The Big Bang and the Origin of the Universe
If, out of curiosity, we pick up a reference book or some popular science manual, we will certainly stumble upon one of the versions of the theory of the origin of the Universe - the so-called big bang theory. Briefly, this theory can be stated as follows: initially, all matter was compressed into one "point", which had an unusually high temperature, and then this "point" exploded with tremendous force. As a result of the explosion, atoms, substances, planets, stars, galaxies and, finally, life were gradually formed from a super-hot cloud of subatomic particles gradually expanding in all directions. At the same time, the Expansion of the Universe continues, and it is not known how long it will continue: perhaps someday it will reach its boundaries.There is another theory of the origin of the universe. According to it, the origin of the Universe, the entire universe, life and man is a reasonable creative act carried out by God, the creator and omnipotent, the nature of which is incomprehensible to the human mind. "Convinced" materialists are usually inclined to ridicule this theory, but since half of humanity believes in it in one form or another, we have no right to pass it over in silence.
explaining origin of the universe and man from a mechanistic position, interpreting the Universe as a product of matter, whose development is subject to the objective laws of nature, supporters of rationalism, as a rule, deny non-physical factors, especially when it comes to the existence of some kind of Universal or Cosmic mind, since this is "unscientific". Scientific same should be considered that which can be described with the help of mathematical formulas.
One of the biggest problems facing the proponents of the big bang theory is precisely that none of the scenarios they propose for the origin of the universe can be described mathematically or physically. According to basic theories big bang, the initial state of the Universe was a point of infinitely small size with infinitely high density and infinitely high temperature. However, such a state goes beyond the limits of mathematical logic and cannot be described formally. So in reality, nothing definite can be said about the initial state of the Universe, and the calculations here fail. Therefore, this state has received the name "phenomenon" among scientists.Since this barrier has not yet been overcome, in popular science publications for the general public, the topic of "phenomenon" is usually omitted altogether, and in specialized scientific publications and publications whose authors are trying to somehow cope with this mathematical problem, about the "phenomenon" are said to be scientifically unacceptable. Stephen Hawking, professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and J.F.R. Ellis, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, in his book "The Long Scale of Space-Time Structure" states: beyond the known laws of physics." Then we have to admit that in the name of substantiating the "phenomenon", this cornerstone big bang theory, it is necessary to admit the possibility of using research methods that go beyond the scope of modern physics.
The "phenomenon", like any other starting point of the "beginning of the universe", which includes something that cannot be described by scientific categories, remains an open question. However, the following question arises: where did the "phenomenon" itself come from, how did it form? After all, the problem of "phenomenon" is only part of a much larger problem, the problem of the very source of the initial state of the Universe. In other words, if the Universe was originally compressed into a point, then what brought it to this state? And even if we abandon the “phenomenon” that causes theoretical difficulties, the question still remains: how did the Universe form?
In an attempt to circumvent this difficulty, some scientists propose the so-called "pulsating universe" theory. In their opinion, the Universe is infinite, over and over again, it shrinks to a point, then it expands to some boundaries. Such a universe has neither beginning nor end, there is only a cycle of expansion and a cycle of contraction. At the same time, the authors of the hypothesis claim that the Universe has always existed, thereby seemingly completely removing the question of the "beginning of the world." But the fact is that no one has yet presented a satisfactory explanation of the mechanism of pulsation. Why does the Universe pulsate? What are the reasons for it? Physicist Steven Weinberg in his book "The First Three Minutes" indicates that with each next pulsation in the Universe, the ratio of the number of photons to the number of nucleons must inevitably increase, which leads to the extinction of new pulsations. Weinberg concludes that in this way the number of cycles of pulsation of the Universe is finite, which means that at some point they must stop. Therefore, the "pulsating Universe" has an end, and therefore has a beginning...
And again we run into the problem of the beginning. Einstein's general theory of relativity creates additional trouble. The main problem with this theory is that it does not consider time as we know it. In Einstein's theory, time and space are combined into a four-dimensional space-time continuum. It is impossible for him to describe an object as occupying a certain place at a certain time. The relativistic description of an object defines its spatial and temporal position as a single whole, stretched from the beginning to the end of the object's existence. For example, a person would be depicted as a single whole along the entire path of his development from the embryo to the corpse. Such constructions are called "space-time worms".
But if we are "space-time worms", then we are only an ordinary form of matter. The fact that man is a rational being is not taken into account. By defining man as a "worm", the theory of relativity does not take into account our individual perception of the past, present and future, but considers a number of separate cases, united by spatio-temporal existence. In fact, we know that we exist only in today, while the past exists only in our memory, and the future - in our imagination. And this means that all concepts of the "beginning of the Universe", built on the theory of relativity, do not take into account the perception of time by human consciousness. However, time itself is still little studied.
Analyzing alternative, non-mechanistic concepts of the origin of the Universe, John Gribbin in his book "White Gods" emphasizes that in recent years there has been a "series of ups and downs of the creative imagination of thinkers, whom today we no longer call either prophets or clairvoyants." One of such creative upsurges was the concept of "white holes", or quasars, which "spit out" entire galaxies in the flow of primary matter. Another hypothesis discussed in cosmology is the idea of so-called space-time tunnels, so-called "space channels". This idea was first expressed in 1962 by physicist John Wheeler in the book "Geometrodynamics", in which the researcher formulated the possibility of extra-spatial, extraordinarily fast intergalactic travel, which, if moving at the speed of light, would take millions of years. Some versions of the concept of "supra-dimensional channels" consider the possibility of using them to travel to the past and future, as well as to other universes and dimensions.
God and the Big Bang
As you can see, the "big bang" theory is under attack from all sides, which causes legitimate displeasure among orthodox scientists. At the same time, scientific publications more and more often come across indirect or direct recognition of the existence of supernatural forces beyond the control of science. There is a growing number of scientists, including major mathematicians and theoretical physicists, who are convinced of the existence of God or a higher Mind. Such scientists include, for example, Nobel Prize winners George Wylde and William McCree. The famous Soviet scientist, doctor of sciences, physicist and mathematician O.V. Tupitsyn was the first Russian scientist who managed to mathematically prove that the Universe, and with it man, were created by a Mind that is immeasurably more powerful than ours, that is, by God.One cannot argue, writes O. V. Tupitsyn in his Notebooks, that life, including intelligent life, is always a strictly ordered process. Life is based on order, a system of laws by which matter moves. Death is, on the contrary, disorder, chaos and, as a consequence, the destruction of matter. No order is possible without influence from the outside, moreover, the influence of a reasonable and purposeful one - the process of destruction immediately begins, which means death. Without understanding this, and therefore without recognizing the idea of God, science will never be destined to discover the root cause of the Universe that arose from pra-matter as a result of strictly ordered processes or, as physics calls them, fundamental laws. Fundamental - this means basic and unchanging, without which the existence of the world would be generally impossible.
However, it is very difficult for a modern person, especially one brought up on atheism, to include God in the system of his worldview - due to undeveloped intuition and a complete lack of a concept of God. Well, then, you have to believe in big Bang...
“In the beginning there was an explosion. Not the explosion that we are familiar with on Earth and which starts from a certain center and then spreads, capturing more and more space, but an explosion that occurred simultaneously everywhere, filling all space from the very beginning, with each particle of matter rushing away from any other particles." S. Weinberg. First three minutes.
A modern view of the origin of the universe
According to modern concepts, the Universe we observe now arose 13.77 ± 0.059 billion years ago from some initial singular state and has been continuously expanding and cooling since then. This moment is considered to be the moment of the birth of the Universe, and therefore it is often taken as the beginning of time.
The discovery of the expanding universe was one of the significant intellectual upheavals of the 20th century. Now we can only wonder that such an idea did not come up sooner. Isaac Newton and other scientists should have realized that the statistical universe would soon necessarily begin to contract under the influence of gravitational forces. At the same time, faith in a static universe was so great that it existed in the minds of scientists as early as the beginning of the 20th century. Even Einstein, developing the general theory of relativity, was sure of the static nature of the World.
The Big Bang and the recession of galaxies were proven thanks to such a phenomenon as the Doppler effect. After the Soviet mathematician Alexander Fridman obtained a general solution to the Einstein equations applied to the description of the entire Universe, it was found that the Universe changes with time. Star systems cannot be at constant distances from each other and must either move closer or move away.
From this follows the conclusion that the Universe must expand or, conversely, contract to its initial state. In particular, Friedman predicted the need for the existence of a "singular state", and hence the need for a reason that prompted the superdense substance to expand. That is, in the distant past, the Universe was not like the one we observe today. Previously, there were no separate celestial bodies or systems. The world was almost homogeneous, very dense and rapidly expanding. Only much later, stars arose from this substance. This was the theoretical discovery of an exploding universe.
Later, astronomer Edmine Hubble confirmed this theory by studying the spectra of galaxies. Star systems and galaxies are structural units of the Universe. They are observed from great distances, and therefore the study of their movements has become the basis for studying the kinematics of the Universe. The speed of moving away and approaching objects can be measured using the so-called Doppler effect, according to which the wavelength of an approaching light source is less than that of a receding one. That is, the color of the first source will be shifted to the end of the violet spectrum, and the second - to red.
Exploring the light of very distant stars, astronomers found that the lines of their spectra are shifted towards the red edge. A long study of the spectra of galaxies showed that almost all star systems are moving away from us, and the farther, the faster. This discovery was a shock to many scientists, who believed that all galaxies move randomly, and the number of receding and approaching galaxy clusters is approximately the same. Later, astrophysicists established that it is not stars and galaxies that scatter, but the clusters of galaxies themselves.
At the same time, the removal of galaxies in the Doppler interpretation of the redshift is not the only evidence of the Big Bang. An independent confirmation is black-body background cosmic radiation - a constant weak background of radio waves coming to us from space from all sides. In 1940, physicist Georgy Gamow put forward a theory about the hot Universe, which was that at the very beginning of the expansion of the Universe, the temperature of matter was very high and fell with expansion. Another conclusion of the theory was that in today's Universe there should be weak electromagnetic radiation left over from an era of high density and temperature of matter. As the universe evolved, it cooled until the radiation turned into a faint remnant. And today, the intensity of this cosmic microwave background radiation is what one would expect in our time from a noticeably weakened Big Bang.
Brian Greene, in his book The Fabric of the Cosmos, notes that it is wrong to think of the Big Bang as a theory of the origin of the cosmos. The Big Bang is a theory that maps out cosmic evolution from a fraction of a second after something happens to bring the universe into existence. This theory does not say what exploded, the cause of the singularity, or matter and energy.
As a result of the development of the theory of the Big Bang, scientists have identified the start point of the expansion of the observable Universe - the cosmological singularity. At this moment, the mathematically correct description of the geometry of space and time is violated. The term "singularity" itself can be called a feature, because the initial state of matter was characterized by absolutely exceptional densities of matter and energy, tending to infinity. Sometimes the singularity is called the "primordial fireball" in which none of the structures observed today, neither galaxies nor stars, could exist. Even atoms had to be separated into pieces under the influence of high pressure and temperature.
What happens in the area of the singularity is not known, but it is logically clear that many laws of the theory of relativity and quantum physics are violated there.
Knowing that the history of our Universe began with a certain singular state, it is worth asking the question of what caused its expansion. Huge pressure at the beginning cannot cause a high speed of expansion of the substance, because due to the homogeneity of the initial stage, pressure drops disappear, which can create a force leading to expansion. Moreover, high pressure increases the forces of gravity, slowing down the expansion of space. However, there are vacuum properties that, in some cases, have positive energy density, matter density, negative pressure or tension. This leads to the fact that the cosmological constant, a quantity that characterizes the properties of vacuum, can turn out to be so large that with its gravitational action it will eclipse the gravity of ordinary physical matter and lead to a “push” from which the expansion of the Universe began. Based on the foregoing, it is worth noting that the process of the Big Bang cannot be compared with the explosion of a grenade, when particles and atoms are born and fly apart in space, like fragments and gases. This analogy is absolutely wrong and does not explain how space and time arose. In the case of a bomb, the force that pushes the particles apart is caused by a pressure gradient inside the matter, while in the Universe matter is homogeneous and there are no pressure gradients. Due to the large value of the negative pressure, the sign of the source changes, and antigravity occurs, which leads to the expansion of the world. This is what caused the Big Bang.
It is important to understand that the expansion of space does not affect the size of objects - stars, galaxies and nebulae (Fig. 1).
This is due to the gravitational forces that hold galaxies together. If everything expanded freely, then we ourselves, Fig. 1
our houses and planets would expand in proportion to the expansion of space, and we would not notice any difference.
Usually scientists combine the Big Bang theory and the hot Universe model, but these concepts are independent, and historically there was also a concept of a cold initial Universe near the Big Bang. Today, the theory of a hot early universe is proven by the presence of cosmic microwave background radiation.
Astronomers have found other evidence that links the Big Bang to the hot early universe. For about one minute after the explosion, the temperature of the young Mir was higher than in the core of any star. The universe worked like a fusion reactor, but the reactions stopped when the universe cooled and expanded. At the same time, it consisted of hydrogen and helium with small impurities of lithium. The calculations are in good agreement with the masses of helium and hydrogen that we observe in our time.
Behind the mystery of the cosmic singularity, the secret of the origin of the Universe was hidden for a long time, however, in the 1960s. other scenarios of the origin of the World began to emerge.
The Big Bang theory has become almost as widely accepted a cosmological model as the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. According to the theory, about 14 billion years ago, spontaneous fluctuations in the absolute void led to the emergence of the universe. Something comparable in size to a subatomic particle expanded to an unimaginable size in a fraction of a second. But in this theory there are many problems over which physicists are struggling, putting forward more and more new hypotheses.
What's Wrong with the Big Bang Theory
It follows from the theory that all the planets and stars were formed from the dust scattered through space as a result of the explosion. But what preceded it is unclear: here our mathematical model of space-time stops working. The universe arose from an initial singular state, to which modern physics cannot be applied. The theory also does not consider the causes of the occurrence of the singularity or the matter and energy for its occurrence. It is believed that the answer to the question of the existence and origin of the initial singularity will be given by the theory of quantum gravity.
Most cosmological models predict that the full universe is much larger than the observable part - a spherical region with a diameter of about 90 billion light years. We see only that part of the Universe, the light from which managed to reach the Earth in 13.8 billion years. But telescopes are getting better, we are discovering more and more distant objects, and so far there is no reason to believe that this process will stop.
Since the Big Bang, the universe has been expanding at an accelerating rate. The most difficult riddle of modern physics is the question of what causes acceleration. According to the working hypothesis, the Universe contains an invisible component called "dark energy". The Big Bang theory does not explain whether the Universe will expand indefinitely, and if so, what this will lead to - to its disappearance or something else.
Although Newtonian mechanics was supplanted by relativistic physics, it cannot be called wrong. However, the perception of the world and the models for describing the universe have completely changed. The Big Bang Theory predicted a number of things that were not known before. Thus, if another theory takes its place, then it should be similar and expand the understanding of the world.
We will focus on the most interesting theories describing alternative Big Bang models.
The universe is like a mirage of a black hole
The universe arose due to the collapse of a star in a four-dimensional universe, scientists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics believe. The results of their research were published in Scientific American. Niayesh Afshordi, Robert Mann and Razi Pourhasan say that our three-dimensional universe became like a "holographic mirage" when a four-dimensional star collapsed. Unlike the Big Bang theory, according to which the Universe arose from extremely hot and dense space-time, where the standard laws of physics do not apply, the new hypothesis of a four-dimensional universe explains both the reasons for the birth and its rapid expansion.
According to the scenario formulated by Afshordi and his colleagues, our three-dimensional universe is a kind of membrane that floats through an even larger universe that already exists in four dimensions. If there were four-dimensional stars in this four-dimensional space, they would also explode, just like the three-dimensional ones in our Universe. The inner layer would become a black hole, and the outer layer would be ejected into space.
In our universe, black holes are surrounded by a sphere called the event horizon. And if in three-dimensional space this boundary is two-dimensional (like a membrane), then in a four-dimensional universe, the event horizon will be limited to a sphere that exists in three dimensions. Computer simulations of the collapse of a four-dimensional star have shown that its three-dimensional event horizon will gradually expand. This is exactly what we observe, calling the growth of a 3D membrane the expansion of the universe, astrophysicists believe.
Big Freeze
An alternative to the Big Bang could be the Big Freeze. A team of physicists from the University of Melbourne, led by James Kvatch, presented a model for the birth of the universe, which is more like a gradual process of freezing amorphous energy than its splash and expansion in three directions of space.
The formless energy, according to scientists, cooled like water to crystallization, creating the usual three spatial and one temporal dimensions.
The Big Freeze theory casts doubt on Albert Einstein's currently accepted assertion of the continuity and fluidity of space and time. It is possible that space has constituent parts - indivisible building blocks, like tiny atoms or pixels in computer graphics. These blocks are so small that they cannot be observed, however, following the new theory, it is possible to detect defects that should refract the flows of other particles. Scientists have calculated such effects using the mathematical apparatus, and now they will try to detect them experimentally.
Universe without beginning or end
Ahmed Farag Ali of Benh University in Egypt and Sauria Das of the University of Lethbridge in Canada have come up with a new solution to the singularity problem by ditching the Big Bang. They brought ideas from the famous physicist David Bohm to the Friedmann equation describing the expansion of the Universe and the Big Bang. “It's amazing that small adjustments can potentially solve so many issues,” says Das.
The resulting model combined the general theory of relativity and quantum theory. It not only denies the singularity that preceded the Big Bang, but also prevents the universe from shrinking back to its original state over time. According to the data obtained, the Universe has a finite size and an infinite lifetime. In physical terms, the model describes the Universe filled with a hypothetical quantum fluid, which consists of gravitons - particles that provide gravitational interaction.
The scientists also claim that their findings are consistent with recent measurements of the density of the universe.
Endless chaotic inflation
The term "inflation" refers to the rapid expansion of the universe, which occurred exponentially in the first moments after the Big Bang. By itself, the theory of inflation does not refute the Big Bang theory, but only interprets it differently. This theory solves several fundamental problems of physics.
According to the inflationary model, shortly after its birth, the universe expanded exponentially for a very short time: its size doubled many times over. Scientists believe that in 10 to -36 seconds, the universe increased in size by at least 10 to 30-50 times, and possibly more. At the end of the inflationary phase, the Universe was filled with a superhot plasma of free quarks, gluons, leptons, and high-energy quanta.
The concept implies that exists in the world many isolated universes with different device
Physicists have come to the conclusion that the logic of the inflationary model does not contradict the idea of a constant multiple birth of new universes. Quantum fluctuations - the same as those that created our world - can occur in any quantity, if there are suitable conditions for this. It is quite possible that our universe has emerged from the fluctuation zone formed in the predecessor world. It can also be assumed that sometime and somewhere in our Universe a fluctuation will form, which will “blow out” the young Universe of a completely different kind. According to this model, child universes can bud continuously. At the same time, it is not at all necessary that the same physical laws are established in the new worlds. The concept implies that in the world there are many universes isolated from each other with different structures.
Cyclic theory
Paul Steinhardt, one of the physicists who laid the foundations of inflationary cosmology, decided to develop this theory further. The scientist who heads the Center for Theoretical Physics at Princeton, along with Neil Turok from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, outlined an alternative theory in the book Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang ("Infinite Universe: Beyond the Big Bang"). Their model is based on a generalization of quantum superstring theory known as M-theory. According to her, the physical world has 11 dimensions - ten spatial and one temporal. Spaces of smaller dimensions “float” in it, the so-called branes (short for "membrane"). Our universe is just one of those branes.
The Steinhardt and Turok model states that the Big Bang occurred as a result of the collision of our brane with another brane - a universe unknown to us. In this scenario, collisions occur indefinitely. According to the hypothesis of Steinhardt and Turok, another three-dimensional brane “floats” next to our brane, separated by a tiny distance. It also expands, flattens, and empties, but in a trillion years, the branes will begin to converge and eventually collide. In this case, a huge amount of energy, particles and radiation will be released. This cataclysm will launch another cycle of expansion and cooling of the Universe. From the model of Steinhardt and Turok, it follows that these cycles have been in the past and will certainly repeat in the future. How these cycles began, the theory is silent.
Universe
like a computer
Another hypothesis about the structure of the universe says that our entire world is nothing more than a matrix or a computer program. The idea that the universe is a digital computer was first proposed by the German engineer and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse in his book Calculating Space ("computing space"). Among those who also viewed the universe as a giant computer are physicists Stephen Wolfram and Gerard "t Hooft.
Digital physics theorists suggest that the universe is essentially information and therefore computable. From these assumptions it follows that the Universe can be considered as the result of a computer program or a digital computing device. This computer could be, for example, a giant cellular automaton or a universal Turing machine.
indirect evidence virtual nature of the universe called the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics
According to the theory, every object and event of the physical world comes from asking questions and registering “yes” or “no” answers. That is, behind everything that surrounds us, there is a certain code, similar to the binary code of a computer program. And we are a kind of interface through which access to the data of the “universal Internet” appears. An indirect proof of the virtual nature of the Universe is called the uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics: particles of matter can exist in an unstable form, and are “fixed” in a specific state only when they are observed.
A follower of digital physics, John Archibald Wheeler, wrote: “It would not be unreasonable to imagine that information is in the core of physics in the same way as in the core of a computer. Everything from the beat. In other words, everything that exists - every particle, every force field, even the space-time continuum itself - receives its function, its meaning, and, ultimately, its very existence.
Big Bang. This is the name of the theory, or rather one of the theories, of the origin or, if you like, the creation of the Universe. The name, perhaps, is too frivolous for such a frightening and awe-inspiring event. Especially intimidating if you have ever asked yourself very difficult questions about the universe.
For example, if the universe is all that is, how did it begin? And what happened before that? If space is not infinite, then what is beyond it? And what exactly should this something be placed in? How can you understand the word "infinite"?
These things are difficult to understand. Moreover, when you start to think about it, you get an eerie feeling of something majestic - terrible. But questions about the universe are one of the most important questions that mankind has asked itself throughout its history.
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What was the beginning of the existence of the universe?
Most scientists are convinced that the beginning of the existence of the universe was laid by a grandiose big explosion of matter that occurred about 15 billion years ago. For many years, most scientists shared the hypothesis that the beginning of the universe was marked by a huge explosion, which scientists jokingly dubbed the "Big Bang". In their opinion, all matter and all space, which is now represented by billions and millions of galaxies and stars, 15 billion years ago fit in a tiny space no larger than a few words in this sentence.
How was the universe formed?
Scientists believe that 15 billion years ago, this small volume exploded into tiny particles smaller than atoms, giving rise to the existence of the universe. Initially, it was a nebula of small particles. Later, when these particles were combined, atoms were formed. Star galaxies were formed from atoms. Since that Big Bang, the universe has continued to expand like an inflating balloon.
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Doubts about the Big Bang Theory
But over the past few years, scientists studying the structure of the universe have made some unexpected discoveries. Some of them question the Big Bang theory. What can you do, our world does not always correspond to our comfortable ideas about it.
Distribution of matter during an explosion
One problem is the way in which matter is distributed throughout the universe. When an object explodes, its contents scatter evenly in all directions. In other words, if matter was initially compressed in a small volume and then exploded, then the matter should have been evenly distributed over the space of the Universe.
The reality, however, is very different from the expected representations. We live in a very unevenly filled universe. When looking into space, separate clumps of matter appear far from each other. Enormous galaxies are scattered here and there in outer space. Between
Even modern scientists cannot say exactly what was in the Universe before the Big Bang. There are several hypotheses that lift the veil of secrecy over one of the most complex issues of the universe.
Origin of the material world
Prior to the 20th century, there were only two. Religious believers believed that the world was created by God. Scientists, on the contrary, refused to recognize the man-made universe. Physicists and astronomers were supporters of the idea that the cosmos has always existed, the world was static and everything will remain the same as it was billions of years ago.
However, accelerated scientific progress at the turn of the century led to the fact that researchers have the opportunity to study extraterrestrial expanses. Some of them were the first to try to answer the question of what was in the Universe before the Big Bang.
Hubble research
The 20th century destroyed many theories of past eras. New hypotheses appeared in the vacated place, explaining hitherto incomprehensible secrets. It all started with the fact that scientists established the fact of the expansion of the universe. It was made by Edwin Hubble. He discovered that distant galaxies differ in their light from those cosmic clusters that were closer to the Earth. The discovery of this regularity formed the basis of Edwin Hubble's law of expansion.
The big bang and the origin of the universe were studied when it became clear that all galaxies "run away" from the observer, no matter where he was. How could this be explained? Since galaxies are moving, it means that some kind of energy is pushing them forward. In addition, physicists have calculated that all the worlds were once at the same point. Due to some kind of push, they began to move in all directions with unimaginable speed.
This phenomenon is called the Big Bang. And the origin of the universe was explained precisely with the help of the theory about this long-standing event. When did it happen? Physicists have determined the speed of movement of galaxies and derived a formula by which they calculated when the initial "shock" occurred. No one can name exact numbers, but approximately this phenomenon took place about 15 billion years ago.
The emergence of the Big Bang theory
The fact that all galaxies are sources of light means that a huge amount of energy was released during the Big Bang. It was she who gave rise to the very brightness that the worlds lose in the course of their distance from the epicenter of what happened. The Big Bang theory was first proven by American astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias. They detected an electromagnetic cosmic microwave background whose temperature was three degrees Kelvin (that is, -270 Celsius). This finding supported the idea that the universe was extremely hot at first.
The Big Bang theory answered many of the questions posed in the 19th century. However, now there are new ones. For example, what was in the Universe before the Big Bang? Why is it so homogeneous, while with such a huge release of energy, the substance should scatter unevenly in all directions? The discoveries of Wilson and Arno called into question the classical Euclidean geometry, since it was proved that space has zero curvature.
inflationary theory
The new questions posed showed that the modern theory of the origin of the world is fragmentary and incomplete. However, for a long time it seemed that it would be impossible to move beyond the open in the 60s. And only very recent research by scientists has made it possible to formulate a new important principle for theoretical physics. It was a phenomenon of superfast inflationary expansion of the Universe. It has been studied and described using quantum field theory and Einstein's general theory of relativity.
So what was the universe like before the Big Bang? Modern science calls this period "inflation". In the beginning, there was only a field that filled all the imaginary space. It can be compared to a snowball thrown down the slope of a snowy mountain. The lump will roll down and increase in size. In the same way, the field, due to random fluctuations, changed its structure over an unimaginable time.
When a homogeneous configuration was formed, a reaction occurred. It contains the biggest mysteries of the universe. What happened before the Big Bang? An inflationary field that didn't look like current matter at all. After the reaction, the growth of the universe began. If we continue the analogy with a snowball, then after the first of them other snowballs rolled down, also increasing in size. The moment of the Big Bang in this system can be compared to the second when a huge boulder fell into the abyss and finally collided with the earth. In that moment, an enormous amount of energy was released. She still can't get over. It is due to the continuation of the reaction from the explosion that our Universe is growing today.
Matter and field
Now the Universe consists of an unimaginable number of stars and other cosmic bodies. This collection of matter exudes tremendous energy, which contradicts the physical law of conservation of energy. What does he say? The essence of this principle boils down to the fact that over an infinite time the amount of energy in the system remains unchanged. But how can this be combined with our universe, which continues to expand?
The inflationary theory was able to answer this question. It is extremely rare that such mysteries of the universe are solved. What happened before the Big Bang? inflation field. After the emergence of the world, matter familiar to us came in its place. However, in addition to it, in the Universe there also exists which has negative energy. The properties of these two entities are opposite. This is how the energy coming from particles, stars, planets and other matter is compensated. This relationship also explains why the universe has not yet turned into a black hole.
When the Big Bang first happened, the world was too small for anything to collapse. Now, when the Universe has expanded, local black holes have appeared in some of its parts. Their gravitational field absorbs everything around them. Not even light can escape from it. Actually because of this, such holes become black.
Universe expansion
Even despite the theoretical substantiation of the inflationary theory, it is still not clear what the Universe looked like before the Big Bang. The human imagination cannot imagine this picture. The fact is that the inflationary field is intangible. It cannot be explained by the usual laws of physics.
When the Big Bang happened, the inflationary field began to expand at a rate that exceeded the speed of light. According to physical indicators, there is nothing material in the Universe that could move faster than this indicator. Light spreads through the existing world with exorbitant numbers. The inflationary field has spread with even greater speed, precisely because of its non-material nature.
The current state of the universe
The current period of the evolution of the Universe is the best suited for the existence of life. Scientists find it difficult to determine how long this time period will last. But if anyone undertook such calculations, then the resulting figures were in no way less than hundreds of billions of years. For one human life, such a segment is so large that even in mathematical calculation it has to be written using degrees. The present has been studied much better than the prehistory of the universe. What happened before the Big Bang, in any case, will remain only the subject of theoretical research and bold calculations.
In the material world, even time remains a relative quantity. For example, quasars (a type of astronomical objects) that exist at a distance of 14 billion light years from the Earth lag behind our usual “now” by those same 14 billion light years. This time gap is enormous. It is difficult to define it even mathematically, not to mention the fact that it is simply impossible to clearly imagine such a thing with the help of human imagination (even the most ardent one).
Modern science can theoretically explain to itself the entire life of our material world, starting from the first fractions of seconds of its existence, when the Big Bang had just occurred. The complete history of the universe is still being completed. Astronomers discover new amazing facts with the help of modernized and improved research equipment (telescopes, laboratories, etc.).
However, there are still not understood phenomena. Such a white spot, for example, is its dark energy. The essence of this hidden mass continues to excite the minds of the most educated and advanced physicists of our time. In addition, there has never been a unified point of view about the reasons why there are still more particles in the Universe than antiparticles. Several fundamental theories have been formulated on this subject. Some of these models are the most popular, but none of them has yet been accepted by the international scientific community as
On the scale of universal knowledge and the colossal discoveries of the 20th century, these gaps seem quite insignificant. But the history of science shows with enviable regularity that the explanation of such "small" facts and phenomena becomes the basis for the whole idea of mankind about the discipline as a whole (in this case, we are talking about astronomy). Therefore, future generations of scientists will certainly have something to do and something to discover in the field of understanding the nature of the Universe.
