Earth and Life Science Reviewer

CHAPTER 1:The Universe and The Solar System

Origin of the Universe: Creation Myths

• The creation my this symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood by a culture.
This is handed through generation to generation through oral traditions such as stories, poems, and
songs, and works of art

Origin of the Universe: Scientific Theories

Big Bang Theory
Inflation Theory
String Theory
M-theory

Big Bang Theory

• The proponents of the big bang theory were Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lamaître in 1920.
• According to the theory, around 13.7 billion years ago (Gya), there was nothing and nowhere. Then
suddenly, due to random fluctuation in an empty void, there was a great explosion or expansion.
• The explosion sent space, time, matter, and energy in all directions. The event is called big bang.

Big Bang Theory: Events

1. Inflationary epoch (10-35 to 10 3 s) - The universe expanded from the size of an atomic nucleus to
1035 meters in width.
2. Formation of the universe (10-6 s) - The universe continued to expand. It became distinct,
possessing gravity, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and electromagnetic force. At the first
seconds, the universe was made up of fundamental particles and energy: quarks,
electrons, photons, and neutrinos, among others.
3. Formation of the basic elements (3 s) - Protons and neutrons combined to form hydrogen nuclei.
Then, hydrogen nuclei began to combine in pairs to form helium nuclei. This process is called
nucleosynthesis.
4. Radiation era (10000 years) - Most of energy in the universe was in the form of radiation. These
included different wavelengths of light, x-rays, radio waves, and ultraviolet rays. They formed what
was called the cosmic microwave background radiation.
5. Matter domination (300 000 years) - Matter began to dominate at the end of the radiation era. At
this stage, lithium atom began to be formed. Electrons joined with hydrogen and helium nuclei to
make small neutral atoms.
6. Birth of stars and galaxies (300 million years) - The slightly irregular areas of gas cloud
gravitationally attracted nearby matter and became denser. The dense clouds collapsed gas and
eventually gained enough mass to ignite and produce light. The huge clouds of be the birthplace for
dozens of stars. The groups of stars became the galaxies.
Big Bang Theory: 4 Fundamental Forces
1. Strong force - Short-ranged (10-13 cm) attractive force which binds the nucleus
2. Electromagnetic force - Long-ranged force that binds atoms which can either be attractive or
repulsive
3. Weak force - Short-ranged force present in radioactive decay
4. Gravitational force - Weak, long-ranged, and attractive force which binds the Solar System

Big Bang Theory: Supporting evidence

• Galaxies moving away - In 1924, Edwin Hubble found that stars are not uniformly distributed in
space. Instead, they gather together, forming clusters called galaxies.By determining the velocities of
the galaxies based on the amount of light they emit, he found out that nearly all galaxies were
moving away, with the distance between distant galaxies increasing with time.
• Presence of cosmic microwave background (CMB) - In 1960, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
discovered a background radio emission coming from every direction in the sky.
• This radiation was speculated as the remnant energy leftover from the formation of the universe.
• Abundance of light elements - Elements like helium, hydrogen, with trace amounts of lithium and
beryllium found in the observable universe agrees with the hypotheses of the big bang theory.
• Their abundance is checked from the spectra of the oldest stars and gas
Clouds.

Steady State Theory

• This was proposed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle in 1948.
• They proposed that the universe is unchanging in time and uniform in space.
• The discovery of CMB contradicted the assumptions of the steady state theory that everything is
constant.
Unresolved Problems
• Flatness. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) revealed that the geometry of the
universe is nearly flat. However, according to the big bang theory, there should be curvature as time
grows.
• Monopole. The big bang theory predicted the production of heavy stable magnetic monopoles in
the early universe. However, there were no magnetic monopoles that have been observed.
• Horizon. Based on the big bang expansion, distant region of space in opposite direction of the sky
are so far apart that they could have never been in causal contact with each other.
• However, the evidence showing the uniformity of cosmic microwave background temperature
shows that these regions must have had contact in the past.

Inflation Theory
• The inflation theory proposed by Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, Paul Steinhart, and Andy Albrecht
offered solutions to the unresolved problems revolving the big bang theory.
• The inflation theory proposed a period of exponential expansion of the universe prior to the more
gradual big bang expansion.
• During this rapid expansion, the energy density of the universe was dominated by a cosmological
constant-type of vacuum energy. Later on, the energy decayed to produce the matter and radiation
which filled up the universe.
• During the rapid expansion, the linear size of the universe increased by a factor of ~1026 in only a
fraction of a second. The inflation theory is regarded as an extension of the standard big bang theory.

Inflation Theory: Solutions

• Flatness - Suppose you are living on the surface of a basketball ball. The surface that you see is
obviously curved. If the ball's size is increased to the size of Earth, it would appear flat even though
it is still a sphere.
• In astronomical proportion, it would appear flat because inflation stretches initial curvature of the
universe to almost complete flat.
• Monopole - The inflation theory allows the existence of the monopoles as long as they were
produced prior to the period of inflation (10-35 to 10-33 s).
• During the rapid expansion, the density of the monopoles dropped exponentially to an undetectable
level.
•Horizon - The exponential expansion in the early universe presupposes that the distant- regions
were much closer to each other prior to inflation.

String Theory
•The assembly of particle type is replaced by fundamental building blocked called a string, with
dimensions confined to Planck length (roughly 1.6x10^- 35m).
•The string may come in 2 forms: open and close. The strings are free to vibrate in different modes.
The different modes may represent the different particles –
electron, proton, or even graviton.
•A graviton is a particle carrying the force of gravity.
•This theory is consistent with quantum gravity. It
is able to describe interaction of strings. It was at this
point that came a great hope in the string theory to
finally unify all known forces and particles into a single
“theory of everything”.

M-Theory
•This theory considers 11 space-time dimensions. The 4 dimensions are: spatial dimensions x, y, and
z. the other 7 dimensions are so tiny and curled up that they are undetectable. There may be
vibrating strings, 2D membranes, 3D membrane blobs, and multidimensional objects called
p-branes.
•According to this theory, the origin of the universe occurs as the result of the contact of 2
hyperdimensional branes.
•The M-Theory used by Stephen Hawking can allow for an infinite number of parallel universe
which have the possibility of interphasing. Hawking’s insights can be read in his books, The Grand
Design and A brief History of Time.
• M-theory is a theory in physics that unifies all consistent versions of superstring theory. According
to Witten, M should stand for "magic", "mystery" or "membrane" according to taste, and the true
meaning of the title should be decided when a more fundamental formulation of the theory is
known.
• 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.