WHAT IS

UNIVERSE?
It includes living things,
planets, stars, galaxies,
dust clouds, light, and
even time.
Before the birth of
the Universe, time,
space and matter did not
exist.
The Universe contains
billions of galaxies, each
containing millions or
billions of stars.
In 1992, the Cosmic
Background Explorer
(COBE) satellite
showed that 99.97 %
of the energy of the
universe was released
within the first year of
its origin.
"Cosmos" - another
word for universe, and
"cosmology" is the
study of the origin,
evolution and fate of
the universe.
This evidence seems to
confirm the Big Bang
theory, which holds that
the universe originated
from a single violent
explosion (a big bang) of
a very small amount of
matter of extremely high
density and temperature.
Astronomers also
theorize that 99% of the
matter in the universe is
invisible, or dark
matter, composed of
some kind of matter that
is difficult to detect.
Non scientific thought
Ancient Egyptians believed in many Gods
and myths which narrate that the world arose
from an infinite sea at the first rising of the
sun.
Central Africa (Kuba people) tell the story of
a creator god Mbombo (Bumba) who, alone
in a dark and water covered Earth, felt an
intense stomach pain and then vomited the
stars, sun, and moon.
In india, there is the narrative that gods
sacrificed Purusha, the primal man
whose head, feet, eyes, and mind
became the sky, earth, sun, and moon
respectively.
The monotheistic religions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam claim that a
supreme beingcreated the
universe,including man and other living
organisms.
Click on title for link
May explain how the
universe formed .

( Currently accepted theory)

 Big Bang Theory
A theory that states that the
universe began to expand with
the explosion of concentrated
matter and energy.
The entire universe was
compacted into a teeny tiny little
ball, which, after randomly
coming into existence for no
apparent reason in the first place,
exploded into all space, time,
matter and energy in an instant.
This theory was born of the
observation that other galaxies
are moving away from our own at
great speed, in all directions, as if
they had all been propelled by an
ancient explosive force.
 Time begins
The universe begins
~13.8 Billion years
ago
The universe begins
as the size of a single
atom
The universe began
as a violent
expansion
All matter and space
were created from a
single point of pure
energy in an instant
 The theory rests on two ideas:
1. General Relativity (Einstein)
Gravity is thought of as a distortion
of space time and no longer
described by a gravitational field.
2. Cosmological Principle
Assumes that the universe is
homogeneous and isotropic when
averaged over large scales.
After the Big
Bang, the force of
gravity began to
affect the matter
shooting outward
in every direction.
The galaxies are moving further away from each
other, with more space in-between.
In the first second after the explosion, gravity
and electro-magnetism were created.
In the first minute the universe had grown to
1million billion miles (1,000,000,000,000) across
In the first 3 minutes, the heat (10 billion
degrees celsius) causes nuclear reaction with
lightest particles to make 98% of all matter in the
universe.
Gravity began to pull
matter into clumps.

Gravity is a force of
attraction between
objects.
These clumps formed
huge clusters which
became galaxies of the
universe.
The galaxies are
moving away from
the center of the
universe.
The fastest moving
matter traveled the
farthest distance
away.
~200 to 400 million
years after Big
Bang 1st stars
and
galaxies
form
 ~ 4.6 billion years ago
Our
Solar
system
forms
The Big bang was thought to produce
2 main types of particle: matter and
anti-matter.
Matter and anti-matter in equal
quantities cancel each other out. The
surplus is what the universe is made
of.
 Evidence Supporting the
Big Bang Theory
1. Hubbles Law: the speed of the galaxies moving
away from each other causes a change in the
light spectrum, red shift.
2. Background radiation: We can still detect
radiation from an explosion of this size the
radiation is the same everywhere on earth (TV
static, etc).
3. Composition of Older Galaxies: Analysis of light
from galaxies towards the outside of the
universe confirm theories about the early
universe. They are made up of approx 93% H,
7% He, and trace Li
Astronomers
believe that the Big
Bang Theory leads
to two possible
futures:
Galaxies will continue
racing outward and
therefore the universe will
continue to expand until all
stars die off.
An open
universe leads
to total
emptiness.
Open Universe
Saddle Shaped
The expansion of the
universe will finally
come to a halt.
Gravity will pull
the galaxies
back toward the
center of the
universe.
Matter and energy will
come closer and closer
to the central area. [Big
Crunch]

Then another big bang

will occur.
Closed Universe
Sphere shaped
Our book states that the
universe is a closed
universe.

They believe that a big

bang may occur once every
80 to 100 billion years!
 Contradiction to the Big
Bang Theory:
Too much energy
Most of the universe is empty space: a vacuum
which is defined as a volume containing no particles,
force fields, nor waves. By definition a vacuum has
no energy. However, the Big Bang theory requires
both in its early phases and in its later phases that
the vacuum must have some energy.
The law of conservation of energy demands that
energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
 Contradiction 2
Too complex, too early
The universe has too many large
structures, to be created in 10-20 billion
years. We know the rate of expansion,
thus we can get a rough estimate on how
long it would take for them to form. In
order for these to form, it would take about
100 billion years.
 Food for thought:
Ex nihilo is a Latin term that translated
means out of nothing. It was an idea
presented by St. Augustine that became
Church doctrine. It is his philosophical
explanation of how God created everything out
of nothing, which interestingly enough can be
applied to the big bang as well. Where did
everything contained in the big bang come
from and why did it bang in the first place?
Scientists
now believe
in a new
theory:
According to Albert
Einstein, the universe
is a space-time continuum.

It could take one of

three forms .
1. Closed (looks like a sphere) Travel
far enough and you always come
back to the starting point.

The universe will slow down, stop,

then reverse direction causing a new
Big Bang.
2. Open universe (looks like a saddle)
galaxies continue to expand forever.

Up until this summer, most scientists

agreed that this theory was correct.
3. Flat universe: When
traveling in a straight line
you will never return to your
starting point. This is the
shape of our universe
according to the latest
observations.
The universe will expand
forever, but more slowly
all the time.
 Religious Use of the
Gap
1. As science is not 100% certain about the cause
of the Big Bang, it is reasonable to posit God
there (no evidence against this) this is a God
of the Gaps approach
2. Some facts about the world might always be
beyond science even if we do figure out all of
the processes behind how we got here, it still
does not answer why we are here. There could
always be an ultimate power behind it all. This
is an area of faith.
 Conclusions
1. Spontaneously created from nothing
(like Quarks appear to be) all natural
laws etc have developed randomly over
time
2. There are basic laws / creative powers
behind nature that explain how it has
come do develop the way it has. This
creative power is the final explanation
of the universe (which we call God)
Other theories
 String Theory
String theory suggests that the elementary particles are
one-dimensional strings as opposed to zero-dimensional
point particles.
All known elementary particles are made up of one
building block: the string.
The resonance of each string determines the properties
(mass, charge, spin, etc.) of the particle, thus different
resonant frequencies correspond to different particles.
Strings are on the order of the Planck length (10 -35 m),
or 1020 times smaller than the diameter of an atomic
nucleus!
 The Second String
Revolution
1995: Edward Witten introduced M-theory, combining the
five different conflicting theories, beginning the Second
String Theory Revolution.
What does the M stand for? Nobody knows, but there are
many suggestions:
master, mathematical, mother, mystery, membrane, magic, matrix
theory, or is jut an upside down W?

Today: M-Theory remains incomplete, and even after

long years of intense research string theory has incredibly
limited predictive power.
Thank you...

April R.Gersalia
Earth & Life
Food for thought:
What is the fate of the
Universe? Will the universe
continue to expand or it
eventually contract because of
gravity?