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Devin Swanson Mrs.Labiak College Comp. I November 27th, 2013

The Origin of the Universe

It is perhaps one of the greatest mysteries known to mankind that may never be answered. That mystery, of course, is how did the universe come to be. There are many theories on the creation of the universe that have been conceived from the dedication and hard work of many bright intellectuals throughout time. Such theories include creationism, from nothing everything, the big bang, black hole, the incredible bulk, times arrow, the nows have it, and many other theories as well. This seemingly unsolvable mystery is one that will never lose the curiosity of mankind do to the everlasting thirst of knowledge we as humans have. The first of these theories is the big bang theory, and no, not the show on TBS. Before the big bang, scientists believe, the entire vastness of the observable universe, including all of its matter and radiation, was compressed into a hot, dense mass just a few millimeters across. This nearly incomprehensible state is theorized to have

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existed for just a fraction of the first second of time. (Origins of the Universe). After this extraordinarily short period known singularity, the universe violently exploded with a blast in all directions which was theorized to be slight faster than the speed of light, which is 298,000,000 meters per second. The credibility of the big bang came mostly from the work of Edwin Hubble, who made one of the most important scientific discoveries in history. Edwin Hubble began to make observations with the hundred inch telescope on mount Wilson, in the 1920s. Hubble found that stars are not uniformly distributed throughout space, but are gathered together in vast collections called galaxies. By measuring the light wavelengths from galaxies, Hubble could determine their velocities through a series of equations. Hubbles hypothesis was that most of the galaxies would be moving toward us as we are moving further from them to his surprise, Hubble found that nearly all the galaxies were moving away from us . Moreover, the further the galaxies were from us, the faster they were moving away. (The Origin of the Universe). This discovery made way for many more slightly different theories to branch off of it. Stephen Hawking, at age 21, and Roger Penrose further advanced the theory of the big bang in an effort to disprove two Russian scientist who claimed to have proved universal bounce. If Einsteins General Theory of Relativity is correct, there will be a singularity, a point of infinite density and space time curvature, where time has a beginning. (The Origin of the Universe). Hawking also discovered faint

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background radiation which was remnants of the cooling radiation as the universe expanded, these discoveries further credited his theory. Although hawking and Penroses singularity theorems could predict a universe that had a beginning, it could not tell how the universe began. Another theory on the creation of the universe is The Incredible Bulk. This theory is based upon string theory, which inspired many changes in the theoretical construction of the universe. Most notably, current versions of string theory posit seven hidden dimensions of space in addition to the three we experience. (Theories That Might Blow Up). In string theory, the concept of a brane, a three dimensional world embedded in a higher-dimensional space, is used as a major construct of the universe. Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok, the two scientists who formed the bulk theory, questioned parts of string theory and together conceived the bulk theory. They had a combined vision:

A Sheet of paper blowing in the wind is a kind of two-dimensional membrane tumbling through our three-dimensional world. For Steinhardt and Turok, our entire universe is just one sheet, or 3-D brane, moving through a four-dimensional background called the bulk. Our brane is not the only one; there are others moving through the bulk as well. Just as two sheets of paper could be blown together in a

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storm, different 3-D branes could collide within the bulk. (Theories That Might Blow Up). Using the equations in string theory, they were able to show that each 3-D brane would exert powerful forces on other branes nearby in the bulk. If a collision were to occur between two branes the resulting energy would be so tremendous that it would have very similar characteristics to the big bang. This now gave key pieces of evidence that could support the probable cause of the big bang. The black hole theory is also very similar to the bulk theory but with only small, but key differences. In the model of the black hole theory, there is a threedimensional universe floating as a brane in a bulk universe that has four dimensions. This bulk universe has four-dimensional stars that go through the same life cycle as the three-dimensional stars within our universe. These life cycles include exploding as a super nova and collapsing as a black hole. In this theory: A 4-D black hole would have an event horizon just like the 3-D ones we are familiar with. The event horizon is the boundary between the inside and the outside of a black hole In a 3-D universe, the event horizon appears as a twodimensional surface. So in a 4-D universe, the event horizon would be a 3-D object called a hypersphere. So basically, what the model says is when the 4-D star blows apart, the leftover material would create a 3-D brane surrounding a 3-D event horizon, and then expand. (Goodbye Big Bang, Hello Black Hole?).

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In this new theory the expansion is derived from the growth of the 3-D brane, and not a explosion due to collision. Though this method accounts for the nearly uniform temperature, the new model differs from the CMB readings by about four percent. Another example of the creation of the universe that is on the less scientific side is creationism. In central Africa there is a tribe called the Boshongo people who believe in a form of creationism. According to legend: in the beginning, there was only darkness, water, and the great god Bumba. One day Bumba, in pain from a stomach ache, vomited up the sun. The sun dried up some of the water, leaving land. Still in pain, Bumba vomited up the moon, the stars, and then some animals. The leopard, the crocodile, the turtle, and finally, man. (The Origin of the Universe). This theory is based upon the concept of creationism. These stories and legends are often considered myths, created in early times of human civilization to create a concept of their origin. These theories often contain no scientific evidence and are based mostly upon a ones spirituality, beliefs, and traditions. There are many more theories on the creation of the universe, but all of them have at least one small element that creates a sense of uncertainty in which the theory cannot be deemed to be true. Though many intellectuals work hard and dedicate their time to solving this great mystery, it is highly probable that we will never fully

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understand our origin, but the thrill of the search, the passion of knowledge, and the fire of curiosity that burns within mankind make it worth our time chasing this answers to slowly inch toward a possible answer to our origin.