THE

BEGINNING
WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE?
WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE?
The universe is everything. It includes all of
space, and all the matter and energy that space
contains.
-NASA
WHAT IS THE AGE OF
THE UNIVERSE?
13.8 Billion years
WHAT IS THE BIG BANG
THEORY?
WHAT IS THE BIG BANG
THEORY?
It is a cosmological mode of the observable
universe from the earliest known periods
through its subsequent large-scale evolution.
It describes how the universe EXPANDED
WHO IS THE FIRST
PROPONENT OF
THE BIG BANG?
Georges Lemaitre
A Belgian priest who claimed that
the universe may have begun from
a primordial atom
2 DISCOVERIES THAT
BOOSTED THE
PROPOSITION:
1. Edwin Hubble’s observation that
galaxies are speeding away from
us at an increasing velocity
EDWIN HUBBLE
Between 1922-1923, he discovered
that celestial objects outside the
Milky Way, once called nebulae, were
distant galaxies. This was a profound
discovery happened at a time when
scientist believed Milky Way was the
only galaxy in the universe.
EDWIN HUBBLE
Used Hooker Telescope to
observe billions of galaxies
2 DISCOVERIES THAT
BOOSTED THE
PROPOSITION:

2. Discovery of cosmic
microwave radiation by
Robert Wilson and Arno
Penzias.
COSMIC MICROWAVE
BACKGROUND RADIATION
A microwave radiation left by the initial big
Bang or “fossil radiation”. It fills the entire universe and
using radio telescope it can be detected from every
direction of the sky.
Scientists consider it as an echo or 'shockwave'
of the Big Bang.
RADIO TELESCOPE
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
1.REDSHIFT
When objects that emit light
Move away from us, the light waves are
Stretched into waves with longer
Wavelengths.
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
1.REDSHIFT
Evidence for an expanding universe

We see the same repeating pattern of lines in

a galaxy, but displaced to the red

Galaxy UGC 12915

Recession velocity: 4350 km/s
Evidence for an expanding universe

The further the galaxy,

the more the shift to the red

Galaxy UGC 12508

Recession velocity: 9100 km/s
Evidence for an expanding universe

The further the galaxy,

the more the shift to the red

Galaxy UGC 12508

Recession velocity: 9100 km/s
Evidence for an expanding universe

The greater the red shift,

the faster the galaxy is receding

Galaxy KUG 1750

Recession velocity: 15,400 km/s
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
2. Cosmic Microwave
Background Radiation
It is the presence of isotropic radiation
That can be found in all directions of the
Sky. Those radiation is a remnant of
Primordial fireball that occurred after
the Big Bang.
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
3. Relative Abundance
Relative abundance of light elements in the universe
prove that the Big Bang occurred.
Through measurements, we find that around 24% of the
universe’s ordinary matter is currently comprised of
helium, about 74% hydrogen, and 2% of other elements.
EVIDENCE OF THE
BIG BANG
1.Redshift
2. Cosmic Microwave Background
Radiation
3. Relative Abundance
TIMELINE OF THE
BIG BANG
PLANCK EPOCH or PLANCK ERA
or SINGULARITY EPOCH
0 – 10 -43
seconds
0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000010 seconds

The universe is a tiny plasma (hot gaseous form) smaller than an

atom and composed of packets of particles and extremely high
energies (1032°C Planck Temperature)
The four fundamental forces (electromagnetism, weak nuclear
force, strong nuclear force and gravity) all have the same strength,
and are possibly even unified into one fundamental force.
Electromagnetism is the physical interaction The strong force holds together quarks, the a fundamental force of nature that
Gravity is the force by which a planet or other
among electric charges, magnetic moments, fundamental particles that make up the protons underlies some forms
body draws objects toward its center. The force
and the electromagnetic field. and neutrons of the atomic nucleus, and further of radioactivity, governs the decay of
of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit
holds together protons and neutrons to form unstable subatomic particles
around the sun.
atomic nuclei. As such it is responsible for the
underlying stability of matter.
GRAND UNIFICATION
THEORY(GUT) ERA
-43
10 to -36
10 seconds

The force of gravity separates from the other fundamental forces

and the three fundamental forces are merged into one force and
the earliest elementary particles (and antiparticles) begin to be
created.
INFLATIONARY EPOCH

-36
10 to -32
10 seconds

Triggered by the separation of the strong nuclear force, the

universe undergoes an extremely rapid exponential
expansion, known as cosmic inflation.
ELECTROWEAK EPOCH

-36
10 to -12
10 seconds

As the strong nuclear force separates from the other two,

particle interactions create large numbers of exotic particles,
including W and Z bosons and Higgs bosons (the Higgs field
slows particles down and confers mass on them, allowing a
universe made entirely out of radiation to support things that
have mass).
QUARK EPOCH

-12
10 to -6
10 seconds

Quarks, electrons and neutrinos form in large numbers as the

universe cools off to below 10 quadrillion degrees, and the
four fundamental forces assume their present forms. Quarks
and antiquarks annihilate each other upon contact, but, in a
process known as baryogenesis, a surplus of quarks (about
one for every billion pairs) survives, which will ultimately
combine to form matter
HADRON EPOCH

-12
10 to 1 second
The temperature of the universe cools to about a trillion degrees, cool
enough to allow quarks to combine to form hadrons (like protons and
neutrons). Electrons colliding with protons in the extreme conditions of
the Hadron Epoch fuse to form neutrons and give off massless neutrinos,
which continue to travel freely through space today, at or near to the speed
of light. Some neutrons and neutrinos re-combine into new proton-
electron pairs. The only rules governing all this apparently random
combining and re-combining are that the overall charge and energy
(including mass-energy) be conserved.
LEPTON EPOCH

1 to 3 seconds
After the majority (but not all) of hadrons (free) and antihadrons
(isolated) annihilate each other at the end of the Hadron Epoch,
leptons (such as electrons) and antileptons (such as positrons)
dominate the mass of the universe. As electrons and positrons
collide and annihilate each other, energy in the form of photons is
freed up, and colliding photons in turn create more electron-
positron pairs
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS

3 to 20 minutes
The temperature of the universe falls to the point (about a billion
degrees) where atomic nuclei can begin to form as protons and
neutrons combine through nuclear fusion to form the nuclei of the
simple elements of hydrogen, helium and lithium. After about 20
minutes, the temperature and density of the universe has fallen to
the point where nuclear fusion cannot continue
PHOTON EPOCH or
RADIATION DOMINATION
3 minutes to 240 000 years

During this long period of gradual cooling, the universe is

filled with plasma, a hot, opaque soup of atomic nuclei and
electrons
RECOMBINATION or
DECOUPLING
240 000 TO 300 000 years
As the temperature of the universe falls to around 3,000 degrees (about the same
heat as the surface of the Sun) and its density also continues to fall, ionized hydrogen
and helium atoms capture electrons (known as “recombination”), thus neutralizing
their electric charge. With the electrons now bound to atoms, the universe finally
becomes transparent to light, making this the earliest epoch observable today. It
also releases the photons in the universe which have up till this time been interacting
with electrons and protons in an opaque photon-baryon fluid (known as
“decoupling”), and these photons (the same ones we see in today’s cosmic
background radiation) can now travel freely. By the end of this period, the
universe consists of a fog of about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium, with just
traces of lithium
DARK AGE or DARK ERA

300 000 to 150 million years

The period after the formation of the first atoms and before the
first stars is sometimes referred to as the Dark Age. Although
photons exist, the universe at this time is literally dark, with no
stars having formed to give off light.
REIONIZATION

150 million to 1 billion years

The first quasars form from gravitational collapse, and the
intense radiation they emit reionizes the surrounding
universe, the second of two major phase changes of hydrogen
gas in the universe (the first being the Recombination period).
From this point on, most of the universe goes from being
neutral back to being composed of ionized plasma
STAR & GALAXY FORMATION

300 to 500 million years

Gravity amplifies slight irregularities in the density of the
primordial gas and pockets of gas become more and more
dense, even as the universe continues to expand rapidly.
These small, dense clouds of cosmic gas start to collapse
under their own gravity, becoming hot enough to trigger
nuclear fusion reactions between hydrogen atoms, creating
the very first stars.
SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION

8.5 to 9 Billion years

Our Sun is a late-generation star, incorporating the debris
from many generations of earlier stars, and it and the Solar
System around it form roughly 4.5 to 5 billion years ago (8.5
to 9 billion years after the Big Bang)
FORMATION OF
LIGHT ELEMENTS
NUCLEARNOTATION

MASS NUMBER
A=Z+n A
CHEMICAL SYMBOL

Z
for the element
ATOMIC NUMER
=number of protons