CHAPTER 8

THE BIG BANG

THEORY
The universe contains features
including galaxies, stars and solar
systems and the Big Bang theory
can be used to explain the origin
of the universe.
There is a significant body of
evidence supporting the Big Bang
theory, such as Edwin Hubbles
observations and the detection of
microwave radiation.

SECTION 8.1

The expanding universe

One of the nearest stars to Earth, apart from the Sun, is Alpha
Centauri A. It is 4.3 light-years away. In other words, it takes 4.3
years for light to reach the Earth from this star. When you look at
Alpha Centauri A, you are seeing it as it was 4.3 years ago. We see
our nearest neighbouring galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, as they
were 160 000 years ago.
The light that reaches us from a distant star or galaxy gives us clues
about the history of the universe. This is because the light has taken
so long to reach us. Light from distant stars and objects can also give
us clues about the types of substances found in these distant objects.
The spectrum of white light from the sun. The black lines show that
some colours have been absorbed by elements present. Note that the A
and B lines are not caused by elements in the sun, but are due to
absorption as the light passes through the earths atmosphere.

The spectra of stars

A spectroscope is an optical instrument that splits white light
into a spectrum of colours. When light from the Sun or
another star is passed through a spectroscope, the resultant
spectrum has some dark lines running through it. The dark
lines correspond to colours of light that have been absorbed
by elements in the star. Different elements absorb different
colours of light. By analysing the patterns of dark and light
bands in a spectrum, scientists can tell which elements are
present.
(Note that this is related to Niels Bohrs work on the structure of the atom)

How absorption of colour occurs in stars

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Practical Activity 8.1: Viewing the visible light spectrum

Materials needed: incandescent light globe, hand spectroscope, other available light sources
such as a fluorescent tube, mercury vapour lamp or sodium vapour lamp.
Safety: Do not aim the spectroscope directly at the Sun. To view
the light from the Sun, aim the spectroscope at a sheet of white
paper placed in bright sunlight on the ground. Alternatively, aim
it at a bright part of the sky away from the Sun.

Method:
1.Construct a table in which to record your observations of the incandescent
light globe and any other available light sources.
2.Look at an incandescent light globe through a hand spectroscope. Describe
what you see. Look at other available light sources.
3.Draw a sketch of the spectrum from each source, showing clearly the
position of any black lines observed.

The Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect is an effect observed in light, sound and water
waves as their source moves toward or away from an observer.
One simple example of the Doppler effect is the sound of a
Formula One car. Picture a person standing on the straight of a
Grand Prix track. A car approaches. As the car continues moving
toward the person, the pitch of the engine appears to increase; its
sound goes higher and higher. As the car passes the observer,
however, the effect is reversed. The pitch of the cars engine
becomes lower and lower.
All waves can be defined by two related properties: their
wavelength and frequency. Wavelength is the distance between
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two wave crests (peaks). Frequency is the number of wave crests that pass a given point per second.
The effect described above was first explained around 1842 by Austrian physicist Johann Christian Doppler (18031853). To
describe his theory, Doppler used a diagram like the one shown below. As a train approaches a station, it sounds its whistle.
The sound waves coming from the train travel outward in all directions. A person riding in the train would hear nothing
unusual, just the steady pitch of the whistle's sound. But a person at the train station would hear something very different. As
the train moves forward, the sound waves from its whistle move with it. The train is chasing or crowding the sound waves in
front of it. An observer at the train station hears more waves per second than someone on the train. More waves per second
means a higher frequency and, thus, a higher pitch.
An observer behind the train has just the opposite experience.
Sound waves following the train spread out more easily. The
second observer detects fewer waves per second, a lower
frequency, and, therefore, a lower-pitched sound. It follows from
this explanation that the sound heard by an observer depends on
the speed with which the train is traveling. The faster the train is
moving in the above example, the more its sound waves are
bunched together or spread outthus, the higher or the lower
the pitch observed.

Red shift (and blue shift)

Doppler predicted that the effect in sound waves would also occur with light waves. That argument makes sense since sound
and light are both transmitted by waves. But Doppler had no way to test his prediction experimentally. Doppler effects in light
were not actually observed, in fact, until the late 1860s.
With sound, the Doppler effect is observed as a difference in the pitch of a sound. In light, differences in frequency appear as
differences in color. For example, red light has a frequency of about 5 10 14 hertz; green light, a frequency of about 6 10 14
hertz; and blue light, a frequency of about 7 10 14 hertz.
Suppose that a scientist looks at a lamp that produces a very pure green light. Then imagine that the lamp begins to move
rapidly away from the observer. The Doppler effect states that the frequency of the light will decrease. Instead of appearing to
be a pure green color, it will tend more toward the red end of the spectrum. The faster the lamp moves away from the observer,
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the more it will appear to be first

yellow, then orange, then red. At very
high speeds, the light coming from
the lamp will no longer look green at
all, but will have become red. If the
lamp were to be approaching an
observer at a rapid speed, the light
would tend to have a higher
frequency and would appear to be
more blue.
In 1868, an astronomer noticed that
the black lines in the spectrum of
Sirius appeared to be the same as the
black lines in the hydrogen spectrum. However, the black
lines were shifted to the right to the red end of the
spectrum. This was the first observation of what we now
know as the red shift, though the significance of this was
not realised at the time.

Extension
Red shift

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Until Albert Einstein published his theories about gravity in 1915, cosmologists believed that the universe never changed.
There was no evidence to suggest that it did change. But if Einsteins theories about gravity were right, the universe had to be
expanding. Even Einstein himself couldnt believe that the universe was expanding. In fact, he even changed his equations to
fit a universe that did not grow.
A number of other scientists had more confidence in Einsteins theories than he himself did, so they searched for evidence to
support his ideas. In 1912, American astronomer Vesto Slipher observed that the light from a distant galaxy was red shifted. In
1929, Edwin Hubble used Sliphers research to help show that, while a few stars have the black hydrogen lines shifted to the
left end of their spectra (known as a blue shift), the spectra of light from most stars and galaxies had a red shift. From this it
can be inferred that most galaxies are moving away from us. He also found that the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is
moving away, an idea now known as Hubbles Law. The more distant ones are travelling at up to a quarter of the speed of
light! These observations suggested that the universe is expanding and, therefore, provided the evidence that Einstein was
correct.

THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE AND THE

HUBBLE LAW

To visualize the expansion of our three-dimensional

universe, imagine a two-dimensional universe crisscrossed
by a grid of parallel lines (like on a piece of graph paper).
The animation shows five galaxies that happen to lie where
gridlines cross. As the universe expands in all directions,
the gridlines and the attached galaxies spread apart.

From the viewpoint of any one of the galaxies, all the other
galaxies appear to be moving away. The more distant a
galaxy is, the more rapidly it appears to be receding.

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Test out Hubbles Law

Expand the Universe by moving the Expansion slider

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Hubbles discoveries

Extension:
Hubbles cosmological principle
Our view of the universe

Two theories
To explain the expanding universe, astronomers came
up with two different theories. Fred Hoyle, a British
astronomer, suggested that the universe has no
beginning and no end. It has always existed and will
always be much the same overall. As the galaxies move
away from each other, new hydrogen is mysteriously
formed in space. Eventually new galaxies are formed
to take the place of those that are disappearing into the
distance and dying out. This is called the Steady State
Theory. Other astronomers had a different theory.
They suggested that the universe started as a single
point, so tiny that you cannot begin to imagine it. This exploded to form the universe we know today. Hoyle used the
description Big Bang to make fun of this opposing theory, but the name caught peoples imaginations and this name is still
used. A huge debate raged between those who supported the steady state theory and those who supported the big bang theory.
The debate continued for 17 years. During that time, evidence supporting the big bang theory grew. In 1965, the death blow
was finally delivered to the steady state theory leaving the big bang theory as the only theory supported by evidence
currently available.

The Big Bang Theory

Astronomers asked If you had a film of the expanding universe, what would happen if you ran it backwards? They suggested
that this film would show the galaxies rushing together to form a cosmic egg smaller than a pinhead. The furthest we have
been able to see into space is about 14 billion light-years. We see these distant objects as they were 14 billion years ago. So
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The Big Bang Theory

E = mc2

astronomers infer these objects show us what the universe was like soon after it was
created.
Before the Big Bang there was no space or time. Then the cosmic egg exploded. It was
unbelievably hot, and energy was converted to matter and vice versa, according to
Einsteins equation E = mc2. Within a fraction of a second, the universe exploded
outwards and became billions of times bigger.

It contained particles of matter and particles of antimatter (with charges opposite to

those of ordinary matter). When particles of matter and antimatter meet, they
annihilate each other, releasing a burst of light. A small excess of matter was left over
and became the building blocks for todays universe.
After one second, astronomers infer the universe had cooled to 10 billion C. At this
temperature sub-atomic particles called quarks began to clump together to form
protons and neutrons. Eventually, after 300 000 years, the temperature of the universe
had fallen to 3000C. At this temperature the protons combined with electrons to form
hydrogen atoms. They also combined with neutrons to form the slightly larger helium
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The big bang

theory would
not make
sense if it
were not
for Albert
Einsteins
famous
equation.
How can matter be created
from nothing? Well, the
singularity before the big bang
was not nothing. It was a huge
amount of energy (with no
mass) concentrated into a tiny,
tiny point.
Einstein proposed that energy
could be changed into matter.
His equation, E= mc2, describes
the change. E represents the
amount of energy in joules, m
represents the mass in
kilograms and c is the speed of
light in metres per second (300
000 000 m/s).
Einsteins equation also
describes how matter can be
changed into energy. This is
what happens in nuclear power
stations and nuclear weapons.

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Birth of the universe

atoms. These are the two most common elements in the

universe.
Strings of hot swirling gas clouds soon filled the
universe, all expanding rapidly. Millions of years after
the Big Bang, the first galaxies began to form. True
galaxies like the Milky Way appeared after about a
billion years.

Extension
Early models of the Universe
The modern view of the Universe

Evidence for the Big Bang

The evidence in favour of the Big Bang theory falls into three main categories:
1. The expansion of the universe
The universe is undoubtedly expanding, as shown by Hubbles observations. This suggests that the universe was originally
much, much smaller.
2. The amount of Helium in the universe
According to the steady state theory, the only way that helium can be produced is by the nuclear reactions taking place in
stars. About 8.7 per cent of the atoms in the universe are helium. This is far more than could be produced by the stars alone.
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Evidence for the Big Bang

The percentage of helium atoms can, however, be

explained by their creation as a result of the big
bang.

3.Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

When the big bang theory was proposed in 1948, it
was calculated that the universe would now, 15
billion years after creation, have a temperature of 270
C, slightly warmer than absolute zero. Anything
with a temperature above absolute zero( 273C)
emits radiation, though, at such low temperatures,
the radiation would not be heat, but microwave
radiation. It was predicted that, because of its
temperature, the universe would be emitting an
afterglow of radiation. This afterglow became known as cosmic microwave background radiation.
This radiation was discovered by accident in 1965. American physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were testing a
sensitive new radio antenna, trying to track communications satellites, and picked up a consistent radio noise that they just
couldnt get rid of. They couldnt work out what was causing the
noise. They even cleaned the pigeon droppings off the antenna, but
the noise was still there. The noise wasnt coming from anywhere on
Earth because it was coming from all directions. It was the cosmic
microwave background radiation predicted earlier. Its discovery put
an end to the steady state theory. Even Fred Hoyle, who had ridiculed
the idea of a big bang, admitted that the evidence seemed to favour
the big bang theory.

Microwave radiation map of the Universe. Pink areas are warmer

than the blue areas

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite was launched to

study this radiation. In 1992 it produced the map of the universe
shown here. The warmer areas are pink and the cooler areas are blue.
Astronomers infer that the warmer areas are where the gas strings
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formed that would later become galaxies. Because the Big Bang theory
predicted this background radiation, most astronomers think that the Big
Bang Theory is presently the best explanation for the origin of the universe.

Extension
Apparent movement of galaxies
The abundance of elements
Element formation
The evolution of galaxies
Discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation
Origins of the cmbr
The age of the universe

How the solar system formed

Astronomers think the Sun and its

planets all formed at the same time
about 4.6 billion years ago. They were
formed from a nebula. The nebula
rotated in space, slowly getting more
dense as its gravity pulled material in
towards its centre. While the nebula
was contracting it became very hot.
Most of the material condensed to
form the Sun in its centre, where it was
hottest. As the
How the Solar System was formed
nebula slowly
cooled, the gases
condensed
around tiny
particles of dust
The formation of the solar system
which stuck
together to form
larger and larger pieces. In this way the planets were
formed around the central Sun.
This explanation of the origin of the solar system is
only a theory. Astronomers have never seen a solar
system form. However, this is the best explanation
they have, based on present observations.
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