UNIVERSE

“THE BIG BANG THEORY AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE”

The universe is everything. It includes all of space, and all the matter and energy
that space contains. It even includes time itself and, of course, it includes you.

The universe, on the other hand, appears to be about 13.8 billion years old. Scientists
arrived at that number by measuring the ages of the oldest stars and the rate at which the universe
expands. They also measured the expansion by observing the Doppler shift in light from galaxies,
almost all of which are traveling away from us and from each other. The farther the galaxies are,
the faster they’re traveling away. One might expect gravity to slow the galaxies’ motion from
one another, but instead they’re speeding up and scientists don’t know why. In the distant future,
the galaxies will be so far away that their light will not be visible from Earth.

BIG BANG THEORY

The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation for how the universe began. Simply put,
it says the universe as we know it started with an infinitely hot and dense single point that
inflated and stretched — first at unimaginable speeds, and then at a more measurable rate —
over the next 13.7 billion years to the still-expanding cosmos that we know today.
As the universe expanded, it also cooled. This cooling allowed the formation of tiny particles,
like protons, neutrons, and electrons. Over time, these particles came together to form atoms,
which are the building blocks of matter. The simplest atoms, hydrogen and helium, became the
foundation for stars and galaxies. Over billions of years, these stars formed heavier elements,
leading to the creation of planets, including Earth.

Introduction to red shift

The concept of red shift is pivotal in supporting the Big Bang theory. Red shift refers to the
phenomenon where light from distant galaxies shifts towards the red end of the spectrum. This

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shift is interpreted as a sign that these galaxies are moving away from us, suggesting that the
universe is expanding. This expansion is a cornerstone of the Big Bang theory, which posits that
the universe began from an extremely dense and hot state and has been expanding ever since.

Doppler Effect and Red Shift

The Big Bang theory relies heavily on the Doppler Effect to explain red shift. According
to this theory, the red shift of light from distant galaxies is caused by their motion away from us,
similar to how the pitch of a siren changes as an ambulance drives past. This interpretation aligns
with the observation that galaxies further away from us exhibit a greater red shift, indicating they
are moving away faster, which supports the idea of an expanding universe.

Hubble's Law and the Expanding Universe

Hubble's Law, which states that the velocity at which a galaxy moves away is
proportional to its distance from us, is a key piece of evidence for the Big Bang theory. This law
was derived from the observation of red shifts in the light from distant galaxies. The linear
relationship between distance and red shift supports the notion that the universe is
expanding uniformly. He Observed the light from distant galaxy he found that the light from
almost all galaxies was redshifted, meaning these galaxies were moving away from us. The
further a galaxy was, the greater the redshift.
https://consensus.app/questions/how-does-the-red-shift-support-the-big-bang-theory/

COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATION

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the Big Bang or the
time when the universe began. As the theory goes, when the universe was born it underwent
rapid inflation, expansion and cooling. (The universe is still expanding today, and the expansion
rate appears different depending on where you look). The CMB represents the heat leftover from
the Big Bang.

You can't see the CMB with your naked eye, but it is everywhere in the universe. It is
invisible to humans because it is so cold, just 2.725 degrees above absolute zero (minus 459.67
degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius.) This means its radiation is most visible in
the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The discovery of the CMB provided the first observational evidence to support the Big
Bang theory. The CMB is the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, the radiant energy that still exists
in the universe today. Penzias and Wilson were using the Holmdel Horn Antenna to create a
radio receiver when they noticed a persistent microwave noise that seemed to come from all over
the sky.

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 “GALAXIES AND STARS”

GALAXY
A galaxy is a vast, gravitationally bound system comprising billions of stars, interstellar
gas and dust, stellar remnants, and dark matter. The word "galaxy" originates from the Greek
word "galaxias," meaning "milky," a reference to our own Milky Way galaxy. Galaxies vary
significantly in size, shape, and composition. Some are dwarf galaxies containing only tens of
millions of stars, while others are giant galaxies with hundreds of trillions of stars.

“TYPES OF GALAXIES”

 SPIRAL GALAXY
Spiral galaxies look like giant pinwheels. The arms of the
spiral galaxies are made up of stars and lots of gas and dust.
Gas and dust are some of the main ingredients needed to
form new stars. Young stars burn much hotter than older
stars, so spiral galaxies are often some of the brightest in
the universe. About 60% of nearby galaxies are spirals. Our
home galaxy, the Milky Way, is a very good example of
one.

 ELLIPTICAL GALAXY
Elliptical galaxies are shaped like stretched-out circles, or
ellipses. Some elliptical galaxies are more stretched out
than others. One might look almost perfectly circular.
Another one might look long and flat. Elliptical galaxies
contain mostly older stars. That means they often aren't as
bright as spiral galaxies. They also have very little dust and
gas. Elliptical galaxies are the largest and most common
galaxies observed.

 IRREGULAR GALAXY
Irregular galaxies are just that: irregular. They don't have a
single common shape. Irregular galaxies are among the
smallest galaxies scientists have observed. However, they
can also be very bright. Like spiral galaxies, irregular
galaxies are often filled with gas, dust, and lots of bright
young stars. About 20% of nearby galaxies are irregular
galaxies.

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THE MILKY WAY GALAXY
The Milky Way is a large, barred spiral galaxy made up of stars, gas, and dust. It's called
a spiral galaxy because it looks like a spinning pinwheel if viewed from above or below. Milky
Way Galaxy, large spiral system consisting of several hundred billion stars, one of which is the
Sun. It takes its name from the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band of stars and gas clouds
that stretches across the sky as seen from Earth. Although Earth lies well within the Milky Way
Galaxy (sometimes simply called the Galaxy), astronomers do not have as complete an
understanding of its nature as they do of some external star systems.

The Milky Way gets its name from the way it appears as a dim, glowing band in the night
sky. The term comes from the Classical Latin via lactea, which is derived from the Hellenistic
Greek galaxías κύklos, meaning "milky circle". The Milky Way contains hundreds of billions of
stars, including our sun. Most of these stars have at least one planet orbiting them.

“MAJOR COMPONENTS OF THE MILKY WAY”

Galactic Bulge: A dense, centrally located region of older stars, forming a peanut-shaped
structure.
Spiral Arms: Extending from the central bar, these arms are denser regions containing gas, dust,
and young stars. Our Solar System is situated within a minor arm known as the Orion Spur.
Galactic Disk: A flattened disk encompassing most of the galaxy's stars, gas, and dust. This
disk isn't perfectly flat; it exhibits a warp, potentially resulting from past interactions with other
galaxies.
Galactic Halo: A spherical region surrounding the disk, containing older stars, globular clusters,
and a significant amount of dark matter.
Supermassive Black Hole: At the very center of the Milky Way's resides a supermassive
black hole, approximately 4 million times the mass of our Sun. Its existence is inferred from the
observed motion of stars orbiting it.

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STAR
A star is a massive, luminous ball of gas that emits light and heat through nuclear fusion
reactions in its core. Stars are made up of mostly hydrogen, with some helium and other elements.
All stars form in nebulae, huge clouds of gas and dust. Though they shine for thousands
of years, stars do not last forever. The changes that occur in a star over time and the final stage of
its life depends on a star's size. The exact lifetime of a star depends very much on its size. Very
massive stars use up their fuel quickly. This means they may only last a few hundred thousand
years. Smaller stars use fuel more slowly and will shine for several billion years.

“STELLAR EVOLUTION”

Stellar evolution began millions of years after the explosion of the Big Bang. This is the
time when a vast cloud of gas and dust, called a nebula, starts to collapse due to the action of
gravity. In a geologic blink of an eye, just a hundred thousand years, gravity pulls the clouds
together, creating a protostar. Since stars are composed primarily of hydrogen, the first fusion
process occurs in the hydrogen core of stars such as the Sun, with a temperature of less than 15
million Kelvin. As more and more hydrogen is burned into helium, the core of the star becomes
comprised of helium. Due to this process, the temperature and density of the core of the star
increase to up to 100 million Kelvin. The star's thermal pressure causes it to push out the gas,
and the star balloons into a red giant. Because of the increase in temperature, several nuclear
fusion processes occur in the red giant, aside from hydrogen fusion. The star continues growing
as it accumulates mass, up to the point where it can no longer generate energy to push against
gravity due to the formation of heavier elements. This causes the star to collapse on itself. It then
undergoes a planetary nebula phase for a medium-sized star like our Sun, or a supernova for
massive stars. After the explosion, stars like ours will become a white dwarf and later on
become a black dwarf, like a stone lost in space. For massive stars, they either become a neutron
star or a black hole.