Big Bang Theory: Explanation of the Universe

The big bang theory is the most popular explanation of how our universe came to be. “according to the standard theory our universe sprang into existence as ‘singularity’ around 13.7 billion years ago” - (insert citation). A singularity is a space believed to be in the core of a black hole. A Black hole's pressure at its core is estimated to be so powerful that matter is smashed to an infinite density. After this singularity's first appearance also known as “the big bang” expanded and cooled down, starting from miniscule and almost 10 billion degrees Fahrenheit, to our current amplitude and temperature.

Next, “the cosmos contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons, and protons. These decayed and combined as the universe got cooler” - (insert citation). The “bang” most likely would have been impossible to view, due to the fact light cannot travel inside of it. “the free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way sunlight scatters from water droplets in clouds” - (insert citation). Although after a while the free electrons came together with other matter and created “neutral atoms”. What this did was, 380,000 years after the big bang light was finally able to shine.

Also, light finally able to shine referred to as the “after glow” of the big bang – is properly known as the cosmic microwave background. Ralph Alpher and other scientist were the first to predict this in 1948 but was found by mistake 20 years later by Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, and Robert Dicke. The CMB has been observed a multitude of times on a multitude of missions. One of the most prestigious missions was NASA’s cosmic background explorer satellite, mapping skies in the 1990’s. “several other missions have followed in COBE’s footsteps, such as the BOOMERanG experiment (balloon observations of millimetric extragalactic radiation and geophysics), NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite” - (insert citation).

NASA’s second mission was WMAP, compared to COBE, WMAP had a much greater resolution, WMAP surveyed the whole sky. It measured temperatures anywhere from tiny to huge differences of microwave radiation. This radiation is almost spread perfectly throughout the universe. By putting together information from the universe with theoretical models, scientist can predict that its “flat”, on cosmological scales that is. “the geometry of space satisfies the rules of Euclidean geometry (e.g., parallel lines never meet, the ratio of the circle circumference to diameter is pi, etc.” - (insert citation).

A Substantial issue that came to eye when the data of COBE and WMAP arose was the universe was to uniform throughout. If the mathematical theory is true and the universe was exposed to a massive burst of expansion directly after the big bang, this large burst of energy being named inflation, there would have to be an unstable form of energy within the big bang. The nature of this energy from is not yet known. All this does is leave an amplitude of questions for what could have possibly energized the inflation, which is one of the most troubling parts about the Big Bang Theory. “Still many missions are still in the development by NASA and ESA that will look for gravitational waves from the epoch of inflation” - (insert citation).

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