now, where individuals still do not

know whether the hypothesis is true or if we have all the elements. In 1848, Edgar Allen Poe

documented an essay known as the Eureka; A prose Poem discussing that the universe deals with

periods of expansion and contradictions. Later on, George Lemaitre, in 1927, argued that the

universe is expanding since they are redshifts observations in the spiral nebulae. Redshift is how

the light waves become distorted as the lighted objects become farther and farther away (Trouille

et al., pg. 23). Another individual who tried to explain the universe is; Edwin Hubble, whose

observation is used as evidence. He states that galaxies move away from the earth at a

proportional rate to their distance.

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The universe's expansion and the redshift effectively explain that the universe is

expanding. Light travels from other galaxies to the earth, and as it gets closer to the planet, there

is an increase in the distance between the world and the galaxy resulting to longer light

wavelengths. This is the same as the doppler effect of the sound waves, which occurs with light

waves. For instance, in real life, when an ambulance is approaching, there is an increase in the

siren pitch, and as the ambulance moves away from an individual, the siren pitch declines. This

is explained by how the sound waves either increase or decrease depending on the object

movement emitting the waves relative to the individual hearing them. As the ambulance

approaches an individual, the sound waves get closer, shorter, and together, explaining the higher

pitch. The sound waves get longer and stretch out as the ambulance moves away, presenting the

lower pitch. If everything in the universe is moving apart from everything else, then the light

waves should move further apart and get longer. The longer wavelengths of visible light are red,

and that is why it is called the redshift.

In addition, the redshift of light explains to scientists the speed and direction that the star

is moving. This gives the scientists information that the stars are moving away from earth and

moving away from each other. Edwin Hubble utilized the 100- inch hooker telescope in Southern

California to study the Andromeda galaxy by taking faint galaxies pictures and studying them.

From this, he was able to get the galaxy's velocity and demonstrate that everything is moving

away from everything else, thus explaining expansion (Schultz Pg.190). If that is authentic, then

the scientists concluded that the universe was much smaller than it is now, which was the first

evidence of the big bang theory.

The background radiation is the second evidence of the big bang theory. The cosmic

microwave background is thought to be leftover radiation from the big bang. The theory suggests
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that when the universe started, it experienced a rapid expansion and inflation. Humans cannot see

cosmic microwave radiation with their naked eyes, but it is in all parts of the universe. It is

invisible to man since it is freezing, just 2.725 degrees above absolute zero. This means that the

radiation is only visible in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The universe started 13.8 billion years ago, and the CMB stretches back to about 40,000

years after the big bang. Atoms present at this period were broken quickly into small particles:

the electrons and protons. In addition, the radiation from the CMB in photons which are particles

representing the light quantum and other radiations, were scattered off the electrons. This

explains why the photons wandered through the early universe, similar to the optical light

wanders via the dense fog. Also, after the big bang theory, the universe was cool enough to allow

the formation of hydrogen and the photons to travel in straight lines (Shahbazi et al., Pg.34).

According to the cosmologist, this was the surface of the last scattering when the CMB photons

last hit matter, and after that, the universe was too broad.

In 1948, Ralph Apher, an American cosmologist, predicted the CMB when working with

George Gamow and Robert Herman. The team research focused on the nucleosynthesis of the

big bang, which is the elements produced in the universe beside hydrogen as the lightest isotope.

Nonetheless, the first CMB was identified by Bell Telephone Laboratories; Robert Wilson and

Arno Penzias were building a radio receiver and were shocked by the noise it was collecting.

They later realized that the noise emerged from the sky in uniform. Consequently, the CMB

explains to scientists how the early universe was formed by describing the small fluctuations

visible with the telescopes.

In conclusion, the big bang theory is the earliest to explain the expansion of the universe.

Different researchers such as Edgar, George, and Edwin have tried to explain the universe's
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origin. Although various theories have existed, the big bang theory is the most common since it

has the best model for explaining everything in the universe. The redshift focuses on the

wavelength of the light between the earth and the galaxy. The CMB tries to explain the breaking

down of particles that caused the expansion of the universe. Despite the assumption that the big

bang theory was an explosion, it states that the universe is that balloon that starts small and

outwardly expands at the same speed worldwide.

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Work Cited

Schultz, David. "Andromeda, Galactic Redshift, and the Big Bang Theory." The Andromeda

Galaxy and the Rise of Modern Astronomy. Springer, New York, NY, 2012. 181-205.

Shahbazi-Gahrouei, Daryoush, Mehrdad Gholami, and Samaneh Setayandeh. "A review on

natural background radiation." Advanced biomedical research 2 (2013).

Trouille, Laura E., et al. "Investigating student ideas about cosmology III: Big bang theory,

expansion, age, and history of the universe." Astronomy Education Review 12.1 (2013).