Big Bang

Theory
PowerPoint
 Name: ______________ # ____ Period: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Recombination

Photon Epoch

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Hadron Epoch

Hadron Epoch

Quark Epoch

The Primordial Era

Electroweak Epoch

Inflationary Epoch

Grand Unification Epoch

Right on time

Left is late
Big Bang Theory
Color Code by Time
• Grand Unification Epoch
• Inflationary Epoch
• Electroweak Epoch
• Quark Epoch
• Hadron Epoch
• Lepton Epoch
• Photon Epoch
 Name: ______________ # ____ Period: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Recombination

Photon Epoch

Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Hadron Epoch

Hadron Epoch

Quark Epoch

The Primordial Era

Electroweak Epoch

Inflationary Epoch

Grand Unification Epoch

Right on time

Left is late
Big Bang Theory
What is a Theory?

• A Theory is a system of rules

and principles that can be
applied to different
circumstances. Usually there is
evidence which suggests that a
theory is true.
What is a Theory?

• A Natural Law is a theory that

has been refined, tested, and
confirmed.
• A Theory is only good until
additional evidence
• disproves it.
What is the Big Bang?

• The Big Bang Theory is

the dominant scientific
theory about the origin
of the universe.
What is the Big Bang?

• According to the Big Bang,

the universe was created
sometime between 10 billion
and 20 billion years ago from
a cosmic explosion that
hurled matter in all
directions.
What is the Big Bang?

•Our best
understanding is
•13.7
•billion years old.
Who first proposed the Big
Bang?

• In 1927, the Belgian priest

Georges Lemaître was
the first to propose that
the universe began with
the explosion of a
primeval atom.
Georges Lemaître
Who first proposed the Big Bang?

• Lemaître’s proposal
came after observing
the red shift in distant
nebulas by
astronomers.
 Red Shift

• Red shift
•indicates objects
moving away from
• an observer.
 Red Shift

• Wavelengths are longer,

• moved towards the red
part of the spectrum
Red Shift
 Blue Shift
•Blue shift
•indicates objects
moving towards
• an observer.
 Blue Shift
• Blueshift
• Wavelengths are
shorter,
• moved towards the
blue part of the
spectrum
 Blue Shift
• Blueshift
• Wavelengths are shorter,
• moved towards the blue
part of the spectrum
Blue Shift
Evidence for the Big Bang

• In 1929,
• Edwin Hubble
• found experimental evidence
to help justify Lemaître's
theory and confirm the
redshifts.
Edwin Hubble
Whirlpool Galaxy
Evidence for the Big Bang

• He found that distant

galaxies in every direction
are going away from us
with speeds proportional
to their distance.
Evidence for the Big Bang

• Galaxies are vast

collections of stars.
Galaxies like the Milky
Way have hundreds of
billions of stars.
Evidence for the Big Bang

• Some galaxies have

trillions of stars while
others have only a few
million stars.
Whirlpool Galaxy
What does this mean?

• This means that the

closer Galaxies are
moving away from us
slowly.
What does this mean?

• The farther Galaxies

are moving away faster
yet.
What does this mean?

• This means that the closer

Galaxies are moving away
from us slowly.
• The farther Galaxies are
moving away faster yet.
Expanding Raisins

• Galaxies in the Universe are

like raisin bread, the close ones
only move a little when baked.
Expanding Raisins

• When the bread bakes, the

far raisins move the most.
•http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/ContentMe
dia/990404b.gif
 Hubble’s Law
Tests of the Big Bang: Expansion

•This simple ratio

between the distance
and the speed of
galaxies moving away
from each other, set
Tests of the Big Bang: Expansion
This ratio

•is now known as

Hubble’s law.
•It shows that the
universe is expanding.
 An Expanding and
Accelerating Universe
Distance vs. Velocity
Hubble’s Law
Origin of the term Big Bang

•The term "Big Bang"

was coined in 1949
by Fred Hoyle during
a BBC radio
program,
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

Foundations of the Big Bang Model

 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• The first key idea dates to 1916

when Einstein developed his
• General Theory of Relativity
which he proposed as a new
theory of gravity.
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• His theory generalizes Isaac Newton's

original theory of gravity, c. 1680, in
that it is supposed to be valid for bodies
in motion as well as bodies at rest.
Newton's gravity is only valid for
bodies at rest or moving very slowly
compared to the speed of light (usually
not too restrictive an assumption!).
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• A key concept of General Relativity is

that gravity is no longer described by a
gravitational "field" but rather it is
supposed to be a distortion of space
and time itself. Physicist John Wheeler
put it well when he said "Matter tells
space how to curve, and space tells
matter how to move."
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• Originally, the theory was able to

account for peculiarities in the
orbit of Mercury and the bending
of light by the Sun, both
unexplained in Isaac Newton's
theory of gravity. In recent years,
the theory has passed a series of
rigorous tests.
Foundations of the
Big Bang Model
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model
• After the introduction of General
Relativity a number of scientists,
including Einstein, tried to apply the
new gravitational dynamics to the
universe as a whole. At the time this
required an assumption about how the
matter in the universe was distributed.
Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• The simplest assumption to

make is that if you viewed the
contents of the universe with
sufficiently poor vision, it
would appear roughly the
same everywhere and in every
direction.
Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• That is, the matter in the

universe is homogeneous and
isotropic when averaged over
very large scales.
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• This is called the

Cosmological Principle.
• This assumption is being
tested continuously as we
actually observe the
distribution of galaxies on
ever larger scales..
Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• The following picture shows

how uniform the distribution
of measured galaxies is over a
30° swath of the sky.
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• In addition the
• cosmic microwave background
radiation,
• which is the leftover heat from
• the Big Bang is called the CMB.
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• CMB 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.
 Foundations of the
Big Bang Model

• General Relativity and

Cosmological Principle
• These two ideas form the entire
theoretical basis for Big Bang
cosmology and lead to very
specific predictions for observable
properties of the universe.
 Tests of Big Bang
Cosmology

•Expansion
•The Light Elements
•The CMB
 Confirmation of the Theory

• The Big Bang Theory received its

strongest confirmation when the
cosmic background radiation
was discovered in 1964 by Arno
Penzias and Robert Wilson.
Confirmation of the Theory

• Arno Penzias and

Robert Wilson, later
won the Nobel Prize for
this discovery.
Penzias and Wilson
• Arno Penzias
and Robert
Wilson in front of
the Bell
Laboratories
Radio Telescope.
• Click the picture to hear the sound.
Background Radiation

• Penzias and Wilson found radio

signals in all areas of the sky.
• These radio signals have a
hissing sound.
• The radio waves are at a
temperature of 3 degrees
above absolute zero.
Support for the Theory

• The big bang was initially

suggested because it
explains why distant
galaxies are traveling
away from us at great
speeds.
Support for the Theory

• The theory also predicts

the existence of cosmic
background radiation (the
glow left over from the
explosion itself).
Cosmic Background Radiation

• The Cosmic
Background
Radiation is
microwave
radiation found in
all parts of the
sky.
Cosmic Background Radiation

• The color
changes are due
to only
0.1 degrees of
temperature
difference.
What Does This Mean?

• If all the Galaxies are

moving away from us,
are we at the center of
the Universe?
What Does This Mean?

• No, if we could be on
another galaxy we would
see the same thing,
everything would be
moving away from that
galaxy.
The Center?

• This means that all matter

seen in the Universe was
formed at the same time,
at the same place, in the
center of the Universe.
The Center?

• Everything can be
considered to be at the
center of the Universe,
according to your
perspective.
Reversing Time

• Astronomers have taken all

the Galaxies and moved
them backward in time to
the point when they would
have come from the same
point.
Reversing Time

•This point is called a

singularity.
What was it like?

• Astrophysicists do not
know the proper physics
to describe the
beginning exactly, but
have some ideas.
What was it like?

• At one – ten millionth of

a second, the
temperature of the
Universe was very hot,
over
• 1 Trillion degrees.
WMAP has produced a new, more detailed picture of the infant universe. Colors indicate "warmer" (red) and "cooler" (blue) spots. The white bars show the "polarization" direction o
e oldest light. This new information helps to pinpoint when the first stars formed and provides new clues about events that transpired in the first trillionth of a second of the universe
Density of the Beginning

• The density was

estimated to have been
more than 5 x 10 13

grams per cubic

centimeter.
Density of the Beginning

• This matter was high-

energy photons.
• According to Einstein’s
Theory, energy can
convert to matter.
Matter in the Universe

• As energy converted to
matter, antimatter was also
created.
• This antimatter and matter
collided, giving back
energy to the system.
Matter in the Universe

• As the Universe
continued to expand,
the temperature cooled.
4 Seconds of Time

•After 4 seconds of time,

the Universe had cooled
enough for electrons,
protons, and neutrons to
form.
30 Minutes of Time

• By the time the Universe

was 30 minutes old it had
cooled sufficiently that
nuclear reactions had
combined to form
elements.
30 Minutes of Time

•25 % helium
75 % hydrogen
30 Minutes of Time

•25 % helium
75 % hydrogen
300,000 years
• At 379,000 years
• from the Big Bang,
• the Universe had cooled
enough for it to become
transparent and light could
escape.
• Before this time, no light could
escape.
300,000 years

• The temperature had

reached 3,000
degrees.
Dark Age

• As the Universe
continued to expand, the
glow of the Big Bang
had faded so it became
dark.
Dark Age

• Eventually, matter
coalesced from nebulas
of dust and gas to form
stars.
• These stars had no
metals in them.
First Stars

• The first stars formed with

the ratio of 75% hydrogen
and 25% helium.
• These were massive stars
and were very unstable and
lived for a short time.
First Stars

• These were massive stars

and were very unstable and
lived for a short time, before
exploding in extreme
violence as a supernova
explosion.
First Stars

• These massive stars

exploded giving rise to
more massive elements,
such as oxygen, nitrogen,
iron, and uranium.
 Abundance (% of
Element Abundance
total

number of atoms) (% of total mass)

Hydrogen 91.2 71.0

Helium 8.7 27.1

Oxygen 0.078 0.97

Carbon 0.043 0.40

Nitrogen 0.0088 0.096

Silicon 0.0045 0.099

Magnesium 0.0038 0.076

Neon 0.0035 0.058

Iron 0.030 0.014

Sulfur 0.015 0.040

Birth of Black Holes

• As Galaxies formed, the

first massive stars
formed in the center of
the Galaxy where most
of the matter was found.
Birth of Black Holes

• When these massive

stars exploded they
formed Black Holes.
• We see evidence of
these Black Holes in the
first Galaxies.
Black Holes
• As matter
gets
sucked
into the
Black Hole,
energy
leaves as a
jet at the
poles.
Is all matter light, such as
hydrogen and helium?

• Our Solar System has a lot of

heavier elements, such as
iron and uranium. These
elements were not found in
the early Universe.
Is all matter light, such as
hydrogen and helium?

• It has been suggested that

the matter for our solar
rd
system is 3 generation,
meaning it has been a part of
at least 2 other stars which
have exploded.
Star Dust

• Heavy elements can

only be made from
the explosion of
massive stars.
 Star Dust

• Due to the fact that our

bodies are made of
heavier elements, such
as iron in our blood, we
can say that humans are
made of Star Dust.
Accelerating Universe

• When we look into the

depths of space, we see a
myriad number of galaxies,
all moving away from us.
Accelerating Universe

• These galaxies are

accelerating. This
means they are going
faster and faster.
What Causes This Acceleration?

•Something must be
causing the Universe to
go faster.
What Causes This Acceleration?

• Dark Matter and Dark

Energy are suggested to
be causing this
acceleration.
The Visible Universe

• The dark energy is the

push that causes our
Universe to accelerate
outward.
The Visible Universe

• is only
•4% visible matter,
• dark matter about 30%, and
dark energy about 66%.
Will the Universe keep
expanding?

• Astronomers think with the

amount of matter found in
the Universe, that the
Universe will keep
accelerating and expanding
forever outward.
What will happen to the
Universe?
• As the Universe
continues to expand, the
stars and galaxies will
become farther away
and more difficult to see.
What will happen to the
Universe?
• Eventually, all the stars
and galaxies that we
currently see will slowly
burn out leaving the
Universe dark and cold.
• The Hubble
Deep Field
picture
shows
thousands of
galaxies,
some at the
beginning of
their
formation.
• The
Hubble
Ultra Deep
Field
picture
shows
thousands
of
galaxies,
some at
the
beginning
of their
formation.
What is the End?

• This is the end of our

powerpoint.
• The end of the
universe will look like
this……
 The Dark Era

BlackHole Era

Degenerate Era

Stelliferous Era
Dark Ages

Photon Epoch
 The Dark Era

BlackHole Era

Degenerate Era

Stelliferous Era
Dark Ages

Photon Epoch
Color Code by Time
• Grand Unification Epoch
• Inflationary Epoch
• Electroweak Epoch
• Quark Epoch
• Hadron Epoch
• Lepton Epoch
• Photon Epoch