Just under 13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was an infinitesimally tiny dot. A little less than four hundred thousand years after that however, it had become a hot, dense, highly ionized plasma with a temperature of about 5000 degrees Fahrenheit and a density about 109 times the current value (1). Then, something fascinating happened. The plasma underwent a rapid process of recombination, with protons attaching to electrons to form hydrogen, emitting photons with each reaction, and providing the footprints of the Universe of today (2). One of the most interesting aspects of the study of these early moments has been with regards to the non-uniformity of the Universe. This non-uniformity, or anisotropy as it is called, is reflected in the inhomogeneous structure of today’s Universe. During the moments of recombination, energy density fluctuations due to various proposed causes triggered the scattering of photons. As the Universe expanded, this same inhomogeneity has magnified, meaning that by studying the original scattering in the photosphere during the moments of recombination, the current structure of the Universe can be understood to a large extent (2). That is, essentially, the modern Universe and the microwave background are just “image[s] of the surface of [the] last scattering” which occurred about 378,000 years following the Big Bang (1). Thus, in this paper, I will analyze the nature of the Universe’s elementary particles and photons at the time of recombination and will discuss the possibilities of how one type of scattering known as Compton scattering could be used to help describe the non-uniform structure of the present-day Universe.
The Universe at the time of recombination has been theoretically approximated to ...
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...attering would have affected the dynamics of the recombination Universe, causing distortions which can be seen 13.8 billion years later in the form of a non-uniform cosmos. Studying these dynamics closely can give us a much better idea of why the Universe is structured as it is today and allow us to better hypothesize what we should be looking for when studying deep space and galactic structures. Still however, the manifested effects of CMB distortions are small and NASA’s COBE data were not sensitive enough to detect them. Based on the constraints of the new PIXIE mission, the possibility of reconciling these synthesized theories with the experimental data seems likely (6). As shown in Figure 3, the PIXIE limitations are much are fewer. If not PIXIE, the Planck mission could also serve this goal. Nevertheless, until the data come in, astrophysics can only wait.
James W. Sire is a Christian author with a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. He teaches English, philosophy, theology and other courses at many universities. It is no surprise that he published a book about different worldviews. His most popular book is The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog that was published in 1976. The Universe Next Door has sold over 350,000 copies and has been translated into 19 languages. The Universe Next Door describes and discusses eight different popular worldviews.
In the article The Cosmic Perspective by Neil deGrasse Tyson he examines a range of topics from human life coming from Mars to how our perspective of the universe relates to religion. In the year 2000, a new space show opened at the Hayden Planetarium called Passport to the Universe, which compared the size of people Milky Way and beyond. While a show like this might make someone feel minuscule and insignificant, Tyson says that seeing the size of the universe actually makes him feel more alive not less and gives him a sense of grandeur. I agree with his idea that looking at us as a people in comparison can actually give you a sense of grandeur. However, when I compare myself to the vastness of space, it puts events on Earth in perspective while showing how influential we can be as a people even if we are small.
The Big Bang theory is a theory that states that the universe originated as a single mass, which subsequently exploded. The entire universe was once all in a hot and dense ball, but about 20 million years ago, it exploded. This explosion hurled material all over the place and all mater and space was created at that point in time. The gas that was hurled out cooled and became our stellar system. A red shift is a shift towards longer wavelengths of celestial objects. An example of this is the "Doppler shift." Doppler shift is what makes a car sound lower-pitched as it moves further away. As it turns out, a special version of this everyday life effect applies to light as well. If an astronomical object is moving away from the Earth, its light will be shifted to longer (red) wavelengths. This is significant because this theory indicates the speed of recession of galaxies and the distances between galaxies.
Part I: The Edge of Knowledge Chapter 1: Tied Up with Strings This is the introductory section, where the author, Brian Greene, examines the fundamentals of what is currently proven to be true by experimentation in the realm of modern physics. Green goes on to talk more about "The Basic Idea" of string theory. He describes how physicists are aspiring to reach the Theory of Everything, or T.O.E. Some suspect when string theory is completely understood that it might turn out to become the T.O.E.Part II: The Dilemma of Space, Time, and Quanta Chapter 2: Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder In the chapter, Greene describes how Albert Einstein solved the paradox about light. In the mid-1800's James Maxwell succeeded in showing that light was actually an electromagnetic wave.
An underlying theme present throughout the series is the possibility that our existence is not the only one. According to current theories in physics, it is entirely possible that our universe is just one of many universes f...
The number of theories surrounding how the universe materialized is nearly endless, but Krauss’ thesis is one of the most convincing and buttressed that has been proposed. Lawrence Krauss is one of the most well respected theoretical physicists and cosmologists in America and has done extensive research on how and why the universe is in existence. Like the title of his book, A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing, his entire theory surrounds the fact the universe was created from nothing. In support of his argument, he explores the weight and shape of the universe, dark matter and energy, quantum mechanics, visual particles, and expansion rates. While the world may never know exactly how the universe was created, society is getting closer to figuring it out and Krauss may have been the one to figure it out.
The Big Bang Theory is one of the most important, and most discussed topics in cosmology today. As such, it encompasses several smaller components that attempt to explain what happened in the moments after creation, and how the universe we know today came from such a fiery, chaotic universe in the wake of the Big Bang. One major component of the Big Bang theory is nucleosynthesis. We know that several stellar phenomena (including stellar fusion and various types of super novae) are responsible for the formation of all heavy elements up through Plutonium, however, after the advent of the Big Bang theory, we needed a way to explain what types of matter were created to form the earliest stars.!
Sub-atomic particles, known as quarks, electrons, photons, and neutrinos were strewn across expanding space. Equal amounts of matter and antimatter particles began to collide and annihilate each other. Gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces, and electromagnetic forces soon came into play.
“We used to look up at the sky and wonder about our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt” (Interstellar). No one knows, or may ever know for certain, how the universe ever came into existence. Cosmologists have uncovered multiple viable theories that explain the advent of the universe, but we assume that there can only be one. In 1927, Georges Lemaître suggested that the universe began at a moment in time and from there everything expanded exponentially outward from that single point. Lemaître’s model was only one of many developed that genuinely offered an explanation to how the universe was created. Lemaître’s model was approached with skepticism because, at the time, a static universe was generally
Impey, Chris. How It Began: A Time-traveler's Guide to the Universe. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 123+. Print.
Due to that the universe is extremely lumpy, with massive super clusters of galaxies and great voids in space. Thus the background radiation left from the big bang must be the same. But it’s not the background radiation is smooth. In order for background radiation to work and support the big bang it must not be smooth, but should be more intense in certain direction than in other, indicating in homogeneities at the very start of the universe so that it matches the way the universe is set up right now.
The task cosmology has to perform is to explain the structure of the Universe as it is observed.
The argument suggesting life existing on other Earth-like planets has been present since man first looked into space and questioned his own existence and the existence of others like him. Today there are many theories on the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but only one theory goes beyond them and into an even larger realm. The contents of this theory, known as the “multiverse” theory, suggest that humans on Earth live within one universe of many others that reside within a primordial vacuum containing many other universes (Jenkins and Perez). Each of these universes possesses potentially different natural constants and physical laws that govern them differently, thus calling forth some logical questions. First, what is the likelihood such universes even exist, and second, how can we test the constants and laws that still result in the possibility of intelligent life in other universes? Moreover, what implications does this theory have on the ideology that this universe is designed specifically for human beings?
This is probably the greatest discovery imaginable; however, the universe still seems to be a very controversial subject.
The creation of the world and the entire universe is a matter that scientist are still studying to this day. There are so many unanswered questions that beginning to answer them is to try to empty the ocean using only a bucket. Even in ancient times many cultures pondered over the creation of the universe. The origin of the universe is still uncertain, but given creation tales of the Pima, Iroquois, and Christians, one could conclude that there is a Supreme Being that created the universe.