The Making Of The The Making Of The UniverseUniverse

Teresa

Bee Bian

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The universe is everything that exists, from the earth that we live on to the most distant parts of the space. It came into existence, probably with a huge explosion, about 15, 000 million years ago, and is changing and getting bigger all the time.

It was once thought that the earth was at the centre of the Universe with everything else revolving around us. But we now know that the Earth is a small planet which travels around the Sun, and that the Sun is just one of millions of stars in our Galaxy. In turn, our Galaxy and countless others like it make up the Universe.

There have been theories about the origins of the Universe. In 1927, the Belgium astronomer, Georges Lemaitre suggested that it began very small – a “cosmic egg” which exploded violently.

More about Georges Lemaitre

In the 1930s and ‘40s, this theory developed into what cosmologists call “The Big Bang”. In a fraction of a second, a huge explosion created all the matter and energy in the Universe, and time began. At first this matter was incredibly dense and hot up to 10, 000 million degrees Celsius. As it expanded outwards, stars and galaxies were formed.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, an alternative ‘steady-state’ theory which was supported by British astronomer, Fred Hoyle was debated. This suggested that the Universe remains the same throughout all time, with no beginning and no end.

But today most cosmologists believe in the Big Bang theory. Evidence comes from a faint radio signal, detected by radio telescopes, which seems to fill all of space. This signal (background radiation) is believed to be energy left over from the Big Bang.

The End

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  Georges (Henri) Lemaître was a Belgian astronomer and cosmologist, born in Charleroi, Belgium. He was also a civil engineer, army officer, and ordained priest. He did research on cosmic rays and the three-body problem. Lemaître formulated (1927) the modern big-bang theory. He reasoned that if the universe was expanding now, then the further you go in the past, the universe’s contents must have been closer together. He envisioned that at some point in the distant past, all the matter in the universe was in an exceedingly dense state, crushed into a single object he called the "primeval super-atom" which exploded, with all its constituent parts rushing away. This theory was later developed by Gamow and others.

Georges Lemaître

Born 17 Jul 1894 Died 20 June 1966