UNIT 4 SCIENTIFIC THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN AND END OF THE UNIVERSE

Contents

4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Structure of the Universe
4.3 The Big Bang Theory
4.4 The Steady State Theory
4.5 Let us Sum Up
4.6 Key Words
4.7 Further Readings and References
4.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

4.0. OBJECTIVES

In this unit we introduce the different theories on the origin, evolution, and future of the
Universe. The most prominent theories in this field are the Big Bang Theory and the Steady State
theory. Among them the Big Bang theory is the widely accepted one. Hence it is given
prominent place in the discussion. By the end of this discussion you should be able to form a
scientific view on

• The structure of the universe

• Evidences for the Big Bang Origin and Evolution of the Universe
• The future of the Universe
• And develop a scientific mind regarding the world you live in.

4.1. INTRODUCTION

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 Ever since human being has started to think, the question about the origin and end of the
world in which he lives loomed in his mind. How did this universe begin? How exactly is it
structured? What does it contain? How will it end? What is our place in this universe? These are
the questions humans have been asking for thousands of years. The answers found over the ages
are expressed in art, myths, and religions. This unit seeks answers to the above questions by
turning to modern science. In particular we shall seek answers in this chapter to questions about
the origin of the Universe and about its eventual fate.

Our search for the past and future, that is, the origin and end, of the universe must begin from the
present since it is from the present that we can build up its past and future. Hence our study must
begin with the present structure of the universe.

4.2. THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE

The best way to see the structure of the universe is to have a journey through the distant galaxies
and have a direct look at it. Since the universe is unimaginably large in size we have to go
through it at an unimaginable speed. The speed with which we travel on earth (certain
kilometers, per hour) will reach us nowhere in this regard. Hence we have to take an imaginary
journey from earth to the distant galaxies on a rocket that will travel at the speed of light.
Traveling at that speed allows us to tell how far we have come just by looking at a clock. Every
second of time we will cover a distance of light-second, which is 300,000 kilometers. At that
speed if we are going around the earth we can make seven and a half trips around it in one
second. Our imaginary journey will last billions of years of time and it will take us across
billions of light-years of space.

The Milky Way Galaxy

Within four minutes of lift-off from Earth we are already crossing the orbit of Mars and
ten minutes later we are passing through the Asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Soon the
giant outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – briefly fill our viewing window.
And in just a little over five hours we have left all of the Sun’s nine planets behind. All along, the
Sun has been growing fainter and is now just one of many bright stars in the sky.

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 It will be four years before we encounter the first stars beyond the Sun. Every few years
we pass another star. They brighten up as we approach them and then fade in the distance. After
just 50 years we lose sight of the Sun.

The centuries and millennia of our journey tick away. We are passing thousands upon
thousands of stars. Many are alone; others are double and triple star systems. Eventually the
concentration of stars lessens and we break out of the obscuring layer of gas and dust associated
with them. Looking back we see an enormous number of stars, star clusters, and clouds, arranged
in a huge but very flat disk-like distribution. What we are seeing is the Milky Way galaxy – our
home galaxy measuring about 100,000 LYs across and combines about 150 billion stars. Apart
from its central bulge or nucleus, its most distinctive feature is the pattern of spiral arms. In fact,
our journey began from an inconspicuous spot at the inner edge of one of them, roughly 30000
light-years from the center of the Galaxy.

The Local Group

Ahead of us lies the Universe filled with many billions of galaxies. Each is like an island
universe, separated from the others by many light-years of emptiness. On our way we come
across spiral, elliptical and irregular galaxies. They appear in small and large clusters of galaxies.
The small clusters contain up to a few dozen galaxies, while the large clusters have thousands of
them.

The Milky Way belongs to a small cluster of galaxies, known as the Local Group, that
contains some thirty members. Andromeda is one of the most spectacular galaxies (spiral) in the
local group.

The Virgo Super Cluster

After we have inspected at close range the Andromeda galaxy and several other galaxies
in the same vicinity, we change course once again and leave the Local group. Each of them
contains one or two large galaxies about which other smaller one are gathered.

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If we leave the local group the nearest large cluster of galaxies is Virgo Cluster. This cluster is
some 50 million LYs distant, and on the way we come across small clusters similar to local
group.

As we travel on past the Virgo Cluster the concentration of galaxies begins to thin and we
encounter now and then a small cluster of galaxies.

About 100 million LYs after leaving the Milky Way the frequency of galaxies diminishes
still further and we find ourselves in mostly empty space. We have left our local cosmic
neighborhood. Looking back we see we have come from a huge super cluster of galaxies
measuring more than 100 million LYs across.

Virgo Super cluster is not alone in this universe. There are many of them coming across
in whichever direction we travel. On the average we cross another Super cluster every 100-200
million years.

4.3. THE BIG BANG THEORY

The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the initial conditions and subsequent
development of the universe that is supported by the most comprehensive and accurate
explanations from current scientific evidence and observation. As used by cosmologists, the term
Big Bang generally refers to the idea that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and
dense initial condition at some finite time in the past, and continues to expand to this day. The
theory bases itself on three evidences: the expansion of the universe, the cosmic microwave
background radiation, and the primordial abundance of elements.

The Expansion Of The Universe

Up to 500 years ago most humans believed in a Geo-centric universe with earth at the centre, and
the Sun, Moon, and stars circling around it. The Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-

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1543) revolutionized that point of view by placing the Sun at the centre of the universe and
making Earth one of its planets. In the following centuries, astronomers gradually realized that
the Sun is just one star among many millions in the Milky Way and that it is far from the centre
of the Galaxy. The prevailing view was that the Milky Way galaxy comprised the entire
universe. By 18th century people predicted the existence of separate galactic systems. Now with
the help of the modern equipment we understand that the universe is much bigger than anyone
had imagined and is in a process of expansion.

The Hubble Constant

Our understanding of the expansion of the universe is based on the phenomenon known
as the Hubble constant.
Among the pioneers who participated in the discoveries regarding the universe was the
great American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble (1889-1953). After the true nature of the galaxies
has been established, he turned his attention to their motions. He was motivated to do this by a
puzzling report by Vesto M. Slipher (1875-1969) of the Lowell Observatory of Arisona that
many of the faint nebulae are moving away from us with velocities of hundreds and thousands of
kilometers per second. That seemed peculiar, for the stars in the Milky Way have velocities
much smaller than that and some move away while others move towards us. In contrast, the
velocities of nearly all galaxies are always directed away from us. Slipher had made his
observations during the 1910s, before anyone was certain that these nebulae were really galaxies
far beyond the Milky Way. In 1920s Hubble and his colleague Humason who knew that the faint
nebulae were separate galactic systems, began a systematic study of the relation between their
velocities and their distances.

They let the faint light of the distant galaxies pass through a spectrograph, an instrument
that splits electromagnetic radiation into its spectoral components. In almost every case they
found that the light was shifted towards red colour. This meant the galaxies are receding from us.
This confirmed Slipher's earlier observation.

Furthermore, they noticed that the recession velocities vary regularly with distances.
Galaxies that have 2, 3, 10 times recession velocities than nearby ones are approximately 2,3,10

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times farther away. A calculation of recession velocity verses distance shows that on an average
for every increase in distance by 1 million light years there exists a corresponding increase in
velocity by 15 km/se. This rate of increase of recession velocity with distance is referred to as
Hubble constant.

The Big Bang

The relation between recession velocities of galaxies and their distances has powerful
implications for the origin and evolution of the Universe. It suggests that the entire universe be in
a state of expansion. This in turn implies that in the past the Universe was much more compact
than it is today and that, possibly, at some long-ago time it came into existence in one gigantic
explosion. The explosion sent matter flying in all directions. Matter that initially acquired large
velocities relative to us is consequently very distant from us today, and matter that acquired a
small velocity is comparatively still quite close. The situation may be compared with the
explosion of a grenade. The energy of the explosion breaks the grenade into many fragments,
some of which acquire high velocities and others low velocities. As the fragments fly apart, the
ones with high velocities fly farther than those with smaller velocities. This analogy should,
however, not be taken too literally, for there exists a definite centre in the case of the explosion
of the grenade. There is no such centre in the case of the Universe.

Observers from other galaxies, if there are any, see the expansion of the Universe as we
do, except from their vantage point it is our galaxy that is moving away from them. And the
more distant we are from them, the faster they see the Milky Way receding. Hence, they share
our impression that the Universe was born in a gigantic explosion – the Big Bang.

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

We came to the conclusion that the universe started with a Big Bang by extrapolating
from the present expansion of the Universe. If the universe started with a Big Bang then there
should be additional evidences in its support. One such support now available is the Cosmic
Background Radiation.
If we extrapolate the present structure and expansion of the Universe back in time, we
find that the galaxies were closer together. Eight billion years ago they were approximately twice

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as close as they are today and 10 billion years ago they were three times as close. At the time of
the Big Bang the matter must have been compressed to exceedingly high densities and heated to
enormous temperatures. If the Universe started from such extreme conditions, some remnant of
the early, intense heat might still be around today in the form of electromagnetic radiation and
perhaps it can be detected.

This was the kind of reasoning that in the 1940s led George Gamow (1904-1968) to
calculate what the cosmic radiation left over from the Big bang should be like today. He assumed
that the radiation, if it existed at all, should be very faint, fill the entire universe, and come from
all directions. Unfortunately at that time no one took Gamow’s bold predictions seriously, and no
efforts were made to search for cosmic background radiation. Since 1964 the cosmic background
radiation as it is now known, has been observed by radio –astronomers around the world, as was
predicted by Gamow 20 year earlier.

The discovery of the cosmic background radiation is one of the great achievements of the
20th century. The discovery made it possible to obtain information about cosmic process that
took place a very long time ago. The background radiation comes from all regions of the sky at a
low level and is the weak remnant of the radiation of the Big Bang.

There are, in the universe, objects that are natural emitters of radio waves, which is the
source of background radiation. These objects were the most distant yet found. The optical
counterparts of these radio-sources were at large distances yet appeared star-like. Because of this
they were called quasi-stellar objects or Quasars. In Quasars the energy of thousands of normal
galaxies is concentrated in a region of space not much larger than our solar system.

Quasars have the largest amount of red shift (that is, five times longer than the normal).
The red shift suggests that they are receding at more than 90% of the speed of light. Some
remain at a distance of 13 billion years.

What is important is that we are seeing such objects not as they are now but as they were
in the distant past. This is because of what astronomers call look back time. Because these radio

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waves, which are a form of light has the finite velocity of light and it takes time to traverse the
enormous distances of space. Hence the radio waves we receive from a radio wave source set off
on its journey at some time in the past. The effect of look back time is severe when we consider
the quasars. When we look at them we see the waves that set off when the universe was only a
tenth of its present size and age. Hence by looking deeper and deeper into space we can look
further and further back in time and are able to determine what the universe was like in its youth
and how it has since developed. Quasars hence are a phenomenon of early universe.

Primordial Abundance of Elements

Since the discovery that the Universe is expanding Big-Bang theory had a number of
rivals, such as the steady state Theory. The steady State Theory of the Universe proposes that the
Universe is expanding forever, yet it never changes. Matter is created continuously and new
galaxies are formed just at the rate at which old galaxies recede due to the expansion of the
universe. A steady Universe has neither a beginning nor an end.

However none of the other theories is able to explain both the expansion of the universe
and cosmic background radiation. Nor are they able to explain the primordial abundance of
elements which is a third evidence for the Big Bang origin of the universe.

The primordial abundance of the elements refers to the composition matter acquired
when it was created by the Big-Bang. Astronomers have estimated this abundance by examining
the spectrum of light emitted by the stars on our and other galaxies. They found that out of every
100 atoms, approximately 93 are Hydrogen and seven are Helium. By mass this amounts to
approximately 76% Hydrogen and 24% Helium. This ratio of helium to Hydrogen in the stars is
consistent with the Big-Bang model of creation. The universe started out explosively from a very
hot and dense state and quickly cooled as it expanded. This hot and dense conditions lasted long
enough for some hydrogen to fuse into helium, but not so long as to allow the production of
significant amounts of the heavier elements. They were made in the interiors of massive stars.

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Check Your Progress 1

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) What do you understand by Local Group?

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2) Write a short note on Big Bang Theory.

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Age of the Universe: Based on Hubble Constant

The relation between the recession velocity and distance allows us to estimate the age of
the Universe by the following reasoning. From the Hubble constant we know that on the average,
galaxies at a distance of 100 million light years move away from us with 15000 km/se. If, for
example we assume that galaxies at 100 million light-years have been receding from us with a
velocity of 1500 km/se since the Big Bang, we can compute how long it took them to reach that
distance:

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 Time = distance = 100 million LY = 20 billion years
Velocity 1500 km/se

Thus we conclude that the Universe was born approximately 20 billion years ago.

Later we will see that this simple arithmetic leads to overestimating the age of the
Universe. Gravity is continuously slowing down the expansion of the universe; hence, the value
of the Hubble constant – that is the rate of the Universe’s expansion – must have been greater in
the past than it is today. Consequently, the Universe probably reached its present size in less than
20 billion years.

The Birth and Evolution of the Universe

We have seen that the Universe came into existence in one gigantic explosion some 13-
15 billion years ago. During the earliest phase of this explosion, the temperatures and densities
were so extreme that neither space and time, nor matter and energy, nor the laws of physics were
as we know them today.
In order to obtain some knowledge about the early conditions of the universe we need to
start from the known conditions today and extrapolate back in time. Our extrapolation will tell us
that the initial extreme conditions passed in rapid succession through a number of transitions
during which the universe acquired the characteristics that still distinguish it today. A single
super-force which ruled in the beginning, split into the four forces we are accustomed to. Matter
was spontaneously created and acquired the enormous expansion velocities that we still observe.
There occurred a brief burst of primordial nucleosynthesis during which Hydrogen was
converted into Helium. One by one the lightest of the elementary particles – gravitions,
neutrinos, and photons – decoupled from the rest of the particles and began to evolve
independently. The photons decoupled subsequently evolved into today’s cosmic background
radiation. Matter (Hydrogen and Helium) evolved on an independent course as well and began to
condense into the lumpy distributions of clusters of galaxies, galaxies, stars and planets that we
find in the universe today.

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The first structures in the Universe
When matter set out on its independent evolution it consisted approximately 76%
hydrogen and 24% Helium by Mass. It was in gaseous form and smoothly distributed. However
this smoothness was not quite perfect; it contained weak, random fluctuations in density.

Formation of Primordial Clouds: Wherever there existed small enhancements in density,

the attractive force of gravity counteracted and tended to slow the expanding matter. As a result
the initial largest fluctuations extending over approximately 1015- 1016 solar mass of matter
extended more and more slowly and eventually began to contract. This led to the formation of
huge primordial clouds of hydrogen and helium – the first large scale structures in the evolving
universe.

Breakup of the primordial clouds: In many regions where the density within the clouds
was greater than the average, gravity managed to contract the gas further and to intensify the
concentration of matter. This led to the break-up of the primordial clouds into large numbers of
cloud fragments.

The break up of the primordial clouds was chaotic and violent. The gravitational forces,
which were weak at first, as the matter became clumped, increased in strength. And gaseous
material fell together faster and faster. Eventually it reached large velocities relative to each
other. This violent activity occurred in the first few hundred million years.

Birth of the first stars: Since there was little “elbow room” in the dense universe
fragments of gas containing masses equal to millions of suns were ploughing into each other at
thousands of km per hour. The shock waves created by the collisions compressed the gas of the
fragments. This happened to such a degree that huge regions became gravitationally unstable and
collapsed into compact clouds within which the first generations of stars began to form.

The birth of the first stars had two far-reaching consequences: 1. The newly formed stars
began to pour forth their radiant energy and illuminate the gaseous matter surviving in their
vicinity; 2. The gas that collapsed into stars became concentrated into relatively small volumes.

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 Birth of Galaxies and Cluster of Galaxies: As this sequence of collisions and mergers of
fragments and of conversion of gas into stars progressed, the surviving systems looked more and
more like star clusters and galaxies. The fragments that were most successful in capturing and
assimilating others grew into large galaxies. Those that managed to retain their gaseous material
became spiral galaxies like our Milky Way. Fragments that lost their gas or converted most of it
into stars evolved into giant ellipticals. Fragments that grew less successfully became dwarf
ellipticals and globular star clusters. Finally fragments that collided with another more massive
galaxy experienced strong tidal perturbations and ended up with rather distorted shapes.

Most of the newly formed galaxies found themselves in the vicinity of others and were
bound to each other by the force of gravity. This clustering was particularly pronounced near the
central regions of what used to be the primordial clouds. Today that is where the rich clusters of
galaxies with thousands of members are found, as Virgo cluster. Farther out the galaxies
clustered into sparser groupings with only a handful to a few dozen members. Our Local Group
is an example of such a small cluster. The Future of the Universe

So far we have been largely concerned with observational information about the
Universe: the distribution of galaxies, the expansion of the universe, the cosmic background
radiation, and the primordial abundance of elements. These observations led us to the conclusion
that the Universe was created some 20 billion years ago by a gigantic explosion – the Big Bang –
and has been expanding for ever since.

The Future of the Universe

We now face the obvious question: will the universe go on expanding for ever or will it
eventually fall back onto itself?

The eventual fate of the universe depends on how much matter it contains, its size, and
how fast the matter is expanding (that is, its mass, size and expansion velocity).

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- The more matter there is, greater is the gravitational force holding the universe together,
and the more likely it is that the Universe is finite and will eventually collapse back on itself.
- Greater the present size of the universe, the further are the galaxies separated from each
other, and the weaker will be the gravitational pull. This increases the likelihood that the
universe is infinite and will expand forever.
- Greater the velocity of expansion, the harder it is for gravity to slow the expansion to zero
and to reverse it. This contributes toward making the universe infinite and expanding.

Friedmann’s Three Models of the Universe

Alexander Fiedmann a Russian mathematician obtained three models of the Universe

basing on Einstein’s equation. Each solution predicts that the universe began with an explosion,
but they differ on the subsequent evolution for the future.

1. The universe expands for some time, reaches a maximum size, then contracts. This
predicts a finite and closed universe.
2. The universe expands forever making it infinite, expanding even after all galaxies and the
rest of its content have become infinitely dispersed. This will result in an infinite and open
universe.
3. The universe expands, but its expansion velocity slowing to zero in the process. This is in
border with the other two: and is called the flat universe.

The Age of the Universe: Revised Estimate

The models derived by Friedmann allow us to estimate the age of the Universe more
accurately than we did earlier. The estimate of 20 million years was based on the assumption that
the Universe has always been expanding at its current rate of 15 km/sec per million light years.
This rate must have been greater in the past. Hence, it took the Universe less time to reach its
present scale than we estimated. It turns out to be 13 to15 billion years

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Critique:
1. The Big Bang Origin of the universe is the widely accepted theory regarding the origin of
the universe. With the present scientific know how and with the best available
information obtained regarding the universe based on observation with sophisticated
instruments, this is what we can say regarding the origin and the subsequent evolution of
the universe.
2. Any theory to be widely accepted needs to have different evidences in support of it. The
Big Bang Theory satisfies this condition. The extrapolation from the present expansion of
the universe towards the Big Bang origin is further corroborated by the existence of
cosmic microwave background radiation and the primordial abundance of elements.
3. Although the theory points to the origin of the universe through a big explosion, the
question remains regarding the source of that matter which exploded.
4. It is to be also noted that the description of the origin of galaxies merely represents some
of the current thinking of astronomers. It is far from the final word on the subject. The
description is largely based on theoretical deductions from observations of cloud
collisions, on observations of collisions and near-encounters among some nearby
galaxies, and on computer simulations. It is not based on observations of the actual events
that produced the galaxies and galaxy clusters.

4.4. STEADY STATE THEORY

In cosmology, the Steady State theory (also known as the Infinite Universe theory or
continuous creation) is a model developed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann
Bondi and others as an alternative to the Big Bang theory (known, usually, as the standard
cosmological model). In steady state views, new matter is continuously created as the universe
expands, so that the perfect cosmological principle is adhered to. Although the model had a large
number of supporters among cosmologists in the 1950s and 1960s, the number of supporters
decreased markedly in the late 1960s with the discovery of the cosmic microwave background
radiation, and today only a very small number of supporters remain. The key importance of the
steady-state model is that as a competitor to the Big Bang, it was an impetus in generating some

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of the most important research in astrophysics, much of which ultimately ended up supporting
the Big Bang theory.

Theoretical calculations showed that a static universe was impossible under general relativity and
observations by Edwin Hubble had shown that the universe was expanding. The steady state
theory asserts that although the universe is expanding, it nevertheless does not change its look
over time (the perfect cosmological principle); it has no beginning and no end.

The theory requires that new matter must be continuously created (mostly as hydrogen) to keep
the average density of matter equal over time. Such a creation rate, however, would cause
observable effects on cosmological scales.

An aesthetically unattractive feature of the theory is that the postulated spontaneous new matter
formation would presumably need to include deuterium, helium, and a small amount of lithium,
as well as regular hydrogen, since no mechanism of nucleosynthesis in stars or by other
processes accounts for the observed abundance of deuterium and helium-3. (In the Big Bang
model, primordial deuterium is made directly after the "bang," before the existence of the first
stars).

Problems with the steady-state theory began to emerge in the late 1960s, when observations
apparently supported the idea that the universe was in fact changing: quasars and radio galaxies
were found only at large distances (therefore existing only in the distant past), not in closer
galaxies. Whereas the Big Bang theory predicted as much, Steady State predicted that such
objects would be found everywhere, including close to our own galaxy.

For most cosmologists, the refutation of the steady-state theory came with the discovery of the
cosmic microwave background radiation in 1965, which was predicted by the Big Bang theory.
Stephen Hawking said that the fact that microwave radiation had been found, and that it was
thought to be left over from the Big Bang, was "the final nail in the coffin of the steady-state
theory." Within the steady state theory this background radiation is the result of light from
ancient stars which has been scattered by galactic dust. However, this explanation has been
unconvincing to most cosmologists as the cosmic microwave background is very smooth,
making it difficult to explain how it arose from point sources, and the microwave background

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shows no evidence of features such as polarization which are normally associated with
scattering. Furthermore, its spectrum is so close to that of an ideal black body that it could hardly
be formed by the superposition of contributions from dust clumps at different temperatures as
well as at different redshifts

Hence, the Big Bang theory has been considered to be the best description of the origin of the
universe. In most astrophysical publications, the Big Bang is implicitly accepted and is used as
the basis of more complete theories.

4.5. LET US SUM UP

We have been discussing the theories regarding the origin of the universe. Though there are
many scientific attempts to explain the origin of the universe the Big Bang theory remains to be
the widely accepted one at present.

Check Your Progress II

Note: a) Use the space provided for your answer

b) Check your answers with those provided at the end of the unit

1) Explain briefly the formation of primordial clouds?

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2) What will be the eventual fate of the universe?

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4.6 KEY WORDS

Astrophysics: Astrophysics (Greek: Astro - meaning “star”) is the branch of astronomy that
deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties (luminosity, density,
temperature, and chemical composition) of celestial objects such as galaxies, stars, and the
interstellar medium, as well as their interactions. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject,
astrophysicists apply many disciplines of physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism,
statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle
physics, and atomic and molecular physics.

Gravitons: Graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravity in
the framework of quantum field theory. To prove the existence of the graviton, physicists must
be able to link the particle to the curvature of the space-time continuum and calculate the
gravitational force exerted.

4.7. FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES

A. J,Ayer. Language,Ttruth and Logic. London: Penguin Books, 1978.

Capra, Fritj. The Tao of Physics, 2d ed. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.
Davies P. “Relics of Creation.” Sky and Telescope, Feb. 1985: pp. 112-15.
D'espagnat, Bernard. Reality and the Physicist. Tr. J. C. White House. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
Einstein, A. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory. New York: Crown Publishers,
1961.
G. Siegfried, Kutter. The Universe and Life. Boston/Portola Valley: Jones and Bartlett
Publishers, Inc., 1987
Gamow G. “The Evolutionary Universe.” Scientific American, Sept 1956: pp. 136-54.
Hoyle F. “The Steady State Universe”, Scientific American, Sept 1956: pp. 157-66.
Iain, Nicolson and Patrick, Moore. The Universe. London WI: Collins, 1985
Wallace, B. Alan. Choosing Reality. Boston: Shambala Publications Inc., 1989.

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4.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Answers to Check Your Progress I

1. Ahead of us lies the Universe filled with many billions of galaxies. Each is like an island
universe, separated from the others by many light-years of emptiness. On our way we come
across spiral, elliptical and irregular galaxies. They appear in small and large clusters of galaxies.
The small clusters contain up to a few dozen galaxies, while the large clusters have thousands of
them. The Milky Way belongs to a small cluster of galaxies, known as the ‘Local Group’ that
contains some thirty members. Andromeda is one of the most spectacular galaxies (spiral) in the
local group.

2. The ‘Big Bang’ is the cosmological model of the initial conditions and subsequent
development of the universe that is supported by the most comprehensive and accurate
explanations from current scientific evidence and observation. As used by cosmologists, the term
Big Bang generally refers to the idea that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and
dense initial condition at some finite time in the past, and continues to expand to this day. The
theory bases itself on three evidences: the expansion of the universe, the cosmic microwave
background radiation, and the primordial abundance of elements.

Answers to Check Your Progress II

1. Formation of Primordial Clouds: Wherever there existed small enhancements in density, the
attractive force of gravity counteracted and tended to slow the expanding matter. As a result the
initial largest fluctuations extending over approximately 1015- 1016 solar mass of matter extended
more and more slowly and eventually began to contract. This led to the formation of huge
primordial clouds of hydrogen and helium – the first large scale structures in the evolving
universe.

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2. The eventual fate of the universe depends on how much matter it contains, its size, and how
fast the matter is expanding (that is, its mass, size and expansion velocity).

• The more matter there is, greater is the gravitational force holding the universe together,
and the more likely it is that the Universe is finite and will eventually collapse back on
itself.
• Greater the present size of the universe, the further are the galaxies separated from each
other, and the weaker will be the gravitational pull. This increases the likelihood that the
universe is infinite and will expand forever.
• Greater the velocity of expansion, the harder it is for gravity to slow the expansion to
zero and to reverse it. This contributes toward making the universe infinite and
expanding.

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