The Big Bang theory is among the most accepted nowadays to explain the origin of the Universe.
It maintains that the Universe arose from the explosion of a single particle - the primordial atom - causing a cosmic cataclysm unequaled about 13.8 billion years ago.
The same theory further states that the Universe is continually expanding.
Elaborated by the Belgian astronomer George Lemaître (1894-1966), the theory considered the studies on the Theory of General Relativity, by the German physicist Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955).
The Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann (1888-1925) when investigating solutions to the equations of general relativity, came up with the idea of the expansion of the universe. However, their interpretation was much more mathematical than physical.
Independently, Lemaître arrived at the same solutions as Friedmann. However, he went beyond mathematical analysis, seeking to explain the real universe.
The Big Bang theory was reinforced by Edwin Hubble's (1889-1953) studies that galaxies are moving away in all directions.
In his observations, Hubble identified that the farther away the galaxy, the faster it is moving away from us (Hubble's Law).
Hubble's Law leads us to the conclusion that if the universe is expanding, at some point in the past its size was minimal. The great expansion being responsible for the creation of everything, including space and time.
Origin of Planets
According to the theory, at the instant a trillion trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, the Universe is hot and dense expanded with incomprehensible speed by human standards, giving rise to astronomical scope.
The expansion continued more slowly in the years that followed. As the Universe cooled, the elements combined.
Prior to this event, called "recombination", the Universe was opaque but became transparent to radiation, also called cosmic background radiation.
Over time, matter cooled and the most diverse types of atoms began to form and these, eventually, they condensed and formed the celestial bodies of the current Universe (stars, planets, satellites and etc.).
See too: Origin of the Universe.
Georges Lemaître
Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian priest who was known for his studies in astronomy and cosmology.
Lemaître was born in Charleroi, where he completed his secondary education at a Jesuit school. He graduated in Civil Engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain, where he also obtained a doctorate in Science and Mathematics.
The scientist, who was ordained a priest in 1923, fought in World War I, where he served as an artillery officer. In the academic year 1924 to 1925, Lemaître worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the studies that supported his doctorate.
It was from the observations of Einstein's equations that he began to describe the expanding Universe. In an article published in 1927, he predicted that each galaxy's recession velocity must be proportional to its distance from the Milky Way.
Read too:
- Stephen Hawking
- gravitational waves
- Theory of relativity
- Black Hole
- Geocentrism
