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Big Bang Theory

Date: 2019
From: Gale Middle School Online Collection
Publisher: Gale, a Cengage Company
Document Type: Topic overview
Length: 1,059 words
Content Level: (Level 3)
Lexile Measure: 870L

Full Text:
People have long wondered about how the universe was born. Scientists who study the sky have developed an idea they think
explains the birth of the universe. They call this idea the big bang theory. Billions of years ago, everything in the universe was
squeezed into a very small point. Then, the point suddenly began to expand. The universe grew very quickly, but it was still very hot.
It took many millions of years for it to cool enough so that stars and galaxies could form.

Main Ideas
Main Ideas
The big bang theory explains how scientists believe the universe was born.
Astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaître were two of the main scientists who helped develop the theory.
The theory states that the universe was born about 13.8 billion years ago.
Scientists believe everything in the universe was once squeezed into a very small point that began to expand very quickly.

When astronomers looked at the night sky in the early 1900s, they noticed that all of the other galaxies seemed to be moving away
from ours. This made them think that the galaxies must have been much closer together at one time. Something very powerful must
have happened to make them separate. They called this event the “big bang.” At first, some scientists did not believe the theory.
Then, astronomers found very faint traces of radiation spread throughout the sky. This discovery was evidence that supported the big
bang theory.

A Growing Universe
Astronomers in the 1920s knew the universe was very big, but they did not know how incredibly large it really was. For years, they
had seen small, fuzzy patches of light in the sky when they looked through telescopes. They thought these patches were big clouds
of gas and dust. In 1923, an astronomer named Edwin Hubble discovered that these patches were really distant galaxies. Hubble
also found that all of the galaxies seemed like they were quickly flying away from our galaxy.

Around the same time that Hubble made his discovery, a Catholic priest named Georges Lemaître came up with his own idea about
the birth of the universe. Lemaître was also an astronomer and spent a lot of time thinking about the universe. He believed that the
universe began as a small, primordial atom that exploded outward. This small atom expanded very quickly. Eventually, it grew into
the modern universe. The work of Hubble seemed to support Lemaître’s theory. Other scientists soon began to believe in the idea of
a big bang and an expanding universe.

Connections: The Big Bang in Ancient Myth

Connections: The Big Bang in Ancient Myth
Ancient people told stories about how the universe was created. Most of these stories explained how a god or spirit being created
the earth and the sky. However, one myth found in the Hindu religion of India is very similar to the big bang theory. An ancient Hindu
religious book tells the story of how the universe was born from a cosmic egg. The egg grew from a very small point the Hindus
called a bindu. The universe eventually grew to become the modern universe. The myth also says that one day the universe will
begin to shrink. It will return to the original cosmic egg. From there, the universe will be born again. The myth says that the universe
will continue to grow, shrink, and be reborn forever.
Finding Some Proof
Not all scientists agreed that the primordial atom idea was possible. Some thought that the universe had always existed. One of those
scientists was Fred Hoyle. He was so against the theory that he made fun of the idea by calling it the “big bang.” Hoyle meant the
name to be an insult. However, other people liked the name and started calling it the big bang theory.

Evidence seemed to support the big bang theory, but there remained one big problem. If the universe had been born from a big bang,
astronomers should be able to find signs of radiation in the sky. No matter how hard they looked, however, scientists could not find
any trace of such radiation. Then, in 1964, two astronomers seemed to find the answer. They were using a type of telescope that
detects radio waves. One day, their telescope picked up what sounded like a strange buzzing sound. The sound seemed to be
coming from all parts of the sky. They soon realized that what they had found was the faint echo of radiation left behind by the big
bang.

The Theory
The big bang theory states that the universe was born about 13.8 billion years ago. At that time, all the matter and energy in the
universe was squeezed into a very small point. Suddenly, this small point began to expand outward very quickly. Astronomers do not
know exactly what caused the point to expand. They also think the name “big bang” can be a little misleading. An explosion did not
occur. It was more like a very fast expansion.

Temperatures in the new universe were so hot that even the tiny particles that make up atoms could not join together. This meant
that even light could not shine in the universe. The light would hit the small particles and scatter. As a result, the early universe
seemed to be covered in a thick fog. It was not until the universe was 380,000 years old that it was cool enough for atoms to form and
the first light began to shine. This was the dim radiation scientists first discovered in 1964.

The universe was still very hot, but it continued to expand and cool. The first stars and galaxies began to form about 100 million years
after the big bang. These oldest stars have long since burned out. The most distant objects modern astronomers can see today
formed when the universe was around 600 million years old. It took many more years for our solar system to form. The sun, Earth,
and all the planets did not form until around 9 billion years after the big bang.

Words to Know
astronomer
A scientist who studies the galaxies, stars, planets, and other objects in space.
primordial
Something so old it is believed to have existed from the beginning of time.
radiation
Powerful energy released by very bright or very hot objects.
radio waves
A form of radiation with a very low frequency that is invisible to the naked eye.
theory
A scientifically possible explanation to answer a question or describe how something works.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2020 Gale, a Cengage Company
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Big Bang Theory." Gale Middle School Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: Middle School,
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ECXVJQ438200150/MSIC?u=elli78999&sid=MSIC&xid=66e6a8af. Accessed 26 Feb. 2020.
Gale Document Number: GALE|ECXVJQ438200150