Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the structure and composition of

the Universe;
2. State the different hypotheses that
preceded the Big Bang Theory of the
Origin of the Universe.
3. Explain the red-shift and how it used as
proof of an expanding universe; and
4. Explain the Big Bang Theory and
evidences supporting the theory
Some Important Terms

a. Baryonic matter - "ordinary" matter consisting of

protons, electrons, and neutrons that comprises
atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, and other bodies
b. Dark matter - matter that has gravity but does not
emit light.
c. Dark Energy - a source of anti-gravity; a force that
counteracts gravity and causes the universe to
expand.
d. Protostar- an early stage in the formation of a star
resulting from the gravitational collapse of gases.
e. Thermonuclear reaction - a nuclear fusion
reaction responsible for the energy produced by
stars.

f. Main Sequence Stars - stars that fuse

hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their
cores; outward pressure resulting from nuclear
fusion is balanced by gravitational forces

g. Light years - the distance light can travel in a

year; a unit of length used to measure
astronomical distance
THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
Non-scientific Thought
• Ancient Egyptians believed in many gods
and myths which narrate that the world
arose from an infinite sea at the first rising
of the sun.
• The Kuba people of Central Africa tell the
story of a creator god Mbombo (or Bumba)
who, alone in a dark and water-covered
Earth, felt an intense stomach pain and
then vomited the stars, sun, and moon.
• In India, there is the narrative that gods
sacrificed Purusha, the primal man whose
head, feet, eyes, and mind became the
sky, earth, sun, and moon respectively.
• The monotheistic religions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam claim that a
supreme being created the universe,
including man and other living organisms.
 In the Bible, there was time when the
world did not exist. Only God existed. He
decided to create the world and with that
decision, the world began.
The universe is everything that exists.
All the planets, stars, and galaxies are part
of the universe, and so, is all of space.
Cosmology is the study of universe.
COMPOSITION, STRUCTURE AND AGE OF
THE UNIVERSE

The universe as we currently know it

comprises all space and time, and all matter
& energy in it.
It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter , 24%
cold dark matter , and 71.4% dark energy
Dark matter can explain what may be
holding galaxies together for the reason that
the low total mass is insufficient for gravity
alone to do so while Dark Energy can
explain the observed accelerating expansion
of the universe.
Hydrogen, helium, and lithium are the
three most abundant elements.
• The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP) is a NASA Explorer
mission that launched June 2001 to
make fundamental measurements of
cosmology
Based on recent data, the universe is 13.8
billion years old. The diameter of the
universe is possibly infinite but should be at
least 91 billion light-years (1 light-year =
9.4607 × 1012 km).
Its density is 4.5 x 10-31 g/cm3.
Theories on the Formation of the
Universe

• The Big Bang Theory

• Theories after the Big Bang Theory:
- Steady State Universe
- Oscillatory Universe
- Inflationary Universe
THE BIG BANG THEORY

• The most accepted theory by the scientific

community
• The Universe originated in a very dense
and hot state, has constantly expanded
until now
 THE BIG BANG THEORY

• Name comes from one of it´s main

oppositors
• Main scientist that contributed to it:
Georges Lemaître
• Universe was concentrated at a Singularity
• Before it´s creation, space and time didn´t
existed, so they are relative to it
• Universe expanded tremendously fast and
it´s temperature increased
The Big Bang Model rests on two theoretical
pillars:
• General Relativity - proposed by Albert
Einstein, explains the peculiarities of the orbit
of Mercury and the bending of light by the Sun
and has passed rigorous tests.

• The Cosmological Principle - matter in the

universe is homogeneous and isotropic when
averaged over very large scales. In addition
the cosmic microwave background radiation,
the remnant heat from the Big Bang, has a
temperature which is highly uniform over the
entire sky. This fact strongly supports the
notion that the gas which emitted this radiation
long ago was very uniformly distributed.
Evolution of the Universe according to the
Big Bang Theory

From time zero (13.8 billion years ago) until

10-43 second later, all matter and energy in
the universe existed as a hot, dense, tiny
state. It then underwent extremely rapid,
exponential inflation until 10-32 second later
after which and until 10 seconds from time
zero, conditions allowed the existence of
only quarks, hadrons, and leptons.
Then, Big Bang nucleosynthesis took place
and produced protons, neutrons, atomic
nuclei, and then hydrogen, helium, and
lithium until 20 minutes after time zero when
sufficient cooling did not allow further
nucleosynthesis.
From then on until 380,000 years, the
cooling universe entered a matter-dominated
period when photons decoupled from matter
and light could travel freely as still observed
today in the form of cosmic microwave
background radiation.
As the universe continued to cool down,
matter collected into clouds giving rise to
only stars after 380,000 years and
eventually galaxies would form after 100
million years from time zero during which,
through nucleosynthesis in stars, carbon and
elements heavier than carbon were
produced.
From 9.8 billion years until the present, the
universe became dark-energy dominated
and underwent accelerating expansion. At
about 9.8 billion years after the big bang, the
solar system was formed.
Stars - the building block of galaxies born
out of clouds of gas and dust in galaxies.
Instabilities within the clouds eventually
results into gravitational collapse, rotation,
heating up, and transformation to
a protostar-the core of a future star
as thermonuclear reactions set in.
Stellar interiors are like furnaces where
elements are synthesized or combined/fused
together. Most stars such as the Sun belong
to the so-called “ main sequence stars.” In the
cores of such stars, hydrogen atoms are
fused through thermonuclear reactions to
make helium atoms . Massive main sequence
stars burn up their hydrogen faster than
smaller stars. Stars like our Sun burnup
hydrogen in about 10 billion years.
The remaining dust and gas may end up as
they are or as planets, asteroids, or other
bodies in the accompanying planetary
system.
Evidences supporting Expanding
Universe

1929, Edwin Hubble announced his

significant discovery of the “redshift” and its
interpretation that galaxies are moving away
from each other, hence as evidence for an
expanding universe, just as predicted by
Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
1. Red Shift
• 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).
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 colors
using a prism or diffraction grating. The colors 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.
2. 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.
Cosmic Microwave Background

There is a pervasive cosmic microwave

background (CMB) radiation in the universe.
Its accidental discovery in 1964 by Arno
Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson earned
them the physics Nobel Prize in 1978.
• It can be observed as a strikingly uniform
faint glow in the microwave band coming
from all directions-blackbody radiation with
an average temperature of about 2.7
degrees above absolute zero
Other Theories on the Origin of the Universe

Steady State
Proposed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold,
and Fred Hoyle in 1928, this suggests that there is
neither beginning nor end to the universe, and it
has a constant mean density.
This theory postulates that matter is created
throughout the universe at a rate of about 10-10
nucleon per meter cube per year as a property of
space.
This violates the Law of Conservation of
Matter and Energy.
 OSCILLATING THEORY

• Developed by Paul Steinhardt:

- This theory holds that our
Universe would be the last one of
many originated in the past, after
successive explosions(Big Bang)
and contractions(Big Crunch).

- It is a never ending cycle known

as Oscillating Universe.
 Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) discovered the
galaxies of the universe are moving farther apart.
This means that the universe is getting continually
bigger or getting bigger forever.
Alternatively, the galaxies may come
together, until finally they will collide and explode.
This event is called the “Big Crunch”.
If the Big Crunch occurred, the sky would
grow as hot as the sun. Finally, everything would
vanish into a blackhole.
INFLATIONARY THEORY

• Developed in 1981 by Alan Guth:

- First moments after Big Bang, the
four fundamental forces were joined.
- Then, the forces started to separate,
but it was not until the separation of
both of the nuclear forces when a
enormous liberation of energy was
originated.
Parts of the Big Bang
• Plank era(0-10-43seconds):The beginning of time.
Plank Length and Plank Temperature
• Grand Unification Epoch(10–43- 10–36 seconds):
Gravity and elementary particles
• Inflationary Epoch, 10–36 -10–32 seconds: Cosmic
inflation. Elementary particles are distributed
• Electroweak Epoch, 10–36 - 10–12seconds: Strong
force and exotic particles
• Quark Epoch, from 10–12 seconds to 10–6 seconds:
Quarks, electrons and neutrinos are formed as
universe cools down. Quarks combine each other
• Quark Epoch, from 10–12 seconds to 10–6 seconds:
Quarks, electrons and neutrinos are formed as universe
cools down. Quarks combine each other
• Hadron Epoch, from 10–6 seconds to 1 second: Quarks
form Hadrons. Electrons combine with protons and form
neutrons
• Lepton Epoch, from 1 second to 3 minutes:
Leptons(electrons) and antileptons(positrons) form
electro positrons.

• Nucleosynthesis, from 3 minutes to 20

minutes:Temperature falls so protons and neutrons
combine to form H, He and Li

• Photon Epoch (or Radiation Domination), from 3 minutes

to 240,000 years: Universe filled with plasma. Energy is
dominated by photons
SKETCHBOOK RUBRIC
Category 4 3 2 1
The project's The project's appearance The project's The project's
appearance is is quite professional and appearance is appearance is quite
Appearance of the professional and polished few distractive somewhat poor. Some poor. Many distractive
Project polished without elements. distractive elements. elements.
distractive elements.

The project content is The project content is The project content is The project content
exemplary and good and suggests the fair/poor and suggests poor and suggests the
suggests the student student has discovered the student has not student has not done
Content Facts has discovered the most of the important facts discovered most of the sufficient research.
important ideas of of his/her topic. important facts.
his/her topic.

Drawing is interesting Drawing is interesting and Some parts of the Drawing is

and attractive. attractive. Materials are drawing are interesting, uninteresting, not tidy.
Materials are complete complete and well not try. Some materials Materials are
and organized to organized. Presentation are complete organized. incomplete and not
Style & Organization present the ideas well. has sequence and plan Presentation has some organized. Presentation
evident. sequence and plan has no sequence or
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Project is excellently Good creative effort. Some attempt made to Little attempt to add
presented reflecting Project is neat and shows add color and originality. color or originality.
Creativity & Appearance creativity and a lot of evidence of time spent on Project is neat. Project has sloppy
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Knowledge thorough knowledge of knowledge of the subject knowledge of the subject knowledge of the
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