What was the name of the universe? The Big Bang and the Origin of the Universe
What is the Universe? If it is capacious, then it is with ummah of all that exists. This is all time, space, matter and energy, formed and expanding for the past 13.8 billion years. No one can say for sure how vast the expanses of our world are and there are no exact predictions of the final yet.
Definition of the Universe
The word "universe" itself comes from the Latin " universum". It was first used by Cicero, and after him it became generally accepted among Roman authors. The concept meant the world and space. At that time, people in these words saw the Earth, all known living beings, the Moon, the Sun, planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) and stars.
Sometimes instead of "Universe" they use " space”, which is translated from Greek as “peace”. In addition, “nature” and “everything” appeared among the terms.
AT modern concept contain everything that exists in the Universe - our system, the Milky Way and other structures. It also includes all types of energy, space-time and physical laws.
One of the main questions that do not come out of human consciousness has always been and is the question: how did the universe come into existence?". Of course, there is no unequivocal answer to this question, and it is unlikely to be received in the near future, however, science is working in this direction and forming a certain theoretical model of the origin of our Universe.
Theories of the origin of the universe
Creationism: God created everything
Among all theories about the origin of the universe, this one appeared the very first. A very good and convenient version, which, perhaps, will always be relevant. By the way, many physicists, despite the fact that science and religion are often presented as opposite concepts, believed in God.
For example, Albert Einstein spoke:
“Every serious natural scientist must be in some way a religious person. Otherwise, he is unable to imagine that the incredibly subtle interdependencies that he observes are not invented by him.
The Big Bang Theory (hot universe model)
Perhaps the most common and most recognized model of the origin of our universe. Answers the question - how did they form? chemical elements and why their prevalence is such as it is now observed.
According to this theory, about 14 billion years ago, there was no space and time, and the entire mass of the universe was concentrated in a tiny point with incredible density - at the singularity. Once, due to the heterogeneity that arose in it, the so-called Big Bang occurred. And since then, the universe has been constantly expanding and cooling.
The Big Bang Theory
The first 10 -43 seconds after the Big Bang is called stage of quantum chaos. The nature of the universe at this stage of existence cannot be described within the framework of physics known to us. There is a disintegration of a continuous single space-time into quanta.
After 10,000 years, the energy of matter gradually exceeds the energy of radiation and their separation occurs. The substance begins to dominate over the radiation, there is relic background.
The Big Bang Theory got a firmer footing after the discovery of the cosmological redshift and the CMB. These two phenomena are the strongest arguments in favor of the correctness of the theory.
Also, the separation of matter with radiation significantly increased the initial inhomogeneities in the distribution of matter, as a result of which they began to form galaxies and supergalaxies. Laws of the Universe came to the form in which we observe them today.
Expanding Universe Model
It is now known for certain that Galaxies and other space objects are moving away from each other, which means that the Universe is expanding.
The model of the expanding Universe describes the very fact of expansion. In the general case, it is not considered when and why the Universe began to expand. Most models are based on the general theory of relativity and its geometric view of the nature of gravity.
Redshift- this is the decrease in radiation frequencies observed for distant sources, which is explained by the distance of sources (galaxies, quasars) from each other. This fact indicates that the universe is expanding.
CMB radiation- it's like the echoes of a big bang. Previously, the Universe was a hot plasma that gradually cooled down. Ever since those distant times, the so-called wandering photons have remained in the Universe, which form the background cosmic radiation. Previously, with more high temperatures Universe, this radiation was much more powerful. Now its spectrum corresponds to the radiation spectrum absolutely solid body with a temperature of only 2.7 Kelvin.
The theory of evolution of large-scale structures
As the data on the cosmic background show, at the moment of separation of radiation from matter The universe was virtually homogeneous, fluctuations of matter were extremely small, and this is a significant problem.
The second problem is the cellular structure of superclusters of galaxies and, at the same time, the spherical structure of smaller clusters. Any theory attempting to explain the origin of the large-scale structure of the universe must necessarily solve these two problems.
The modern theory of the formation of a large-scale structure, as well as individual galaxies, is called " hierarchical theory».
The bottom line is that at first the galaxies were small in size (about Magellanic clouds a), but over time they merge, forming ever larger galaxies.
AT recent times the validity of the theory is called into question.
String theory
This hypothesis to some extent refutes the Big Bang as the initial moment of the emergence of elements of outer space.
According to string theory, The universe has always existed. The hypothesis describes the interaction and structure of matter, where there is a certain set of particles that are divided into quarks, bosons and leptons. talking plain language, these elements are the basis of the universe, since their size is so small that division into other components has become impossible.
A distinctive feature of the theory of how the universe was formed is the statement about the aforementioned particles, which are ultramicroscopic strings that are constantly vibrating. Individually, they do not have a material form, being the energy that together creates all the physical elements of the cosmos.
An example in this situation is fire: looking at it, it seems to be matter, but it is intangible.
Chaotic inflation theory - Andrey Linde's theory
According to this theory, there is scalar field, which is inhomogeneous throughout its volume. That is, in different regions of the universe, the scalar field has different meaning. Then, in areas where the field is weak, nothing happens, while areas with a strong field begin to expand (inflation) due to its energy, thus forming new universes.
Such a scenario implies the existence of many worlds, which have arisen nonsimultaneously and have their own set elementary particles and hence the laws of nature.
Lee Smolin's theory
This theory is well known and suggests that the Big Bang is not the beginning of the existence of the Universe, but only a phase transition between its two states. Since before the Big Bang the Universe existed in the form of a cosmological singularity, close in nature to the singularity of a black hole, Smolin suggests that The universe could have originated from a black hole.
Evolution of the Universe
How did the process of development and evolution of the Universe take place? Over the next billion years, gravity caused denser regions to pull on each other. In this process, gas clouds, stars, galactic structures and other celestial objects were formed.
This period is called Structural Age, since it was in this time period that the modern Universe was born. The visible matter was distributed into various formations (stars into galaxies, and those into clusters and superclusters).
What happened before the universe
It is difficult to imagine a time 13.7 billion years before today, when the entire universe was a singularity. According to big bang theory, one of the main contenders for the role of explaining where the Universe and all matter in space came from - everything was compressed into a point smaller than a subatomic particle. But if it's still acceptable, consider this: What happened before the Big Bang happened?
This question of modern cosmology goes back as far as the fourth century AD. 1600 years ago theologian Augustine the Blessed, as well as one of the best physicists in 20th century Albert Einstein tried to understand nature before the creation of the universe. They came to the conclusion that there was simply no "before".
Various theories are put forward at present.
Theory of the Multiverse
What if our Universe is a descendant of another, older Universe? Some astrophysicists believe that the cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the big bang will help shed light on this story.
According to this theory, in the first moments of its existence, the universe began to expand extremely rapidly. The theory also explains the temperature and density of fluctuations of the relic radiation and suggests that these fluctuations should be the same.
But, as it turned out, no. Latest Research made it clear that the universe is actually one-sided, with more fluctuations in some regions than in others. Some cosmologists believe that this observation confirms that our universe had a "mother" (!)
In the theory of chaotic inflation, this idea gains momentum: the endless progress of inflationary bubbles gives rise to an abundance of universes, and each of them gives rise to even more inflationary bubbles in huge number multiverse.
Theory of white and black holes
However, there are models that try to explain the formation of the singularity before the big bang. If you're thinking about black holes how about giant garbage cans, they are prime candidates for initial contraction, so our expanding universe could very well be white hole- the outlet of a black hole, and each black hole in our universe can contain a separate universe.
big jump
Other scientists believe that the formation of the singularity is based on a cycle called " big jump”, in which the expanding universe eventually collapses into itself, giving rise to another singularity, which, again, gives rise to another big bang.
This process will be eternal, and all singularities and all collapses will not represent anything other than a transition to another phase of the existence of the Universe.
Theory of the cyclic universe
The last explanation we'll look at uses the idea of a cyclic universe generated by string theory. It suggests that new matter and energy flows emerge every trillion years when two membranes or branes that lie beyond our dimensions collide.
What happened before the Big Bang? The question remains open. Maybe nothing. Maybe a different universe, or a different version of ours. Maybe an ocean of Universes, each of which has its own set of laws and constants that dictate the nature of physical reality.
Problems of Modern Models of the Birth and Evolution of the Universe
Many theories about the universe have recently faced problems, both theoretical and, more importantly, observational in nature:
- Question about the shape of the universe is an important open question in cosmology. Speaking mathematically, we are faced with the problem of finding a three-dimensional spatial section of the Universe, that is, such a figure that best represents the spatial aspect of the Universe.
- unknown whether the universe is globally spatially flat, that is, whether the laws apply Euclidean geometry on the largest scale.
- It is also not known whether the universe is singly connected or multiply connected. According to the standard expansion model, the universe has no spatial boundaries, but may be spatially finite.
- There are suggestions that The universe was originally born rotating. The classical concept of origin is the idea of the isotropy of the Big Bang, that is, the distribution of energy equally in all directions. However, a competing hypothesis about the presence of an initial moment of rotation of the Universe appeared and received some confirmation.
Universe is the whole world around us. These are other planets and stars, our planet Earth, its plants and animals, you and me - all this is the Universe, including what is outside the Earth - outer space, planets, stars. This is matter without end and edge, taking on the most diverse forms of its existence.
Universe is everything that exists. From the smallest dust particles and atoms to huge accumulations of matter star worlds and star systems. The universe, or cosmos, is made up of giant clusters of stars.
Where did all this come from?
There are several theories, the most popular of which is the big bang theory.
70 years ago, American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that galaxies are located in the red part of the color spectrum. This, according to the "Doppler effect", meant that they were moving away from each other. Moreover, the light from more distant galaxies is “redder” than the light from closer ones, which indicated a lower speed of the distant ones. The picture of the expansion of huge masses of matter strikingly resembled the picture of an explosion. Then the Big Bang theory was proposed.
According to calculations, this happened about 13.7 billion years ago. By the time of the explosion, the Universe was a "point" 10-33 centimeters in size. The length of the current Universe is estimated by astronomers at 156 billion light years (for comparison: a “point” is so many times smaller than a proton - the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, how many times the proton itself is smaller than the Moon).
The substance at the “point” was extremely hot, which means that a lot of light quanta appeared during the explosion. Of course, everything cools down over time, and the quanta scatter over the emerging space, but the echoes of the Big Bang should have survived to this day.
The first confirmation of the fact of the explosion came in 1964, when American radio astronomers R. Wilson and A. Penzias discovered a relic electromagnetic radiation with a temperature of about 3° Kelvin (-270° C). This discovery, unexpected for scientists, was regarded in favor of the Big Bang.
So, from the superhot cloud of subatomic particles gradually expanding in all directions, atoms, substances, planets, stars, galaxies began to gradually form, and finally life appeared. The universe is still expanding, and it is not known how long this will continue. Perhaps someday she will reach her limit.
The Big Bang theory made it possible to answer many questions that confronted cosmology, but, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it also raised a number of new ones. In particular: what happened before the Big Bang? What caused the universe to start heating up to an unimaginable temperature of over 1032 degrees K? Why is the Universe surprisingly homogeneous, while in any explosion the matter scatters in different directions extremely unevenly?
But the main mystery is, of course, the “phenomenon”. It is not known where it came from, how it was formed. In popular science publications, the topic of "phenomenon" is usually omitted altogether, and in specialized scientific publications they write about it as something unacceptable with scientific point vision. Stephen Hawking, a world-famous scientist, professor at the University of Cambridge, and J. F. R. Ellis, professor of mathematics at the University of Cape Town, in their book “The Long Scale of Space-Time Structure” say so directly: “The results we have achieved support the concept that The universe originated a finite number of years ago. However, the starting point of the theory of the emergence of the universe as a result of the Big Bang - the so-called "phenomenon" - is beyond the known laws of physics.
At the same time, it should be taken into account that the problem of the “phenomenon” is only a part of a much larger problem, the problem of the very source of the initial state of the Universe. In other words: if the Universe was originally compressed into a point, then what brought it to this state?
In an attempt to circumvent the "phenomenon" problem, some scientists propose other hypotheses. One of them is the theory of the “pulsating Universe”. According to her, the Universe is infinitely over and over again either shrinking to a point or expanding to some boundaries. Such a universe has neither beginning nor end, there are only expansion-contraction cycles. At the same time, the authors of the hypothesis argue that the Universe has always existed, thereby seemingly removing the question of the “beginning of the world”.
But the fact is that no one has yet provided a satisfactory explanation of the mechanism of pulsation. Why is it happening? What are the causes? Nobel Laureate, physicist Steven Weinberg in his book "The First Three Minutes" indicates that with each next pulsation in the Universe, the ratio of the number of photons to the number of nucleons must inevitably increase, which leads to the extinction of new pulsations. Weinberg concludes that, therefore, the number of pulsation cycles of the Universe is finite, which means that they must stop at some point. Consequently, the "pulsating Universe" has an end, and therefore, has a beginning.
Another theory of the origin of the Universe is the theory of “white holes”, or quasars, which “spit out” entire galaxies from themselves.
The theory of "spatio-temporal tunnels" or "space channels" is also curious. The idea of them was first expressed in 1962 by the American theoretical physicist John Wheeler in the book Geometrodynamics, in which the researcher formulated the possibility of extra-spatial, extraordinarily fast intergalactic travel. Some versions of the concept of "space channels" consider the possibility of using them to travel to the past and future, as well as to other universes and dimensions.
Stanford physicist Andrei Linde asks questions that the Big Bang theory cannot answer. Some of them were voiced in a 2007 Stanford Alumni magazine article: “What Exactly Exploded? Why did it explode at this particular moment and everywhere at once? What existed before the Big Bang?
From Linde's point of view, the Big Bang was not a single event, but rather a disorderly and dispersed inflation. He developed his chaotic theory of inflation in the 1980s: Big Bang-like expansions could happen anywhere in space, given enough potential energy.
“We assumed that the entire universe was created at one moment,” says Linde. - But actually it is not".
CMB research in the 1990s showed varying intensities, providing some evidence to support the chaotic theory of inflation.
Linde believes that when viewed from a very broad perspective, the cosmos does not fit into the framework created by science: “Instead of a universe where there is one law of physics, eternal chaotic inflation creates a picture of a self-perpetuating and eternal multiverse where everything is possible,” says Linde. - Parallel lines can intersect for very far distance. The laws of physics can change... We just can't see when it happens. We are like ants inside a huge ball.”
Other theories about the origin of the universe:
Ekpyrotic theory
Adherents of this theory believe that there is a universe parallel to ours, which from time to time collides with a "sister". The energy of the collision leads to huge perturbations of space, as a result of which particles appear, which then form gaseous nebulae, galaxies, stars and other cosmic bodies.
After the collision, the universes scatter, but the further they scatter, the stronger they begin to attract each other (and why not?). Gradually, they begin to approach again, and by that time there are no stars and other objects in both Universes, everything is evenly distributed according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The universes collide again, and again the energy of the collision leads to particles, and so on, it's an endless cycle.
white holes
We have all heard about the existence of black holes. In general, at the moment, their existence can only be guessed from the perturbation of gravitational fields / deflection of light. But scientists are already talking about the existence of white holes. After all, if matter is absorbed by a black hole, it must be ejected somewhere, right?
And in theory, points where matter is emitted rather than absorbed do exist. So far, they have not been detected, but adherents of this theory do not leave hope for the discovery of a white hole in the near future.
Generally speaking, the existence of white holes, if they are actually discovered, violates several fundamental laws of physics at once. And if a really white hole is discovered, then the foundation of current science will have to be patched up, and very thoroughly (for the umpteenth time, by the way).
The universe is the creation of a black hole
A very interesting theory, according to which black holes, throwing matter out of nowhere, in fact, create new universes that appear even faster than mushrooms after rain. Each particle absorbed by a black hole can be the beginning of a new universe, after the particle, endowed with enormous energy, explodes. It will be a Big Bang, and there are a lot of such explosions.
Each generated Universe, in turn, generates new black holes, and those - new Universes. In general, the head is spinning, it is very difficult to imagine all this endless whirlwind.
Quantum theory of the worlds
This theory is often used by science fiction writers in their works. Its essence is in the constant branching of variations. For example, now you decide whether to go to the store or turn on the TV. In one invariance you go to the store, in the other you turn on the TV. We already have two Universes, which differ very little from each other, but the farther, the stronger the differences.
And in general - variations "branch" depending on many factors, including the behavior of atoms that move in different directions, and so on. As a result, billions of billions of new invariances appear every moment, and the farther they are from each other, the more these Universes differ.
Figuratively, this can be imagined as a fan, each blade of which is infinitely divided, and each of the subsequent parts is divided again, and so on ...
The starry sky has long excited the human imagination. Our distant ancestors tried to understand what kind of strange twinkling dots hang over their heads. How many of them, where did they come from, do they affect earthly events? Since ancient times, man has tried to comprehend how the Universe in which he lives works.
About how ancient people imagined the Universe, today we can only learn from fairy tales and legends that have come down to us. It took centuries and millennia for the emergence and strengthening of the science of the Universe, studying its properties and stages of development - cosmology. The cornerstones of this discipline are astronomy, mathematics and physics.
Today we understand the structure of the Universe much better, but each knowledge gained only gives rise to new questions. The study of atomic particles in the collider, the observation of life in wild nature, the landing of an interplanetary probe on an asteroid can also be called the study of the Universe, because these objects are part of it. Man is also a part of our beautiful stellar Universe. By studying the solar system or distant galaxies, we learn more about ourselves.
Cosmology and objects of its study
The very concept of the Universe does not have a clear definition in astronomy. In different historical periods and among different peoples, it had a number of synonyms, such as "cosmos", "world", "universe", "universe" or "celestial sphere". Often, when speaking about the processes occurring in the depths of the Universe, the term "macrocosm" is used, the opposite of which is the "microcosm" of the world of atoms and elementary particles.
On the difficult path of knowledge, cosmology often intersects with philosophy and even theology, and there is nothing surprising in this. The science of the structure of the Universe is trying to explain when and how the universe arose, to unravel the mystery of the origin of matter, to understand the place of the Earth and humanity in the infinity of space.
Modern cosmology has two major problems. Firstly, the object of its study - the Universe - is unique, which makes it impossible to apply statistical schemes and methods. In short, we do not know about the existence of other Universes, their properties, structure, so we cannot compare. Secondly, the duration of astronomical processes does not make it possible to conduct direct observations.
Cosmology proceeds from the postulate that the properties and structure of the Universe are the same for any observer, with the exception of rare cosmic phenomena. This means that the matter in the universe is distributed uniformly, and it has the same properties in all directions. From this it follows that the physical laws operating in a part of the Universe can be extrapolated to the entire Metagalaxy.
Theoretical cosmology develops new models, which are then confirmed or refuted by observations. For example, the theory of the origin of the Universe as a result of an explosion was proved.
Age, size and composition
The scale of the universe is amazing: it is much larger than we could have imagined twenty or thirty years ago. Scientists have already discovered about five hundred billion galaxies, and the number is constantly increasing. Each of them rotates around its own axis and moves away from the others at great speed due to the expansion of the universe.
Quasar 3C 345 is one of the brightest objects in the Universe, located at a distance of five billion light years from us. The human mind cannot even imagine such distances. It would take a spaceship traveling at the speed of light a thousand years to circle our Milky Way. It would take him 2.5 thousand years to get to the Andromeda galaxy. And it's the closest neighbor.
Speaking about the size of the Universe, we mean its visible part, also called the Metagalaxy. The more observations we get, the further the boundaries of the universe are pushed apart. Moreover, this happens simultaneously in all directions, which proves its spherical shape.
Our world appeared about 13.8 billion years ago as a result of the Big Bang - an event that gave birth to stars, planets, galaxies and other objects. This figure is the real age of the universe.
Based on the speed of light, it can be assumed that its size is also 13.8 billion light years. However, in fact, they are larger, because since the moment of birth, the Universe has been continuously expanding. Part of it is moving at superluminal speed, due to which a significant number of objects in the Universe will remain invisible forever. This limit is called the Hubble sphere or horizon.
The diameter of the Metagalaxy is 93 billion light years. We don't know what's beyond known universe. Perhaps there are more distant objects that are inaccessible today for astronomical observations. A significant part of scientists believe in the infinity of the universe.
The age of the universe has been repeatedly tested using various techniques and scientific instruments. Last time confirmed by the Planck space telescope. The available data are fully consistent with modern models of the expansion of the Universe.
What is the universe made of? Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe (75%), followed by helium (23%), the remaining elements account for a mere 2% of the total amount of matter. The average density is 10-29 g/cm3, a significant part of which falls on the so-called dark energy and matter. The ominous names do not speak of their inferiority, just dark matter, unlike ordinary, does not interact with electromagnetic radiation. Accordingly, we cannot observe it and draw our conclusions only on indirect grounds.
Based on the above density, the mass of the universe is approximately 6*1051 kg. It should be understood that this figure does not include the dark mass.
The structure of the universe: from atoms to galactic clusters
Space is not just a huge void in which stars, planets and galaxies are evenly scattered. The structure of the Universe is quite complex and has several levels of organization, which we can classify according to the scale of objects:
- Astronomical bodies in the universe are usually grouped into systems. Stars often form pairs or are part of clusters that contain dozens or even hundreds of stars. In this respect, our Sun is rather atypical, since it does not have a "double";
- Galaxies are the next level of organization. They can be spiral, elliptical, lenticular, irregular. Scientists do not yet fully understand why galaxies have different form. At this level, we discover such wonders of the universe as black holes, dark matter, interstellar gas, binary stars. In addition to stars, they include dust, gas, and electromagnetic radiation. Several hundred billion galaxies have been discovered in the known universe. They often run into each other. It's not like a car accident: the stars just mix and change their orbits. Such processes take millions of years and lead to the formation of new star clusters;
- Several galaxies form the Local Group. In addition to the Milky Way, ours includes the Triangulum Nebula, the Andromeda Nebula and 31 more systems. Clusters of galaxies are the largest known stable structures in the universe, held together by the gravitational force and some other factor. Scientists have calculated that gravity alone is clearly not enough to maintain the stability of these objects. scientific justification this phenomenon does not yet exist;
- The next level of the structure of the Universe are superclusters of galaxies, each of which contains dozens or even hundreds of galaxies and clusters. However, gravity no longer holds them, so they follow the expanding universe;
- The last level of organization of the universe are cells or bubbles, the walls of which form superclusters of galaxies. Between them are empty areas called voids. These structures of the Universe have scales of about 100 Mpc. At this tier, the processes of the expansion of the Universe are most noticeable, and the relic radiation is also associated with it - an echo of the Big Bang.
How did the universe come into being
How did the universe come into existence? What happened before this moment? How did it become that infinite space we know today? Was it an accident or a natural process?
After decades of discussion and furious debate, physicists and astronomers have almost reached a consensus that the universe came into being as a result of an explosion. colossal power. He not only gave rise to all matter in the universe, but also determined the physical laws by which the cosmos known to us exists. This is called the Big Bang theory.
According to this hypothesis, once all matter was in some incomprehensible way collected in one small point with infinite temperature and density. It is called the Singularity. 13.8 billion years ago, the point exploded, forming stars, galaxies, their clusters and other astronomical bodies of the Universe.
Why and how this happened is unclear. Scientists have to bracket out many questions related to the nature of the singularity and its origin: a complete physical theory this stage in the history of the universe does not yet exist. It should be noted that there are other theories of the origin of the Universe, but they have much fewer adherents.
The term "Big Bang" came into use in the late 40s after the publication of the work of the British astronomer Hoyle. Today, this model is thoroughly developed - physicists can confidently describe the processes that took place a fraction of a second after this event. It can also be added that this theory made it possible to determine the exact age of the Universe and describe the main stages of its evolution.
The main evidence for the Big Bang theory is the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation. It was opened in 1965. This phenomenon arose as a result of the recombination of hydrogen atoms. Relic radiation can be called the main source of information about how the Universe was arranged billions of years ago. It is isotropic and uniformly fills the outer space.
Another argument in favor of the objectivity of this model is the very fact of the expansion of the Universe. As a matter of fact, by extrapolating this process into the past, scientists have come to a similar concept.
There are in the Big Bang theory and weak spots. If the universe were formed instantly from one small point, then there should have been a non-uniform distribution of matter, which we do not observe. Also, this model cannot explain where the antimatter got to, the amount of which at the “moment of creation” should not have been inferior to ordinary baryonic matter. However, now the number of antiparticles in the universe is negligible. But the most significant drawback of this theory is its inability to explain the phenomenon of the Big Bang, it is simply perceived as a fait accompli. We don't know what the universe looked like before the singularity.
There are other hypotheses of the origin and further evolution of the universe. The model of a stationary universe has been popular for many years. A number of scientists were of the opinion that, as a result of quantum fluctuations, it arose from a vacuum. Among them was the famous Stephen Hawking. Lee Smolin put forward the theory that ours, like other universes, formed inside black holes.
Attempts have been made to improve existing theory Big bang. For example, there is a hypothesis about the cyclicity of the Universe, according to which the birth from a singularity is nothing more than its transition from one state to another. True, this approach contradicts the second law of thermodynamics.
The evolution of the universe or what happened after the Big Bang
The Big Bang theory allowed scientists to create an accurate model of the evolution of the Universe. And today we know quite well what processes took place in the young Universe. The only exception is the very early stage of creation, which is still the subject of fierce discussion and controversy. Of course, in order to achieve such a result, one theoretical basis was not enough, it took years of exploration of the universe and thousands of experiments on accelerators.
Today, science identifies the following stages after the Big Bang:
- The earliest period known to us is called the Planck era, it occupies a segment from 0 to 10-43 seconds. At this time, all the matter and energy of the universe was collected at one point, and the four main interactions were one;
- The era of the Great Unification (from 10-43 to 10-36 seconds). It is characterized by the appearance of quarks and the separation of the main types of interactions. The main event of this period is the release of gravitational force. In this era, the laws of the universe began to take shape. Today we have the opportunity to detailed description physical processes of this era;
- The third stage of creation is called the Age of Inflation (from 10-36 to 10-32). At this time, the rapid movement of the Universe began at a speed significantly exceeding the speed of light. It becomes larger than the present visible universe. Cooling starts. In this period, the fundamental forces of the universe are finally separated;
- In the period from 10−32 to 10−12 seconds, "exotic" particles of the Higgs boson type appear, the space is filled with quark-gluon plasma. The interval from 10−12 to 10−6 seconds is called the era of quarks, from 10−6 to 1 second - hadrons, at 1 second after the Big Bang the era of leptons begins;
- Phase of nucleosynthesis. It lasted until about the third minute from the start of events. During this period, helium, deuterium, and hydrogen atoms arise from particles in the Universe. Cooling continues, space becomes transparent for photons;
- Three minutes after the Big Bang, the era of Primary Recombination begins. During this period, the relic radiation appeared, which astronomers are still studying;
- The period of 380 thousand - 550 million years is called the Dark Ages. The universe at this time is filled with hydrogen, helium, various types radiation. There were no sources of light in the universe;
- 550 million years after Creation, stars, galaxies and other wonders of the universe appear. The first stars explode, releasing matter to form planetary systems. This period is called the Era of Reionization;
- At the age of 800 million years, the first star systems with planets begin to form in the Universe. The Age of Substance is coming. During this period, our home planet is also formed.
It is believed that the period of interest for cosmology is from 0.01 seconds after the act of creation to the present day. In this time period, primary elements were formed, from which stars, galaxies, solar system. For cosmologists, the era of recombination is considered to be a particularly important period, when the cosmic microwave background radiation arose, with the help of which the study of the known Universe continues.
History of cosmology: ancient period
Man has been thinking about the structure of the world around him since time immemorial. The earliest ideas about the structure and laws of the universe can be found in fairy tales and legends. different peoples peace.
It is believed that regular astronomical observations were first practiced in Mesopotamia. Several developed civilizations successively lived on this territory: the Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians. We can learn about how they imagined the Universe from the many cuneiform tablets found on the site of ancient cities. The first records concerning the movement of celestial bodies date back to the 6th millennium BC.
Of the astronomical phenomena, the Sumerians were most interested in cycles - the change of seasons and the phases of the moon. The future harvest and health of domestic animals depended on them, and, consequently, the survival of the human population. From this, a conclusion was drawn about the influence of celestial bodies on the processes occurring on Earth. Therefore, by studying the Universe, you can predict your future - this is how astrology was born.
The Sumerians invented a pole to determine the height of the Sun, created a solar and lunar calendar, described the main constellations, and discovered some laws of celestial mechanics.
Much attention was paid to the movement of space objects in religious practices. ancient egypt. The inhabitants of the Nile Valley used a geocentric model of the universe, in which the Sun revolved around the Earth. Many ancient Egyptian texts containing astronomical information have come down to us.
The science of the sky has reached significant heights in Ancient China. Here in the III millennium BC. e. the post of court astronomer appeared, and in the XII century BC. e. the first observatories were opened. We mainly know about solar eclipses, comet flybys, meteor showers and other interesting cosmic events of antiquity from Chinese annals and chronicles, which were meticulously kept for centuries.
Astronomy was held in high esteem among the Hellenes. They studied this issue in numerous philosophical schools, each of which, as a rule, had its own system of the Universe. The Greeks were the first to suggest the spherical shape of the Earth and the rotation of the planet around its own axis. The astronomer Hipparchus introduced the concepts of apogee and perigee, orbital eccentricity, developed models of the motion of the Sun and Moon, and calculated the periods of rotation of the planets. A great contribution to the development of astronomy was made by Ptolemy, who can be called the creator of the geocentric model of the solar system.
Great heights in the study of the laws of the universe reached the Mayan civilization. This is confirmed by the results of archaeological excavations. Priests were able to predict solar eclipses, they created a perfect calendar, built numerous observatories. Mayan astronomers observed nearby planets and were able to accurately determine their orbital periods.
Middle Ages and Modern Times
After the collapse of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity, Europe plunged into Dark Ages- the development of the natural sciences, including astronomy, has practically stopped. Europeans drew information about the structure and laws of the Universe from biblical texts, a few astronomers firmly adhered to the geocentric system of Ptolemy, and astrology enjoyed unprecedented popularity. The real study of the universe by scientists began only in the Renaissance.
At the end of the 15th century, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa put forward a bold idea about the universality of the universe and the infinity of the depths of the universe. Already to XVI century it became clear that Ptolemy's views were wrong, and without the adoption of a new paradigm further development science is unthinkable. The Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system, decided to break the old model.
From a modern point of view, his concept was imperfect. In Copernicus, the movement of the planets was provided by the rotation of the celestial spheres to which they were attached. The orbits themselves had a circular shape, and on the border of the world was a sphere with fixed stars. However, by placing the Sun at the center of the system, the Polish scientist undoubtedly made a real revolution. The history of astronomy can be divided into two large parts: the ancient period and the study of the universe from Copernicus to the present day.
In 1608, the Italian scientist Galileo invented the world's first telescope, which gave a huge impetus to the development of observational astronomy. Now scientists could contemplate the depths of the universe. It turned out that the Milky Way consists of billions of stars, the Sun has spots, the Moon has mountains, and satellites revolve around Jupiter. The advent of the telescope caused a real boom in optical observations of the wonders of the universe.
In the middle of the 16th century, the Danish scientist Tycho Brahe was the first to start regular astronomical observations. He proved the cosmic origin of comets, thereby refuting the idea of Copernicus about the celestial spheres. At the beginning of the 17th century, Johannes Kepler unraveled the mysteries of planetary motion by formulating his famous laws. At the same time, the Andromeda and Orion nebulae, the rings of Saturn were discovered, and the first map of the lunar surface was compiled.
In 1687, Isaac Newton formulated the law gravity explaining the interaction of all components of the universe. He let me see hidden meaning Kepler's laws, which, in fact, were derived empirically. The principles discovered by Newton allowed scientists to take a fresh look at the space of the Universe.
The 18th century was a period of rapid development of astronomy, greatly expanding the boundaries of the known universe. In 1785, Kant came up with the brilliant idea that the Milky Way was a huge collection of stars, pulled together by gravity.
At this time, new celestial bodies appeared on the "map of the Universe", telescopes were improved.
In 1785, the English astronomer Herschel, based on the laws of electromagnetism and Newtonian mechanics, tried to create a model of the universe and determine its shape. However, he failed.
In the 19th century, the instruments of scientists became more precise, and photographic astronomy appeared. Spectral analysis, which appeared in the middle of the century, led to a real revolution in observational astronomy - now the topic for research has become chemical composition objects. The asteroid belt was discovered, the speed of light was measured.
Breakthrough era or modern times
The twentieth century was the era of real breakthroughs in astronomy and cosmology. At the beginning of the century, Einstein revealed to the world his theory of relativity, which made a real revolution in our ideas about the universe and allowed us to take a fresh look at the properties of the universe. In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that our universe is expanding. In 1931, Georges Lemaitre put forward the idea of its formation from one tiny point. In fact, this was the beginning of the Big Bang theory. In 1965, the relic radiation was discovered, which confirmed this hypothesis.
In 1957, the first artificial satellite and then the space age began. Now astronomers could not only observe celestial bodies through telescopes, but also to explore them up close with the help of interplanetary stations and descending probes. We were even able to land on the surface of the moon.
The 1990s can be called the “dark matter period”. Her discovery explained the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. At this time, new telescopes were put into operation, allowing us to push the limits of the known universe.
In 2016, gravitational waves were discovered, which is likely to usher in a new branch of astronomy.
Over the past centuries, we have greatly expanded the boundaries of our knowledge of the universe. However, in reality, people just opened the door and looked into the huge and wonderful world, full of secrets and amazing wonders.
If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.
It is difficult to imagine a time 13.7 billion years before today, when the entire universe was a singularity. According to the Big Bang theory, one of the main contenders for the role of explaining where the Universe and all matter in space came from - everything was compressed into a point smaller than a subatomic particle. But if it's still acceptable, think about this: what happened before the Big Bang happened?
This question of modern cosmology goes back as far as the fourth century AD. 1600 years ago, the theologian Augustine the Blessed tried to understand the nature of God before the creation of the universe. And do you know what he came up with? Time was part of God's creation and there was simply no "before".
One of the best physicists of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, came to almost the same conclusions in the development of his theory of relativity. It is enough to pay attention to the influence of mass on time. The giant mass of the planet distorts time, causing it to flow more slowly for a person on the surface than for an astronaut in orbit. The difference is too small to be obvious, but in fact, a person standing near a large stone ages more slowly than one standing in a field. But to become younger by a second, it will take a billion years. The singularity before the big bang had all the mass of the universe, which, in fact, put time to a standstill.
According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time was born exactly at the moment when the singularity began to expand and went beyond the compressed infinity. Decades after Einstein's death, the development quantum physics and a host of new theories have renewed the debate about the nature of the universe before the Big Bang. Let's see.
Branes, cycles and other ideas
“And God spat, left and slammed the door,
We were behind him - and there are no more doors.
A. Nepomniachtchi
What if our Universe is a descendant of another, older Universe? Some astrophysicists believe that a CMB left over from the big bang, the cosmic microwave background, will help shed light on this story.
Astronomers first recorded the CMB in 1965, and it gave rise to certain problems in the big bang theory - problems that made scientists briefly (until 1981) confuse and deduce the inflationary theory. According to this theory, in the first moments of its existence, the universe began to expand extremely rapidly. The theory also explains the temperature and density of fluctuations of the relic radiation and suggests that these fluctuations should be the same.
But, as it turned out, no. Recent studies have made it clear that the universe is actually one-sided, with more fluctuations in some areas than others. Some cosmologists believe that this observation confirms that our universe had a "mother" (!)
In the theory of chaotic inflation, this idea gains momentum: the endless progress of inflationary bubbles creates an abundance of universes, and each of them creates even more inflationary bubbles in a huge number of Multiverses.
However, there are models that try to explain the formation of the singularity before the big bang. If you think of black holes as giant garbage cans, they are prime candidates for initial contraction, so our expanding universe could very well be a white hole - a black hole's exit, and each black hole in our universe could contain a separate universe within itself.
Other scientists believe that the formation of a singularity is based on a cycle called the "big bang", as a result of which the expanding universe eventually collapses into itself, creating another singularity, which, again, creates another big bang. This process will be eternal, and all singularities and all collapses will not represent anything other than a transition to another phase of the existence of the Universe.
The last explanation we'll look at uses the idea of a cyclic universe generated by string theory. It suggests that new matter and energy flows emerge every trillion years when two membranes or branes that lie beyond our dimensions collide.
What happened before the Big Bang? The question remains open. Maybe nothing. Maybe a different universe, or a different version of ours. Maybe an ocean of Universes, each of which has its own set of laws and constants that dictate the nature of physical reality.
In the scientific world, it is generally accepted that the Universe originated as a result of the Big Bang. This theory is based on the fact that energy and matter (the foundations of all things) were previously in a state of singularity. It, in turn, is characterized by the infinity of temperature, density and pressure. The singularity state itself overrides all known modern world laws of physics. Scientists believe that the Universe arose from a microscopic particle, which, due to unknown reasons, came into an unstable state in the distant past and exploded.
The term "Big Bang" began to be used since 1949 after the publication of the works of the scientist F. Hoyle in popular science publications. Today, the theory of the “dynamic evolving model” has been developed so well that physicists can describe the processes occurring in the Universe as early as 10 seconds after the explosion of a microscopic particle that laid the foundation for everything.
There are several proofs of the theory. One of the main ones is the relic radiation, which permeates the entire Universe. It could have arisen, according to modern scientists, only as a result of the Big Bang, due to the interaction of microscopic particles. It is the relic radiation that makes it possible to learn about those times when the Universe looked like a blazing space, and there were no stars, planets and the galaxy itself. The second proof of the birth of everything that exists from the Big Bang is the cosmological redshift, which consists in a decrease in the frequency of radiation. This confirms the removal of stars, galaxies from milky way in particular and from each other in general. That is, it indicates that the Universe expanded earlier and continues to do so until now.
A Brief History of the Universe
- 10 -45 - 10 -37 sec- inflationary expansion
- 10 -6 sec- the emergence of quarks and electrons
- 10 -5 sec- the formation of protons and neutrons
- 10 -4 sec - 3 min- the emergence of nuclei of deuterium, helium and lithium
- 400 thousand years- formation of atoms
- 15 million years- continued expansion of the gas cloud
- 1 billion years- the birth of the first stars and galaxies
- 10 - 15 billion years- the emergence of planets and intelligent life
- 10 14 billion years- termination of the process of birth of stars
- 10 37 billion years- depletion of the energy of all stars
- 10 40 billion years- evaporation of black holes and the birth of elementary particles
- 10 100 billion years- completion of the evaporation of all black holes
The Big Bang theory has become a real breakthrough in science. It allowed scientists to answer many questions regarding the birth of the universe. But at the same time, this theory gave rise to new mysteries. Chief among them is the cause of the Big Bang itself. The second question to which there is no answer modern science How did space and time come about? According to some researchers, they were born together with matter, energy. That is, they are the result of the Big Bang. But then it turns out that time and space must have some kind of beginning. That is, a certain entity, constantly existing and not dependent on their indicators, could well initiate the processes of instability in a microscopic particle that gave rise to the Universe.
How more research is carried out in this direction, the more questions arise for astrophysicists. The answers to them await humanity in the future.