Model of the Universe

A Model for the Universe

It is useful to have some idea of what the universe looks like. It is big - mind-bogglingly big, and recently physicists have developed new models for what the universe may look like.

Conventional Model

The Big Bang Theory is the dominant scientific theory about the origin of the universe. According to the big bang theory, the universe was created sometime between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago from a cosmic explosion that hurled matter and in all directions. In 1927, the Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was the first to propose that the universe began with the explosion of a primeval atom. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity. Years later, Edwin Hubble found experimental evidence to help justify Lemaître's theory. He found that distant galaxies in every direction are going away from us with speeds proportional to their distance. The big bang was initially suggested because it explains why distant galaxies are traveling away from us at great speeds. The theory also predicts the existence of cosmic background radiation (the glow left over from the explosion itself). The Big Bang Theory received its strongest confirmation when this radiation was discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize for this discovery. Although the Big Bang Theory is widely accepted, it probably will never be proved; consequentially, leaving a number of tough, unanswered questions.

Relativistic Model

In 1915 Einstein developed the theory of general relativity in which he considered objects accelerated with respect to one another. This theory is based on the Special Theory of relativity which Einstein introduced in 1905. I don't want to go in to details here - read Physics textbooks or follow some of the links below. I am mentioning it because Einstein proposed these theories to explain things which we don't generally observe in our little corner of the universe, but at the quantum level or Universal levels things happen which are quite unfamiliar to us. These include:

Time dilation
Length contraction
Mass increase

These effects can be observed with atomic particles travelling close to the speed of light. The theory includes the dimension of time, which has imaginary axes (ie complex number theory, using the operator "i"), and also the base assumption that the speed of light is a constant. These models have been exhaustively tested by physicists and have consistently been found to be correct. An understanding of the theory of relativity will likely shatter your current views of what you perceive reality to be. Everything is energy. The dimensions of space and time are curved.

The theory of relativity does allow for objects to travel faster than the speed of light - such particles are called Tachyons. The mass of Tachyons are imaginary, and they can never slow down below the speed of light (that would violate the theory of Special Relativity).

Shortcomings

These theories of the universe are a little disappointing. They are based on the fact that creation is a random event, the result of a big explosion. Just what was there before the explosion or what caused it is unknown. It leaves you feeling that you are small, unimportant, and an accident. At first it was thought that the explosion caused matter to expand in all directions, which would gradually slow down and then reverse direction and the universe would fall back into itself. It was subsequently discovered that the universe is continuing to expand at an ever increasing rate, and they now believe the fabric of the universe will start to rip apart in around 60 billion years - what is going to be in between the gaps in the fabric of the universe? Scientists were also mystified by the fact that matter did not seem to be randomly distributed (as would be expected from a big explosion), and 90% of the calculated mass of the universe appeared to be missing. Check out the new models section.