ORIGIN

OF THE
UNIVERSE
OBJECTIVES:
• Identify the Four Fundamental Forces in
Early History of the Universe; and
• Describe the different theories
explaining the Origin of the Universe
Understanding the Topic Deeper
Baryonic Matter
"Ordinary" matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons that comprises
atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, and other bodies.
Dark Matter
matter that has gravity but does not emit light.
Dark Energy
a source of anti-gravity; a force that encounters gravity and causes the universe
to expand.
Protostar
an early stage in the formation of a star resulting from the gravitational
collapse of the gases.
Thermonuclear reaction
a nuclear fusion reaction responsible for the energy produced by stars.
Understanding the Topic Deeper

Main Sequence Stars

stars that fuse hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their cores; outward pressure
resulting from nuclear fusion is balanced by gravitational forces.

Light years
the distance light can travel in a year; a unit of length used to measure
astronomical distance.
Activity
Please scan the QR code and answer the question.

Go to www.menti.com and use the code 6330 0139

“How did the universe
originate?”
Universe are the following:
1. AGREL, unimaginable expanse of
2. ASG
3. ARSTS
4. SUDT LODUSC and consist of
5. SPLTANE and
6. LXGAAY
 Activity
FACT or BLUFF
The teacher will provide questions and the
students have to decide whether it is a fact or a
bluff.
 QUESTION NUMBER 1
The universe as we currently know it comprises all
space, time, and all matter and energy in it?
 QUESTION NUMBER 2
The universe is at least 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old?

It is 13.8 billion of years old, while the solar

system is at least 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old.
 QUESTION NUMBER 3
The solar system as part of the Milky Way is located
at the outer limb of the galaxy?
Universe and Solar System
The universe contains all of the star systems, galaxies, gas and dust, plus
all the matter and energy that exists now, that existed in the past, and that
will exist in the future. The universe includes all of space and time.

The Universe is at least 13.8 billion of years old and the Earth/Solar
System at least 4.5 - 4.6 billions of years old.
THEORIES BEHIND THE ORIGIN OF THE
UNIVERSE
Any explanation of the origin of the Universe should be consistent with all
information about its composition, structure, accelerating expansion,
cosmic microwave background radiation among others

The universe as we currently know it comprises all space and time, and all
matter and energy in it.
It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter ("ordinary" matter consisting of
protons, electrons, and neutrons: atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and
other bodies), 24% cold dark matter (matter that has gravity but does not
emit light), and 71.4% dark energy (a source of anti-gravity)
STRUCTURE, COMPOSITION, AND AGE
Dark matter can explain what may be holding galaxies together for the reason
that the low total mass is insufficient for gravity alone to do so while dark
energy can explain the observed accelerating expansion of the universe.
Stars - the building block of galaxies-are born out of clouds of gas and dust in
galaxies. Instabilities within the clouds eventually results into gravitational
collapse, rotation, heating up, and transformation into a protostar - the hot core
of a future star as thermonuclear reactions set in.
Stellar interiors are like furnaces where elements are synthesized or
combined/fused together. Most stars such as the sun belong to the so-
called "main sequence stars." In the cores of such stars, hydrogen atoms
are fused through thermonuclear reactions to make helium atoms.
Massive main sequence stars burn up their hydrogen faster than smaller
stars. Stars like our sun burnup hydrogen in about 10 billion years.
Birth, evolution, death, and rebirth of stars
 The remaining dust and gas may end up as they are or as planets,
asteroids, or other bodies in the accompanying planetary system.
 A galaxy is a cluster of billions of stars and clusters of galaxies form
superclusters. In between the clusters is practically an empty space.
This organization of matter in the universe suggests that it is indeed
clumpy at a certain scale. But at a large scale, it appears homogeneous
and isotropic.
 Based on recent data, the universe is 13.8 billion years old. The
diameter of the universe is possibly infinite but should be at least 91
billion light-years (1 light-year = 9.4607 x km). Its density is 4.5 x
g/cm.
 Origin of the Universe
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.
 The Kuba people of Central Africa tell the story of a creator god Mbombo (or
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 being created the universe, including man and other living organisms.
THEORIES ABOUT THE
ORIGIN OF THE
UNIVERSE
1. CREATIONIST THEORY
2. BIG – BANG THEORY
3. STEADY STATE THEORY
4. PULSATING THEORY
 Creationist Theory
Is God created the Universe?

What is your evidence?

Its in the Bible.
• People believed that there is
Powerful Who created our
Universe.
• What does the Bible say about
the origin of the Universe?
“It’s God who created the
Universe.”
 Is big bang theory an explosion or
expansion?
 Big Bang wasn't an explosion that destroyed things. It was the beginning of our
universe, the start of both space and time. Rather than an explosion, it was a very
rapid expansion, the event that started the universe growing bigger and bigger.
 BIG BANG THEORY
 As the currently accepted theory of the origin and evolution of the universe,
the Big Bang Theory postulates that 13.8 billion years ago, the universe
expanded from a tiny, dense and hot mass to its present size and much
cooler state.
Early History of the Universe
Matter as we know it did not exist at the time of the Big Bang, only
pure energy. Within one second, the 4 fundamental forces were
separated

Gravity - the attraction of one body toward another

Electromagnetic force - binds atoms into molecules, can be
transmitted by photons
Strong nuclear force - binds protons and neutrons together in the
nucleus
Weak nuclear force - breaks down an atom’s nucleus, producing
radioactive decay
Early History of the Universe
After 3 minutes, protons and neutrons began to fuse to form the nuclei
of hydrogen and helium atoms
About 300,000 years later, temperatures were cool enough for complete
hydrogen and helium atoms to form
Photons escaped from matter about the same time, and light existed for
the first time
 Expanding Universe
In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced his significant
discovery of the "redshift" and its interpretation
that galaxies are moving away from each other,
hence as evidence for an expanding universe, just
as predicted by Einstein's Theory of General
Relativity.

He observed that spectral lines of starlight made

to pass through a prism are shifted toward the red
part of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e., toward
the band of lower frequency; thus, the inference
that the star or galaxy must be moving away from
us.
 Expanding Universe

Red shift as evidence for an expanding universe. The positions of the absorptions
lines for helium for light coming from the Sun are shifted towards the red end as
compared with those for a distant star. This evidence for expansion contradicted the
previously held view of a static and unchanging universe.
 Cosmic Microwave Background
 There is a pervasive cosmic microwave background
(CMB) radiation in the universe. Its accidental
discovery in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert
Woodrow Wilson earned them the physics Nobel Prize
in 1978

 It can be observed as a strikingly uniform faint glow in

the microwave band coming from all directions-
blackbody radiation with an average temperature of
about 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.

Arecibo Dish, Puerto Rico

What is the history of the universe according to
the Big Bang theory?
The Planck Era is prior to 10-43 s after the Big Bang, when we believe that the four basic
forces of nature, 1) gravity, 2) nuclear strong force, 3) nuclear weak force, and
4) electromagnetic force were combined into a single "super" force.  The idea is
somewhat like the different phases of water (ice, liquid, and vapor), which are all
aspects of the same thing. 
The GUT Era is when three of the four fundamental forces are combined, but gravity has become distinct.  There
are a class of theories called Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) that attempt to describe all forces except gravity in a
single framework.  The leading type are so-called string theories, and some are partially successful, but there are
further details to be worked out.  This "phase transition" released a huge amount of energy, causing space to
undergo a rapid inflation.  In a mere 10-36 s, pieces of our universe the size of an atomic nucleus might have
grown to the size of our solar system.  We will later discuss observations of the universe that seem to require such
extreme inflation.  Note that this inflation is very very large compared to the speed of light, but again, space itself
is what is expanding, so it does not have to obey the speed limit of the speed of light.
During this era, only the electromagnetic and nuclear weak forces are still combined.  The
temperature of the universe at this stage is more than 1015 K, and there are no ordinary
particles yet, just photons and pure energy.  The last of the fundamental forces,
electromagnetic and nuclear weak forces, become distinct.  We have also done particle
physics experiments at energies corresponding to a temperature of 10 15 K, so we can probe
the Big Bang conditions experimentally from 10-10 s onward.
When the four fundamental forces were finally distinct, ordinary particles could start to form.  However, both
matter and anti-matter were formed in almost equal numbers, created out of the energetic photons present at
that time.  Once both types of matter were formed, a particle would not go very far before it met up with its
anti-particle and annihilated to become pure energy again.  During this era, particles continually were created
and destroyed until, by 0.001 s (one millisecond), the universe had expanded and cooled far enough (to
1012 K) that creation and destruction of this kind ended.  For some reason, the universe created slightly more
matter particles than anti-matter particles.  If the numbers had been exactly the same, the particles would
eventually annihilate entirely and there would be only photons in the universe.  This slight asymmetry for
matter (1 billion and 1 protons for each 1 billion anti-protons) left us with all of the baryonic matter that we
find today.
When the universe was only 1 millisecond old, nuclei were hot enough and dense enough
to fuse to create heavier elements, but it was so dense that the nuclei broke apart again as
soon as they formed.  This fusion and breakup continued until about 3 minutes after the
Big Bang, when the universe cooled enough (109 K) that fusion ended.  At this point,
75% of baryonic matter was in the form of hydrogen, 25% in the form of helium,
and trace amounts were in the form of other atoms, mostly lithium.  One of the great
successes of the Big Bang theory is that it predicts just the 
right amount of these different forms of matter.  At the end of the Era of Nucleosynthesis,
the universe contained the "primordial" mix of hydrogen, helium, and lithium that went
into making the first stars.  All heavier elements have been created by fusion inside of
stars and during supernova explosions.
During this time, the particles and photons (light) were locked into an equilibrium in which the photons
could not escape.  Finally, after 500,000 years, the universe cooled to 3000 K, and hydrogen and helium
nuclei began to capture the free electrons.  At this stage, photons could not react with the electrons except
in narrow energy ranges, so most of the gas became transparent and the photons were free at last to
stream out of the plasma and cross the universe.

It is these photons that we see today as the cosmic microwave background, which we will discuss shortly. 
When we look out into the universe, we can never see back in time beyond 500,000 years, which is the
time of last scattering of photons.  Earlier than this, we could only see the hot surface of the universe.
After the photons decoupled from the matter, and the nuclei started combining with the
electrons, we reach the era of atoms.  The initially hot atoms slowly assembled and
cooled into protogalactic clouds.  The first galaxies formed by about 1 billion years,
which marks the end of the Era of Atoms and the beginning of the Era of Galaxies:
 Changing Composition of the Universe

200 million years later, with expansion still occurring, stars and galaxies began
forming from leftover matter - hydrogen and helium
nuclear fusion in stars has reduced the original composition of 100% H and He to
98%
when a dying star explodes, the heavier elements created by fusion are blown into
space to be recycled by newly forming stars
the overall composition of the galaxies is gradually changing to the heavier
elements
 The Big Bang Theory has withstood the tests
for expansion:
1. The Redshift
2. abundance of Hydrogen, Helium, and
Lithium, and
3. the uniformly pervasive cosmic microwave
background radiation - the remnant heat from
the bang.
3. Steady State Theory /
Infinite Universe Theory
• Proposed by Fred Hoyle, Herman Bondi and
Thomas Gold.
• It states that the universe has been present
ever since and therefore has no beginning
and no end, and has been expanding
constantly.
• It was further developed by Hoyle to deal with
problems that had arisen in connection with
the alternative big-bang hypothesis. 
 4. Pulsating or Oscillating Theory

• Follows infinite sustaining cycle

• Contract – expand
• George Gamow
• Expansion will stop, return to its original
form then another Big Bang will occur.
To summarize our lesson let us answer the
following questions:
• What are the Four Fundamental Forces?
• How the universe originated in early history?
• What are the Four Theories about the origin of the universe?
• What does the Bible say about the origin of the Universe?
• What is Big-bang theory telling us?
• How does the Steady-state theory works?
• What would be the problems/ Issues/ flaws of the big bang?
Thank you for
Listening !