History of the Big Bang Theory

Before the Big Bang, there was no differential between space and time. There was no light and everything ceased to exist. It is believed by most scientists that about 13.7 billion years ago, the universe began. This became known as the Big Bang. An immense amount of energy and force was condensed into a tiny, hot miniscule bubble. In minutes, the universe began to expanded at immense rates in all directions. This is called The Singularity, which is the moment when all time and space began and then expanded rapidly. The universe then started to cool and hydrogen and helium were the first two elements to be created. All others followed.

The Inflation Theory adds on to the Big Bang theory and suggests that there was a time immediately after the Big bang when the universe had an exponentially accelerated growth. At this point it was a vacuum type of energy which developed into the energy of the universe we know today. The Inflation Theory helps to explain some of the mysteries that scientists were debating within the subject of cosmology. Cosmology is the science of the origin and evolution of the universe.

In 1924 astronomer Edwin Hubble documented that galaxies other than ours, existed. In 1929, he discovered that the universe is still expanding outward. He did this by using a Hooker reflecting telescope. Hubble explained information he found about galaxies in the red spectrum and stated that they are moving away from Earth at rapid speeds. The larger the amount of red shift, the faster the speed of the galaxy movement away from Earth. The galaxies that are farthest from Earth are moving the fastest away. Red shift describes the longest wavelengths in the visible light spectrum. Telescopes can take photos to measure and confirm Hubble’s findings about red shifts and the speed at which galaxies are moving away from Earth.

Immediately following the Big Bang, and rapid expansion of the universe, our solar nebula, along with many others, was formed. At first it was filled with gas and dust, and eventually collapsed and formed a flattened disk that was rotating. The center of it was the warmest. When planetesimals began to form and grow, their gravity levels also grew. The larger planetesimals, collected a larger amount of gas and dust from the nebula. Smaller planetesimals struck each other and began to increase in size. Eventually the extra gas and dust disappeared farther into space. This created our solar system.
In 1964, Peter Higgs came up with a theory about a fundamental particle and mass. A fundamental particle is also known as an elementary particle. It’s a particle that is the simplest and most basic form of matter. Higgs theorized that after the Big Bang, the universe cooled and particles changed how they interacted with each other, and began to have varying masses based on that interaction. In 2012, the Higgs boson was discovered as a fundamental particle. This occurs in the Higgs field, which is found throughout the universe.

Dark Energy is the force that opposes gravity. Any matter from galaxies to humans, are made of atoms. Surprisingly this only makes up 4% of our universe. 23% of our universe is made of dark matter. Dark matter is matter that does not emit light but has apparent gravity. The fact that it does not give off light gives it its name, dark matter. The other 73% of the universe is made up of dark energy. This is a substance that scientists know very little about. They believe that it the opposing force of gravity. Current data suggests that far off galaxies are even farther away than theories currently state. Scientists believe that a type of dark energy is propelling galaxies apart. Due to dark energy, the universe is expanding at an increasingly rapid rate.

A Singularity happens within a black hole when matter is squeezed and where time and space discontinue to work as we know them to be. Singularities are still being researched and theorized by scientists. We are constantly making advancements and discoveries in cosmology. One recent discovery in December 2018, is ancient cloud gases that were observed through the most powerful optical telescope in the world, located in Hawaii. The cloud gas seems to be left over from the Big Bang. Scientists believe this to be true because the cloud does not contain elements and matter from exploding stars. A quasar, which produces a large amount of light to help view materials, is how the scientists were able to see this old and clean cloud of gas. It is not easy to see this type of cloud gas, which is why the quasar was an important piece in the discovery.

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