Big Bang

9 Pages 2374 Words

Some 12 billion years ago the universe emerged from a hot, dense sea of matter and energy. As the cosmos expanded and cooled, it spawned galaxies, stars, planets and life. Since the beginning of human civilization, people have always questioned the origins of their existence and the creation of the universe. Cosmology, the scientific study of the large scale structure and evolution of the universe, has developed and evolved in response to the human need to know our roots (Silk, Big Bang 1980 456). Within in this field of study, the Big Bang theory has become the most prevalent theory, because the majority of evidence from a variety of different investigations make it extremely likely that something like the Big Bang occurred.
The Big Bang theory of cosmology assumes that the universe began from a singular state of infinite density. As Joseph Silk defines the Big Bang theory, it is a model of the universe in which space-time began with an initial singularity and subsequently expands (Silk, Cosmic Enigmas 56). The theory first referenced in Alexander Friedmann's complete solution of Albert Einstein's equations, in 1922. In 1927, George¡¦s Lemaitre used equations to devise a cosmological theory that incorporated the concept that the universe has been expanding from an explosive moment of creation. However, the term "Big Bang," as a name for the initial cataclysmic event, was chosen by two men named George Gamow and R.A. Alpher due to their discovery of background radiation, a low-temperature radiation that penetrates the universe at microwave wavelengths (58). Its source is now believed to have been the extremely hot fireball with which the universe began, according to the Big Bang theory. Since its initial introduction, much evidence has helped to strengthen its case, and other theories have been added to it, such as the Inflationary theory. This theory seeks to account for the physical events, which took place in the very first momen...