Microscopic particles, which human vision is able to see only with a microscope, as well as huge planets and clusters of stars, amaze people. Since ancient times, our ancestors have tried to comprehend the principles of the formation of the cosmos, but even in the modern world there is still no exact answer to the question “how the universe was formed”. Perhaps the human mind cannot find a solution to such a global problem?
Scientists of different eras from all over the world tried to comprehend this secret. All theoretical explanations are based on assumptions and calculations. Numerous hypotheses put forward by scientists are designed to create an idea of \u200b\u200bthe universe and explain the emergence of its large-scale structure, chemical elements and describe the chronology of origin.
String theory
To some extent refutes the Big Bang as the initial moment of the emergence of the elements of outer space. According to the universe has always existed. The hypothesis describes the interaction and structure of matter, where there is a certain set of particles, which are divided into quarks, bosons and leptons. Speaking simple language, these elements are the basis of the universe, since their size is so small that division into other components has become impossible.
A distinctive feature of the theory of how the universe was formed is the statement about the aforementioned particles, which are ultramicroscopic strings that constantly vibrate. Alone they do not have material form, being the energy that together creates all the physical elements of the cosmos. An example in this situation is fire: looking at it, it seems to be matter, but it is intangible.
Big Bang - the first scientific hypothesis
The author of this assumption was the astronomer Edwin Hubble, who in 1929 noticed that galaxies were gradually moving away from each other. The theory states that the current big universe originated from a particle that was microscopic in size. The future elements of the universe were in a singular state, in which it is impossible to obtain data on pressure, temperature or density. The laws of physics in such conditions do not affect energy and matter.
The cause of the Big Bang is the instability that has developed inside the particle. A kind of fragments, spreading in space, formed a nebula. Over time, these tiny elements formed atoms, from which galaxies, stars and planets of the Universe emerged as we know them today.
Cosmic inflation
This theory of the birth of the Universe states that the modern world was originally placed at an infinitesimal point in a state of singularity, which began to expand at an incredible rate. After a very short period of time, its increase already exceeded the speed of light. This process was named "inflation".
The main task of the hypothesis is not to explain how the universe was formed, but the reasons for its expansion and the concept of cosmic singularity. As a result of working on this theory, it became clear that only calculations and results based on theoretical methods are applicable to solve this problem.
Creationism
This theory dominated long time until the end of the 19th century. According to creationism, the organic world, humanity, the Earth and the larger universe as a whole were created by God. The hypothesis originated among scientists who did not refute Christianity as an explanation for the history of the universe.
Creationism is the main enemy of evolution. All nature, created by God in six days, which we see every day, was originally such and remains unchanged to this day. That is, self-development as such did not exist.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the acceleration of the accumulation of knowledge in the field of physics, astronomy, mathematics and biology begins. With the help of new information, scientists make repeated attempts to explain how the universe was formed, thereby pushing creationism into the background. In the modern world, this theory has taken the form of a philosophical movement, consisting of religion as the basis, as well as myths, facts and even scientific knowledge.
Stephen Hawking's anthropic principle
His hypothesis as a whole can be described in a few words: random events can not be. Our Earth today has more than 40 characteristics, without which life on the planet would not exist.
The American astrophysicist H. Ross estimated the probability of random events. As a result, the scientist received the figure 10 with the degree -53 (if the last figure is less than 40, chance is considered impossible).
The observable universe contains a trillion galaxies, and each of them contains approximately 100 billion stars. Based on this, the number of planets in the Universe is 10 to the twentieth power, which is 33 orders of magnitude less than in the previous calculation. Consequently, in the whole space there are no such unique places with conditions as on Earth, which would allow the spontaneous emergence of life.
*** The first 10 in -43 seconds after the Big Bang is called the stage of quantum chaos. The nature of the universe at this stage of existence defies description within the framework of physics known to us. There is a disintegration of a continuous single space-time into quanta.
*** Planck moment - the moment of the end of quantum chaos, which falls at 10 in -43 seconds. At this moment, the parameters of the Universe were equal to Planck values, like the Planck temperature (about 1032 K). At the time of the Planck era, all four fundamental interactions (weak, strong, electromagnetic and gravitational) were combined into one kind of interaction. It is not possible to consider the Planck moment as a certain long period, since with parameters less than Planck modern physics does not work.
*** Stage of inflation. The next stage in the history of the Universe was the inflationary stage. At the first moment of inflation, the gravitational interaction separated from the unified supersymmetric field (which previously included the fields of fundamental interactions). During this period, matter has negative pressure, which causes an exponential increase in the kinetic energy of the universe. Simply put, during this period the Universe began to swell very quickly, and towards the end the energy of physical fields is converted into the energy of ordinary particles. At the end of this stage, the temperature of the substance and radiation rises significantly. Along with the end of the stage of inflation, a strong interaction stands out. Also at this moment the baryon asymmetry of the Universe arises.
[Baryon asymmetry of the Universe is the observed phenomenon of the predominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe]
*** Stage of radiation dominance. The next stage in the development of the Universe, which includes several stages. At this stage, the temperature of the Universe begins to decrease, quarks are formed, then hadrons and leptons. In the era of nucleosynthesis, the formation of initial chemical elements occurs, helium is synthesized. However, radiation still dominates over matter.
*** The era of the dominance of substance. After 10,000 years, the energy of matter gradually exceeds the energy of radiation and their separation occurs. The substance begins to dominate the radiation, a relic background appears. Also, the separation of matter with radiation significantly increased the initial inhomogeneities in the distribution of matter, as a result of which galaxies and supergalaxies began to form. The laws of the Universe have come to the form in which we observe them today.
The above picture is composed of several fundamental theories and gives a general idea of \u200b\u200bthe formation of the Universe on early stages her existence.
In the scientific world, it is generally accepted that the universe came about as a result of the Big Bang. Under construction given theory on the fact that energy and matter (the foundations of all things) were previously in a state of singularity. It, in turn, is characterized by infinity of temperature, density and pressure. The singularity state itself rejects all known modern world laws of physics. Scientists believe that the Universe arose from a microscopic particle, which, due to unknown reasons, came in the distant past into an unstable state and exploded.
The term "Big Bang" has been used since 1949 after the publication of the works of the scientist F. Hoyle in popular science publications. Today, the theory of the "dynamic evolving model" is developed so well that physicists can describe the processes occurring in the Universe as early as 10 seconds after the explosion of a microscopic particle, which laid the foundation for everything.
There are several proofs of the theory. One of the main ones is relic radiation, which permeates the entire Universe. It could arise, according to modern scientists, only as a result of the Big Bang, due to the interaction of microscopic particles. It is the relict radiation that makes it possible to learn about those times when the Universe was like a blazing space, and there were no stars, planets and the galaxy itself. The second evidence of the birth of all things from the Big Bang is the cosmological redshift, which consists in a decrease in the frequency of radiation. This confirms the removal of stars, galaxies from Milky way in particular and from each other in general. That is, it indicates that the Universe has expanded earlier and continues to do so to this day.
A Brief History of the Universe
- 10 -45 - 10 -37 sec - inflationary expansion
- 10 -6 sec - the emergence of quarks and electrons
- 10 -5 sec - the formation of protons and neutrons
- 10 -4 sec. - 3 min. - the appearance of nuclei of deuterium, helium and lithium
- 400 thousand years - the formation of atoms
- 15 million years - continued expansion of the gas cloud
- 1 billion years - the birth of the first stars and galaxies
- 10 - 15 billion years - the emergence of planets and intelligent life
- 10 14 billion years - termination of the process of birth of stars
- 10 37 billion years - energy depletion of all stars
- 10 40 billion years - evaporation of black holes and the creation of elementary particles
- 10 100 billion years - completion of the evaporation of all black holes
The Big Bang theory has become a real breakthrough in science. It allowed scientists to answer many questions about the birth of the universe. But at the same time, this theory gave rise to new mysteries. The main one is the cause of the Big Bang itself. The second question that modern science has no answer to is how did space and time appear. According to some researchers, they were born together with matter, energy. That is, they are the result of the Big Bang. But then it turns out that time, space must have some beginning. That is, a certain entity that constantly exists and does not depend on their indicators could well initiate the processes of instability in a microscopic particle that gave birth to the Universe.
The more research is carried out in this direction, the more questions astrophysicists have. The answers to them await humanity in the future.
The origin of the universe remains one of the main mysteries of science. Since the beginning of observing the starry sky, humanity has tried to understand how everything that surrounds it arose, and what is there outside of our world. With the development of technology, many natural phenomena and even the vastness of space have obeyed him, but no one has yet established how the universe was born. However, astronomers have put forward many theories on this score, some of them are quite logical and plausible.
The Big Bang Theory
The main theory of the origin of the universe in its current state is the theory of the big bang. This term was first used by the British astronomer F. Hoyle in 1949. At the same time, the scientist himself considered this assumption about the origin and evolution of the Universe to be erroneous.
The very same ideas about the expansion of the Universe and its development as a result of the explosive process arose at the beginning of the 20th century. This was facilitated by Albert Einstein, who published his theory of relativity. The unsteady solution of its gravitational equation prompted the Soviet physicist Friedman to hypothesize that the Universe is a constantly expanding object. According to his version, at first it was a very dense, homogeneous substance. As a result of the big bang, it began to spread, forming the familiar elements of the cosmos - galaxies, nebulae, stars, planets and other bodies.
Friedman's theory of the origin of the Universe has been repeatedly supplemented and improved. In 1948, astrophysicist Georgy Gamov published a paper in which he described the primordial matter before the Big Bang not only as very dense, but also very hot. In it, thermonuclear fusion reactions constantly took place, as a result of which nuclei of light chemical elements were formed. The electromagnetic radiation emitted in this case has survived to this day, but in a cooling form. The theory was confirmed almost 20 years after scientists were able to discover and measure the temperature of the cosmic background. The study of the relict radiation also helped to establish the age of the universe and the distribution of matter in it.
Modern understanding of the origin of the universe
- The Big Bang Theory - describes what triggered the expansion of primary matter.
- Inflationary theory - considers the reasons for the expansion of matter.
- Friedman's expansion model - describes the processes of distribution of matter in space.
- Hierarchical theory - describes the emergence of all structures of the cosmos.
Timeline of events in the Big Bang theory
The theory of the evolution of the Universe implies that before the Big Bang, the entire universe was in a fundamentally different state. And then it went through the stages of development, thanks to which it was filled with particles, chemical elements and other structures. They also served as a building material for all cosmic bodies and objects. Each epoch of development has its own duration from insignificant fractions of a second to billions of years. Let's try to present the theory of the origin of the Universe in a short and simple language.
The era of the singularity
The Big Bang and the origin of the Universe in its present form were preceded by a stage of cosmological singularity. This is the state of the Universe, in which matter has almost infinite density and temperature values, and it itself tends to zero.
The cosmological singularity is one of the most difficult questions in modern science. It is impossible to establish exactly what exactly happened before the Big Bang. But the infinite density of the early universal matter cannot be accompanied by its infinite temperature. Consequently, the singular universe is contrary to modern laws of physics.
According to some assumptions, the era of the singularity did not exist at all. Even according to the assumption of a group of scientists, including S. Hawking, everything that exists could arise from an absolute vacuum ("nothing") due to the oscillations of the system. According to another theory, the Big Bang led only to the formation of the Metagalaxy, as a "bubble" in the dense matter of the Universe. There is also a hypothesis that universes form due to singularity breaks within black holes. It is not possible to establish for certain what happened before the Big Bang.
Planck era
So, a catastrophic process took place in the primary universe, as a result of which matter began to rapidly expand and cool. Moreover, for the formation of all structures of outer space, the explosion had to occur everywhere. This is the point of record of the emergence of the universe in its current form.
In the period from zero to 10 -43 seconds, the substance of the Universe had physical parameters (temperature, energy, density) corresponding to Planck's constants. In such conditions of the Planck era, the birth of particles took place.
The era of great unification
In the period from 10 -43 to 10 -35 seconds after the Big Bang, the forces of gravity appeared in a relatively stable system. They subsequently contributed to the emergence of stars and planets. Primary matter has ceased to be uniformly dense. But the electromagnetic and nuclear interactions in it were still combined, so any physicochemical parameters for this substance do not make sense.
The era of inflation
During the transition to this stage of evolution, the Universe began to expand rapidly. This allowed the high-density isotropic primary matter to be redistributed. The epoch took a period of time from 10 -35 to 10 -32 seconds from the explosive process.
Electroweak era
At this point, the strong nuclear force, like gravity, is separated from primary matter. The period from 10 -32 to 10 -12 seconds is the moment of birth of such elementary particles as the Higgs boson and W-, Z-particles. Symmetry before the universal substance is finally destroyed.
Quark era
From 10 -12 to 10 -6 seconds, all four fundamental interactions begin to exist separately. All matter of the Universe is a "quark soup" of massless and structureless fundamental particles.
Hadron era
Androns, particles with strong nuclear interactions, began to form from fundamental particles. It is from them that nucleons are formed, which form atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons. The whole process of andronization took about a hundred seconds after the Big Bang.
Lepton era
The first three minutes of the existence of the Universe is the formation of leptons, including their subspecies - neutrinos. These are yet another fundamental structures of the universal substance, from which everything in the universe was later built.
Proton era
More than 300 thousand years were spent on the primary process of nucleosynthesis of light chemical elements and redistribution of the substance of the Universe. It began to dominate radiation, which slowed down the expansion of outer space. The end of this stage was marked by the possibility of movement of thermal photons.
Dark ages
Not a single cosmic structure familiar to us existed in the first 500 million years after the emergence of the Universe. It was filled with a hydrogen-helium mass and relict thermal radiation spreading throughout its space.
Reionization
Gradually, the clouds of hydrogen and helium under the influence of gravity began to shrink, processes of thermonuclear fusion began to emerge in them. The first stars appeared. They began to gather in clusters called galaxies. In the center of the forming galaxies, a source of the most powerful radiation and gravitational attraction arose - a quasar. This process took over 300 million years.
Age of substance
Young stars form around themselves protoplanetary disks, from which entire planetary systems are subsequently formed. In this era, 4.6 billion years ago, the Solar System with all the planets surrounding it arose. The entire history of the Universe lasts more than 13.7 billion years.
The future of the universe
The theory of the origin of the Universe through the Big Bang is officially recognized in the scientific world. According to her main statements, outer space is still evolving and completely new ones are replacing some structures. There are two opposite versions further development events:
- Big gap. If the Universe continues to expand further, then in the future the gravitational interaction between its elements will begin to rapidly weaken. The collapse of galaxies and their clusters will take place. After that, separate star systems will disintegrate, where the gravity of the star will not be able to keep the planets around it. Gradually, all the elements of the Universe collapse again to elementary particles, the laws of physics will cease to make sense. What will happen next is impossible to predict.
- Great compression. This scenario describes the assumption that outer space will gradually slow down its expansion and begin to contract back. All its elements form a single mega cluster, in which the processes of birth, evolution and death of galaxies will continue. However, the matter will contract further, which will lead to the formation of one giant galaxy. Outer space will start heating up again, relic radiation will destroy planets and stars. All structures will pass into the state of elementary particles. The universe will return to its original form before the Big Bang.
Any of the main scenarios for the death of the Universe in its current state involves the disintegration of all its structures to fundamental particles and the termination of any interaction forces. Whether it will be so in reality is impossible to predict by modern science.
Basic theories of the origin of the universe
The Big Bang is not the only modern understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. The scientific world knows many theories of the origin of the world, the main of which are:
- String theory. Her main claim is that everything that exists is made up of tiny threads of energy. Such quantum strings can stretch, bend, and be positioned in any direction, making outer space multidimensional. And each of these dimensions has its own evolutionary stages.
- The theory of a stationary universe. According to this version, new matter constantly appears in the expanding space of the cosmos, which makes the entire system stable. The idea was popular in the middle of the 20th century, but after the discovery and study of the relic radiation, it practically had no supporters.
It is possible that all assumptions about the origin of the universe, recognized now in the scientific world, will not be refuted in the future. And the further and longer mankind explores space, the more new answers and questions it finds.
Stellar masses ... Our science is confused and at the same time fascinated by these colossal bodies that behave like atoms, but the construction of which confuses us with their enormous and (only apparently?) Haphazard complexity. Perhaps, over time, some order or periodicity in the arrangement of the stars, both in composition and in position, will emerge. (N.A.Sadovsky)
Let's raise our heads into the starry night. Somewhere there, behind a dark blue veil, it all began. And it all began, as usual, out of nothing. But we'll start with Big Bang, as the Americans call the Big Bang that occurred in the Universe 15 billion years ago. What the universe was like before, we cannot even imagine.
We have time. Even if the clock breaks on the whole Earth, the Sun will rise and set, counting the sunny days, tree rings will still form on trees, etc. Time will not stop. Now imagine that there is no time. Time has not stood still. It just doesn't exist. There is no space either. There is no substance. There is a superbunch of matter with colossal density. All the future matter of the world, all that will then become stars, planets - everything is compressed into one point with infinity high temperature... Thus, the Universe "began". At the moment of this event, space and time were created.
It makes no sense to ask what happened before the Big Bang. It's like asking what is north of the North Pole or south of the South Pole. The question “Where did this happen?” Can be answered with only one word: “everywhere”. Indeed, the universe at that moment was not an isolated point in another space. It was all this point and its dimensions at that moment were very small - close to the size of an electron. Such a point can only be seen with a strong electron microscope. But the mass is immeasurably large: neither 100, nor 1000, nor even 1,000,000 tons - much more. More than the mass of the Earth, the Sun, one hundred thousand billion (100,000,000,000,000) times the mass of our entire Galaxy. And there are not so few in it - 150 billion stars weighing the Sun and heavier!
Then this point "exploded" with great force, and a huge cloud, consisting of elementary particles, began to grow and expand in all directions. Each particle was heavy, lived a short but stormy life. The first stage of the formation of the Universe is called hadronic, and it lasted only a fraction of a second - one ten-thousandth part of it (0.0001 s)! The expansion rate of the Universe exceeded the speed of light in a vacuum and approached 300,000,000 m / s (300,000 km / s). Compare: the initial velocity of a bullet fired from a Kalashnikov assault rifle is 715 m / s, which is less than a kilometer per second, the first cosmic velocity is 8 km / s. Moving at about the same speed spaceship in orbit.
In the first moments of its existence, the universe was very hot, much hotter than the inner matter of the hottest star. At temperatures over 10 billion degrees, and this is exactly the temperature of the Universe, no matter can exist. And he was not there yet. Almost all the energy in the Universe existed in the form of electromagnetic radiation (photons), that is, the Universe "shone", more precisely, it was itself a bright and endless light.
Hadrons are the heaviest elementary particles... But now the time has come for lighter particles - leptons. The second stage has begun.
As you know, particles do not stand still, but move, collide, disappear, change. Particles and antiparticles appear as a result of such "dances". They cannot exist together. Here - who will win. By chance, the number of particles turned out to be slightly more than the number of antiparticles. The particles "survived" and the whole world is now built from them.
But what if the antiparticles won? Scientists answer: nothing special, the world would remain the same, only the structure of atoms would change slightly. In “our” atoms there is a positively charged nucleus and negatively charged electron (s) on the shells. But it would be the other way around. And an electron would be called a positron ... Scientists have long learned how to obtain antiparticles in laboratory conditions, but in a free state, antimatter does not occur on Earth.
In 10 seconds, the Universe "slipped through" the second (lepton) stage with its thermonuclear reactions. The composition of the substance, of which the world will consist, has already been outlined. Hydrogen atoms appeared and, later, helium nuclei. In one day, the universe has lost its superdensity. By the end of the first day, its density was 100 times lower than the density of ordinary air.
And this is where the world of high speeds ended. The third era - the era of radiation - lasted a million years. Although this is not much compared to the multibillion-dollar life of the Universe, but if you compare it with the rapid beginning, lasting only a few seconds, then yes - a lot. The relict radiation still found in space reminds of that era. The relict radiation is called the radiation of an absolutely black body at a temperature of 2.7 K. Yes, do not be surprised, an absolutely black body can also "emit". Imagine a hollow ball. Let's say we started heating it. What's going on inside? Our ball is empty. "Heat" inside such a cavity is electromagnetic waves rushing between the inner walls. If the body is heated to 6000 ° C, then the waves will appear mainly in the visible part of the spectrum. Our sphere can be called a "black body", since radiation does not pass through its walls, and it is "black" for an external observer, although it is heated inside. At different temperatures of the black body, the radiation is also different. At 6000 ° C it is a visible green color, at a temperature of about a million Kelvin it is X-rays. At temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 ° C) - microwaves. This is what happens in the universe. Relict radiation in this case, it is the memory of the third stage in the development of the universe - the era of radiation.
The era of radiation ended with the formation of matter, then another era began in which you and I live. This is the Age of Substance. Quasars, galaxies, stars, planetary systems are emerging - everything that we now observe from the Earth.
