1. Big Bang Theory
Click on title for link

2. What is a theory?
A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be repeatedly tested, in accordance with the scientific method, using a predefined protocol of observation and experiment. Established scientific theories have withstood rigorous scrutiny and embody scientific knowledge.

3. Big Bang Theory
A theory that states that the universe began to expand from a extremely small dense and hot ball of energy.
All matter a result of this rapid expansion

4. The Expanding Universe
 Hubble’s Law
• To help visualize the nature of the universe, imagine a loaf of raisin bread dough that has been set out to rise for a few hours. As the dough doubles in size, so does the distance between all the raisins. Those objects located father apart move away from each other more rapidly.

5. After the “Big Bang”, the force of gravity began to affect the matter shooting outward in every direction.
Result is Hydrogen and Helium two most common elements in the universe

6. The explosion took place about 14 billion years ago.

7. Gravity began to pull matter into clumps.
Gravity is a force of attraction between objects.

8. These clumps formed huge clusters which became galaxies of the universe.

9. The galaxies are moving away from the center of the universe.

10. Testing the Big Bang model
Prediction: A hot, dense expanding universe, should be
predominantly hydrogen, helium.
Observation: Universe is ~75% hydrogen, ~25% helium by mass
Big Idea: evidence for the Big Bang model - composition of the universe.
The simplest of atoms, hydrogen, gets cooked into heavier elements at a high enough temperature and density (such as the cores of stars). In the early hot and expanding universe, this fusion process only has time to cook hydrogen to helium (plus a little lithium) before the expansion and cooling shuts down the nuclear furnace. All elements above helium in the periodic table are created in the life cycles of stars. The theory is 12:1 ratio hydrogen to helium by number, or 75% 25% by mass, from the Big Bang. Exactly what is observed. The chemical composition of stars (and the fact that they were predominantly hydrogen) was determined by Cecilia Payne (1925)
The composition of objects in the universe is one of several lines of evidence that supports the Big Bang model.
(Note: In 1925 Cecilia was the first person to receive a Ph.D. in astronomy from either Radcliffe or Harvard University, and the first person to receive a doctorate using work done at the Harvard Observatory. In 1934 she married Sergei Gaposchkin and hyphenated her name.)
The Sun: 74.5% H, 24% He by mass
Cecilia Payne

11. Microwave Background Radiation
Faint afterglow left over from the Big Bang
Allows scientist to reverse the Big Bang and look back to approximately 300,000 to 400,000 years after the Big Bang.

12. Testing the Big Bang model
Prediction: If the universe was denser, hotter, in past, we should see
evidence of left-over heat from early universe.
Observation: Left-over heat from the early universe. (Penzias and Wilson, 1965)
Big Idea: evidence for the Big Bang model - leftover heat from the early universe
If you run the expansion of the universe backwards, there comes a time when the universe becomes very hot, dense and opaque - like living inside the Sun. The light from this time billion years ago, still bathes the cosmos. Originally at 3000K, it has now cooled to 3K, and can be detected by sophisticated radio telescopes such as WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe).
Like Hubble’s observation of galaxies moving apart from each other, the discovery of this leftover heat is another line of evidence that supports the Big Bang model.

13. E. Evidence for the Big Bang Theory
1. Hubble’s Law (allows us to measure how fast the universe is moving)
2. Age of oldest known objects
a. Using the brightness, mass, color, and chemical composition we can estimate the age of stars
b. This information consistent with the age of the universe
3. Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation- leftover thermal energy from the big bang
a. faint radiation detected in every direction
4. The abundance of Hydrogen and Helium in the universe. Especially in distant galaxies.