THRESHOLD 1

THE BIG BANG COSMOLOGY

CONSORCIA BANTIGUE-LEANO – ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR II
 COSMOLOGY

• The study of the evolution

of the universe
• Evolved within the modern
European scientific tradition
• Modern cosmology draws
on ideas, techniques, and
traditions from much of
Afro-Eurasia.
EARLY COSMOLOGIES
Christian Theology (The Bible)
estimates suggested that God had made the Earth
and the universe in about 4000 BCE - just over 4,000
years old at the height of the Roman Empire.
Ptolemy of Alexandria (ca. 90–168 CE)
The work of the Roman-Egyptian astronomer
became the foundation for ideas about astronomy
and the universe.
LET US FIRST CHECK ON THE EARLY
GREEK’S IDEAS OF THE UNIVERSE BEFORE WE
PROCEED TO THE CHANGING VIEWS OF
FAMOUS PERSONALITIES…..
THE ANCIENT GREEKS
• Greek scientist Aristotle showed that the Earth is spherical.
• Aristotle supported his statement that the Earth is round with observations.
• The Earth’s shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is circular. The only object
whose shadow is always circular is a sphere.
THE ANCIENT GREEKS
• Eratosthenes (ca. 200 BC, Alexandria, Egypt) measured the Earth’s circumference:
• Eratosthenes: 42,000 km
• Actual: 40,000 km
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF GREEK ASTRONOMERS:

• Greek astronomers developed a

geocentric (Earth-centered) model for
the universe
• Spherical Earth is stationary, at the
center of the universe
• Earth is corrupt, heavens are perfect
• Heavenly bodies move with uniform
circular motion
SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGES AND CHANGING VIEWS

Famous personalities in the origin of the Big Bang Cosmology

Ptolemy Copernicus Kepler Galilei Newton Leavitt Hubble

 CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY OF
ALEXANDRIA (CA. 90–168 CE)
• An Earth-Centered View of the Universe
• Ptolemy accepted Aristotle’s idea that the Sun
and the planets revolve around a spherical Earth,
a geocentric view
• Christian theologians argued that the Earth was
a realm of sin and imperfection; but surrounding
it, in Ptolemy’s model, was a realm of perfection.
• However, in the sixteenth century, Ptolemy’s
model of the universe came under attack from
several directions.
Ptolemy used epicycles to explain the retrograde motions of
planets.
Retrograde motion is an
APPARENT change in
the movement of the planet
through the sky. It is not REAL in
that the planet does not physically
start moving backwards in its
orbit. It just appears to do so
because of the relative positions of
the planet and Earth and how they
are moving around the Sun.
Ptolemy’s explanation of retrograde motion:
• The planet moves in a small circle
called the epicycle.
• The center of the epicycle moves in a
large circle called the deferent.
• The combination of small and large
circles produces retrograde loop
• Epicycles preserved the geocentric
model and kept the planets moving in
perfectly circular orbits.
 NICOLAUS COPERNICUS
(1473–1543)
• A Sun-Centered View of the Universe
• a Polish-born astronomer, revived the ancient
idea that the sun (heliocentric), not the Earth, lay
at the center of the universe
• He was able to show that such an idea could
solve some important anomalies in the
Ptolemaic system.
• Yet, the idea of a Sun-centred, or “heliocentric”
universe was only accepted after the work of
Kepler and Galileo.
SUMMARY OF COPERNICUS’ THEORY:

• The center of the Earth is not the center of the universe;

• The sun is fixed and all other spheres revolved around the sun;
• The Earth has more than one motion;
• The stars are fixed but appear to move because of the Earth’s
motion.
VIEWS OF THE UNIVERSE: PTOLEMY VERSUS COPERNICUS
 JOHANNES KEPLER
(1571–1630)

• Demonstrated that the planets did not orbit in

the perfect circles required by Ptolemy’s
cosmology, but in ellipses, or squashed-up
circles.
• Kepler developed laws that marked a key step in
the revolution which moved the center of the
universe from the Earth (geocentric cosmology)
to the Sun (heliocentric), and they laid the
foundation for the unification of heaven and
earth, by Newton, a century later.
KEPLER’S LAW OF PLANETARY MOTION
Kepler’s First Law: Kepler’s Second Law:
The orbit of each of the planets is an ellipse, with the The radius vector joining the planet to the Sun
Sun at one focus. sweeps out equal areas in equal times. This means
that as the planet orbits, its speed changes. It moves
fastest when it is closest to the Sun (at “perihelion”)
and slowest when it is furthest away (at “aphelion”).
Kepler’s Third Law:

The square of the orbital

period of the planet in years is
proportional to the cube of the
semi-major axis of the planet’s
orbit. This simply relates
average distance from the Sun
to orbital period. These laws
showed that the planets did
indeed orbit the Sun,
supporting the Copernican
universe.

P2 = a3
where:
P = period in Earth years
a = axis in AU
 GALILEO GALILEI
(1564– 1642)
• An Italian scholar, put to rest the idea that the
sublunar and heavenly regions were completely
distinct.
• Galileo was one of the first astronomers to view
the heavens through a telescope.
• By doing so, he was able to show that the sun’s
face, far from being flawless, was covered with
spots, while Jupiter had moons. Both facts
contradicted Ptolemy’s model.
• Galileo also explained why we don’t feel the
Earth moving.
 ISAAC NEWTON
(1642–1727)
• Sir Isaac Newton developed the three basic laws
of motion and the theory of universal gravity,
which together laid the foundation of our current
understanding of physics and the Universe.
• Newton understood gravity as a universal
property of all bodies, where its force is
dependent only on the amount of matter
contained in each body.
• By combining physics, mathematics, and
astronomy, Newton made a giant leap in human
understanding of Earth and the cosmos.
Putting these laws together, Newton was able to state
the Law of Universal Gravitation.
It states that every mass attracts every other mass in the
universe, and the gravitational force between two
bodies is proportional to the product of their masses
and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them.

F = G m1 m2 / r2

Where: F = force
G = gravitational constant
m1 ,m2 = masses of two objects
r = distance between the two masses
Stated more simply, the gravitational attraction between two bodies decreases
rapidly as the distance between them increases. Gravity affects everything with
mass - and has nothing to do with an object’s charge or chemical composition.

This means that it can account for both the force that causes the planets to orbit
the Sun - as described by Kepler - and the downward force that causes objects to
accelerate towards the Earth - as described by Galileo.
EXAMPLE ON THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION:
DETERMINE THE FORCE OF GRAVITY BETWEEN A 50KG AND 70KG PERSON WHO
ARE BOTH STANDING AT (1) 10M APART AND (2) 500M APART

• 1.) F = (6.674 x 10 -11 N.m2 / kg 2 ) ( 50kg) (70kg) = 2.34 x 10-9 N

• (10m)2
•
• 2.) F = (6.674 x 10 -11 N.m2 / kg 2 ) ( 50kg) (70kg) = 9.34 x 10-13N
• (500m) 2
 HENRIETTA LEAVITT
(1868–1921)

• American astronomer known for her discovery of

the relationship between period and luminosity in
Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that vary
regularly in brightness in periods ranging from a
few days to several months.
• The subsequent calibration of the period-
luminosity curve allowed American astronomers
Edwin Hubble, and others to determine the
distances of many Cepheid stars and
consequently of the star clusters and galaxies in
which they were observed.
Before the invention of the
telescope, ancient Greek
astronomers use parallax to
try to determine the distance
of stars from Earth.
Parallax is the change in the
apparent relationship
between two fixed objects
caused by the movement of
the observer.

Finding distances of objects

far out in space required
different techniques.
 Leavitt found that a certain type of star, the Cepheid variable, pulses
at a rate that’s related to its brightness.

Leavitt discovered a direct correlation between the time it takes for a Cepheid variable to go from bright to dim
and back to bright, and how bright the star actually is (its “intrinsic brightness”). The longer the period of
fluctuation, the brighter the star. This meant that even though a star might appear extremely dim, if it had a long
period it must actually be extremely large; it appeared dim only because it was extremely far away. By calculating
how bright it appeared from Earth and comparing this to its intrinsic brightness, one could estimate how much of
the star’s light had been lost while reaching Earth, and how far away the star actually was.
 EDWIN HUBBLE
(1889–1953)

• Showed that some Cepheid variables were

outside our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
• This proved for the first time that there were
many different galaxies in the universe, which
showed once again that the universe was much
bigger than most astronomers had supposed.
• He has been called one of the most influential
astronomers since the times of Galileo, Kepler
and Newton.
EXPANDING UNIVERSE
Hubble discovered an odd fact: Almost every galaxy he observed appeared to be
moving away from the Earth. He knew this because the light coming from the
galaxies exhibited redshift.

Hubble’s Law basically states that the farther away the object was, the larger
the red shift; in other words, the faster it seemed to be moving away from us. It
was proof that the Universe is expanding.
HUBBLE’S LAW

The rate at which a

galaxy is moving is
directly proportional to
its distance from us.

In other words, the

farther away a galaxy is
from us, the faster it
travels away from us.
Thus the universe is
expanding.
 VESTO SLIPHER

• An American astronomer who performed

the first measurements of radial
velocities for galaxies.
• He was the first to discover that distant
galaxies are redshifted, thus providing
the first empirical basis for the expansion
of the universe.
• He was also the first to relate these
redshifts to velocity.
WHAT IS RED SHIFT?
• Astronomers often use the term
redshift when describing how far away
a distant object is.
• When an object in space moves toward
us its light waves are compressed into
higher frequencies or shorter
wavelengths, and we say that the light
is blueshifted.
• When an object moves away from us,
its light waves are stretched into lower
frequencies or longer wavelengths,
and we say that the light is redshifted.
WHAT IS RED SHIFT?
• Scientists examining the light emitted
by stars observe dark lines in the
spectrum.
• These dark lines are caused by
different elements, such as helium, in
the stars being studied.
• Edwin Hubble observed that the pattern of dark lines in light from distant
galaxies is shifted towards the red end of the spectrum.
• This red shift suggests that distant galaxies are moving away from Earth and
supports the idea of an expanding Universe.
• Red shift occurs because of the Doppler effect, which can be observed in sound
waves and electromagnetic waves.
HOW DOES THE DOPPLER EFFECT WORK IN SPACE?
• The Doppler effect means that sound moving away from an
observer appears to be lower in frequency.
• The same thing happens with light from distant galaxies, which
appears to be shifted towards the low frequency, red end of the
spectrum.
• This means the distant galaxies must be moving away from the
Earth.
• It has also been observed that the further away a galaxy is, the
greater the amount of red shift.
• This means that very distant galaxies must be moving faster than
near, all of which is evidence for the Big Bang theory.
 Relationship of Frequency and Wavelength

•Frequency and wavelength are inversely related

Long wavelength = Low frequency
Short wavelength = High Frequency

Wavelength – the distance between one point on a wave

and the nearest point just like it.
Frequency – the number of waves that pass a given point each second
THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM
If the light source is moving
away the absorption spectra
look a little different…
The absorption lines have all been “shifted” towards the
longer wavelength end (red end)…
• In 1929, Edwin Hubble used the
redshift of light from galaxies to
calculate the velocities and
distances of these galaxies from
the Earth.
• He discovered that they were
moving away from the Earth and
from each other. His calculations
supported the theory that the
universe is expanding.
WHAT IS THE BIG BANG THEORY?
• The observation of red shift is a key piece of
evidence for the Big Bang theory about the
origin of the Universe.
• This states that the Universe ‘began’ with a
colossal explosion 13,700 million years ago
and has been expanding ever since.

• The other key piece of evidence for the Big Bang theory is
cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).
• CMB is radiation remaining from the Big Bang explosion and fills the whole of
the Universe.
• This radiation has cooled as the Universe has expanded and is now slightly less
than 3 degrees above absolute zero.
EVIDENCE OF THE BIG BANG

1. The expansion of the universe

Edwin Hubble's 1929 observation that galaxies were generally receding

2.from
The us provided
cosmic the firstbackground
microwave clue that the Big Bang
(CMB) theory might be right.
radiation
The early universe should have been very hot. The cosmic microwave
background radiation is the remnant heat leftover from the Big Bang.
3. The abundance of the light elements H, He, Li
The Big Bang theory predicts that these light elements should have been
fused from protons and neutrons in the first few minutes after the Big Bang.
COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION

• Long-wavelength radiation
that fills all space.

• Can be detected using a special

antenna.

George Gamow (1940’s) predicted there should be “echoes” of the

Big Bang “explosion.”
COBE Cosmic Background Explorer (1989)
• Probe that looked 15 billion light years into space to detect tiny
temperature changes.
• These temperature changes were evidence of the heat left over from
the Big Bang.
 HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE CMBR

• In 1965, Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias discovered

a low, steady “hum” from their Holmdel Horn
antenna (an antenna built to support NASA’s
Project Echo).

• They concluded that the noise is Cosmic

Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR),
the remains of energy created after the big bang
expansion.
HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE CMBR
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP)
• captured the “glow” of the Big Bang by
detecting temperature changes just like
COBE.
• WMAP was much more precise.
THE BIG BANG TIMELINE
 CONTENT OF THE UNIVERSE
• WMAP data reveals that its contents include
4.6% atoms, the building blocks of stars and
planets. Dark matter comprises 23% of the
universe. This matter, different from atoms, does
not emit or absorb light. It has only been
detected indirectly by its gravity.
• 72% of the universe, is composed of "dark
energy", that acts as a sort of an anti-gravity. This
energy, distinct from dark matter, is responsible
for the present-day acceleration of the universal
expansion. WMAP data is accurate to two digits,
so the total of these numbers is not 100%. This
reflects the current limits of WMAP's ability to
define Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
 EINSTEIN'S 'BIGGEST BLUNDER' TURNS OUT TO BE RIGHT

• Hubble’s Law was proof that the Universe is expanding. No astronomer had
expected this.
• Indeed, Einstein— whose theory of relativity had appeared a few years before
Hubble published his results—was so shocked by Hubble’s results that he
insisted for a time that there must be an error. He even modified his own
theory of relativity to avoid the possibility of an unstable universe by suggesting
the existence of a new type of force that balanced gravity. He later accepted
Hubble’s results, calling his attempts to avoid it as one of his greatest blunders.
• Curiously, recent developments may have partly vindicated Einstein, for his
quick fix seemed to point to the existence of a new force that we now call dark
energy. Dark energy is a form of energy that seems to push space itself apart,
and that pervades the entire universe.
 DARK ENERGY
• One explanation for dark energy is that it is a property of space. Albert Einstein
was the first person to realize that empty space is not nothing. Space has
amazing properties, many of which are just beginning to be understood.
• The first property that Einstein discovered is that it is possible for more space to
come into existence. Then one version of Einstein's gravity theory, the version
that contains a cosmological constant, makes a second prediction: "empty space"
can possess its own energy.
• Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space
expands.
• As more space comes into existence, more of this energy-of-space would appear.
As a result, this form of energy would cause the universe to expand faster and
faster.
GRAVITATIONAL LENSING
Astronomers cannot see dark matter directly, but can study its effects. They can see
light bent from the gravity of invisible objects called gravitational lensing. They can
also measure that stars are orbiting around in their galaxies faster than they should be.
THANKS A LOT……