Earth Science with Sir Tutri: Structure, Composition, and Age of the Universe

Content Standard

The learners demonstrate an understanding of the formation of the universe. Learning Competency
The learners shall be able to state the different hypotheses and theories explaining the origin of the universe (S11/12ES-Ia-e-1).

Specific Learning Outcomes

At the end of this lesson, the learners will be able to:

Describe the structure and composition of the Universe;
State the different hypothesis that preceded the Big Bang Theory of the Origin of the Universe.
Explain the red-shift and how it used as proof of an expanding universe; and
Explain the Big Bang Theory and evidences supporting the theory

The Universe is at least 13.8 billion of years old and the Earth/Solar System at least 4.5-4.6 billions of years old.
The universe as we currently know it comprises all space and time, and all matter and energy in it.
It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter (“ordinary” matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons: atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and other bodies), 24% cold dark matter (matter that has gravity but does not emit light), and 71.4% dark energy (a source of anti-gravity). Dark matter can explain what may be holding galaxies together for the reason that the low total mass is insufficient for gravity alone to do so while dark energy can explain the observed accelerating expansion of the universe.
Hydrogen, helium, and lithium are the three most abundant elements.
Stars - the building block of galaxies-are born out of clouds of gas and dust in galaxies. Instabilities within the clouds eventually results into gravitational collapse, rotation, heating up, and transformation into a protostar-the hot core of a future star as thermonuclear reactions set in.
Stellar interiors are like furnaces where elements are synthesized or combined/fused together. Most stars such as the Sun belong to the so-called “main sequence stars.” In the cores of such stars, hydrogen atoms are fused through thermonuclear reactions to make helium atoms. Massive main sequence stars burn up their hydrogen faster than smaller stars. Stars like our Sun burn up hydrogen in about 10 billion years.

Birth, evolution, death, and rebirth of stars

The remaining dust and gas may end up as they are or as planets, asteroids, or other bodies in the accompanying planetary system.
A galaxy is a cluster of billions of stars and clusters of galaxies form superclusters. In between the clusters is practically an empty space. This organization of matter in the universe suggests that it is indeed clumpy at a certain scale. But at a large scale, it appears homogeneous and isotropic.
Based on recent data, the universe is 13.8 billion years old. The diameter of the universe is possibly infinite but should be at least 91 billion light-years (1 light-year = 9.4607 × 1012 km). Its density is 4.5 x 10-31 g/cm3.

Expanding Universe

In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced his significant discovery of the “redshift” and its interpretation that galaxies are moving away from each other, hence as evidence for an expanding universe, just as predicted by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity.
He observed that spectral lines of starlight made to pass through a prism are shifted toward the red part of the electromagnetic spectrum, i.e., toward the band of lower frequency; thus, the inference that the star or galaxy must be moving away from us.
Red shift as evidence for an expanding universe. The positions of the absorptions lines for helium for light coming from the Sun are shifted towards the red end as compared with those for a distant star. This evidence for expansion contradicted the previously held view of a static and unchanging universe.

Cosmic Microwave Background

There is a pervasive cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in the universe. Its accidental discovery in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson earned them the physics Nobel Prize in 1978.
It can be observed as a strikingly uniform faint glow in the microwave band coming from all directions-blackbody radiation with an average temperature of about 2.7 degrees above absolute zero.

Origin of the Universe

Non-scientific Though

Ancient Egyptians believed in many gods and myths which narrate that the world arose from an infinite sea at the first rising of the sun.
The Kuba people of Central Africa tell the story of a creator god Mbombo (or Bumba) who, alone in a dark and water-covered Earth, felt an intense stomach pain and then vomited the stars, sun, and moon.
In India, there is the narrative that gods sacrificed Purusha, the primal man whose head, feet, eyes, and mind became the sky, earth, sun, and moon respectively.
The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim that a supreme being created the universe, including man and other living organisms.

Steady State Model

The now discredited steady state model of the universe was proposed in 1948 by Bondi and Gould and by Hoyle.
It maintains that new matter is created as the universe expands thereby maintaining its density.
Its predictions led to tests and its eventual rejection with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background.

Big Bang Theory

As the currently accepted theory of the origin and evolution of the universe, the Big Bang Theory postulates that 13.8 billion years ago, the universe expanded from a tiny, dense and hot mass to its present size and much cooler state..
The theory rests on two ideas: General Relativity and the Cosmological Principle. In Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, gravity is thought of as a distortion of space-time and no longer described by a gravitational field in contrast to the Law of Gravity of Isaac Newton. General Relativity explains the peculiarities of the orbit of Mercury and the bending of light by the Sun and has passed rigorous tests. The Cosmological Principle assumes that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic when averaged over large scales. This is consistent with our current large-scale image of the universe. But keep in mind that it is clumpy at smaller scales.
The Big Bang Theory has withstood the tests for expansion:

the redshift

abundance of hydrogen, helium, and lithium, and

the uniformly pervasive cosmic microwave background radiation-the remnant heat from the bang.

Evolution of the Universe according to the Big Bang Theory

From time zero (13.8 billion years ago) until 10-43 second later, all matter and energy in the universe existed as a hot, dense, tiny state. It then underwent extremely rapid, exponential inflation until 10-32 second later after which and until 10 seconds from time zero, conditions allowed the existence of only quarks, hadrons, and leptons.
Then, Big Bang nucleosynthesis took place and produced protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, and then hydrogen, helium, and lithium until 20 minutes after time zero when sufficient cooling did not allow further nucleosynthesis.
From then on until 380,000 years, the cooling universe entered a matter-dominated period when photons decoupled from matter and light could travel freely as still observed today in the form of cosmic microwave background radiation.
As the universe continued to cool down, matter collected into clouds giving rise to only stars after 380,000 years and eventually galaxies would form after 100 million years from time zero during which, through nucleosynthesis in stars, carbon and elements heavier than carbon were produced.
From 9.8 billion years until the present, the universe became dark-energy dominated and underwent accelerating expansion. At about 9.8 billion years after the big bang, the solar system was formed.