answersLogoWhite

0

Cosmic microwave background radiation.

There are several aspects of the Big Bang Theory supported by observed phenomena:

  • The current universe is presumed to have a beginning state.
  • Some galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This observation supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted.
  • The initial, very hot state that followed the Big Bang should have left some remnant of its heat. In 1965, Radioastronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin (-454.765 degree Fahrenheit, -270.425 degree Celsius) Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) which pervades the observable universe. This is thought to be the remnant which scientists were looking for. Penzias and Wilson shared in the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery.
  • The abundance of the "light elements" hydrogen and helium found in the observable universe (which would have been the first elements formed) is thought to support the Big Bang model of origins.

The idea is that, since galaxies are moving away from each other now, then they used to be closer to each other. Extrapolating backwards in time, one can go back far enough to a time and place where all matter resided in a very small, dense region. called a singularity.

This state would have been all energy, as matter could not have existed as we know it in an energy field so intense. The "Big Bang" was the release of that energy, creating the current era of spacetime.

The energy dispersed and, as things cooled down, matter began to form. It's the expanding universe that is the evidence for the Big Bang.

Replacing The Steady State Theory

The Steady State Theory was an early, only partly scientific proposition put forth to explain how the universe around us created matter on a continual basis. Founded in large part on the ancient idea that our universe was a firmament, and only subject to margional changes, like those caused by us, the explosion of a star, or the effects of gravity as it pulls back the matter and energy from those stars and creates new objects, the Steady State Theory basically told us that the universe was always here and always would be...and also would remain the same size.

The later advancement of science in new areas such as quantum theory, relativity, and Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was actually expanding, all pointed in a direction different from that of the Steady State Theory. This led astronomers and cosmologists to begin pondering what the universe would have looked like before its expansion. At some point in the past the universe must have been much smaller, but how much smaller could it have been?

Quantum mechanics allows us to imagine and make practical predictions about how tiny the universe could have been in the past, which greatly helped the Big Bang Theory to catch on. It was suggested that the universe was at one point so tiny that it was the size of the tip of a needle, and was referred to as a singularity, much like the singularity of a black hole. But a black hole limitlessly pulls in everything around it, and there's no evidence of black holes exploding and creating new universes within our own. So the singularity idea faded away, though almost painfully slowly in some circles.

Journalists, and sometimes scientists, will erronously state that there was once nothing, and then the Big Bang created the universe. This isn't correct. There was never "nothing." You can look at this in two ways. 1) Energy can be created from matter, and matter can be created from energy. In fact, matter pushed to the speed of light literally becomes energy. Thus, even if the universe were crushed under all it's own gravity at the speed of light into energy 13.7 or so billion years ago at the place where the big bang occured, there was still energy. There was still something. Then there's option 2) Maybe God created the uinverse, but He would still have been here before us so there could never have been nothing.

With option 1, the universe began as energy packed so tight that even our theories of quantum mechanics cannot agree on what might have happened. It seems logical, at least on our common macroscopic level, that energy packed so tight would explode and begin expanding outward. And if we started from energy, that energy had to come from somewhere. Perhaps from some prior universe.

User Avatar

Wiki User

9y ago

What else can I help you with?

Continue Learning about Physics

What are some questions about the Big Bang theory and its implications for the origin of the universe?

Some questions about the Big Bang theory and its implications for the origin of the universe include: What caused the Big Bang? How did the universe evolve after the Big Bang? What evidence supports the Big Bang theory? What are the implications of the Big Bang for our understanding of the universe's beginning and future?


What are the three main pieces of evidence supporting the Big Bang theory?

The three main pieces of evidence supporting the Big Bang theory are the cosmic microwave background radiation, the abundance of light elements in the universe, and the redshift of galaxies.


Background radiation detected in space is believed to be evidence that?

the universe underwent a Big Bang, as this radiation is the remnant heat left over from the early stages of the universe. This background radiation, known as the cosmic microwave background, supports the Big Bang theory as it provides a way to study the conditions in the early universe.


What is one major piece of evidence that supports the validity of the Big Bang theory?

One major piece of evidence supporting the validity of the Big Bang theory is the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is a faint glow of radiation that fills the universe and is considered a remnant of the early stages of the universe's expansion.


What theory proposes that all the matter in the universe simply exploded outward after it was compressed into a small space under tremendous pressure'?

the big bang theory

Related Questions

Is the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy evidence in support of Big Bang Cosmology?

no the no. of stars in the milky way is not the evidence in support of the big bang cosmology.


What evidence was used to develop the big bang theory?

The red shift and the cosmic microwave background radiation was the evidence used to develop the big bang theory.


How does the evidence of the wmap and COBE support the big bang theory?

The work provided even more additional evidence to support the Big Bang theory of the universe.It was also regarded as the starting point for cosmologyas a precision science.


What do you think scientists would do if they found evidence that did not support the Big Bang theory?

Discard it all.


What was one form of evidence used to support the Big Bang theory?

The observation that red shifts of distant galaxies gets greater the further away the galaxies are.


How does expanding universe provide evidence for big bang theory?

It is not so much that the universe is expanding, but rather the rationalization for its expansion that provides evidence to support the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang supports interpreted observational evidence of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) barrier that there is an evolutionary expansion of the universe which promotes a finite age for the universe.


What does the big bang theory have to do with the universes expansion?

It is not so much that the universe is expanding, but rather the rationalization for its expansion that provides evidence to support the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang supports interpreted observational evidence of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) barrier that there is an evolutionary expansion of the universe which promotes a finite age for the universe.


What form of evidence is used to to support the big bang theory?

The redshift of distant galaxies, which is normally attributed to the Doppler effect.=========================Comment #1:It's important to include in the answer the fact that the question speaks ofhow science is NOT done. Evidence is not used to support theory. Theoryis the attempt to explain existing evidence. THAT's how science works.


What evidence is collected in support of the big bang theory?

expansion of the universe as shown by the Hubble constant3K universal microwave background radiationetc.


What evidence is collected by the tools used to support the Big Bang theory?

Hello i am minakshi and the answer is that the evidence collected by each tool is that the cosmic background microwave radiation sent by cosmic background explorer through radars it suggest that there was big bang in the past as big bang theory supports , the hubble space telescope which gives us information about the red shifs of galaxies and the doplers efect, and the analizationof the presence of light elements hydrogen and helium through spectroscope.


Does the big bang theory support the big rip theory?

No


When will big bang two will happen?

yes it will happen again after the big crunch then of course, the big munch..... At present there is no evidence that another Big Bang will occur.