The night sky directly above our heads holds many secrets (of course, they wouldn't have to stay secret if it weren't for light pollution). It was looking up that jump started our creative thinking. And, indeed, The question that incites the greatest curiosity is - how did it all begin?
Like the flat Earth hypothesis, and the geocentric model of our solar system, it was at first thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy in the universe and that the universe was static. It has no beginning and will have no end.
Then in the 1920s, Edwin Hubble shook this belief by - you guessed it - looking up. So groundbreaking was his discovery that we named a space telescope after him. And, heck, even the space telescope is as famous as he is. See, what Hubble saw was that there were some flecks of light that one could simply not call 'stars'. What Hubble realized was that these flecks were entire galaxies, just like the Milky Way.
I'd like to pause for a moment here, to explain the chain that continues even today.
We've gone from being only one planet to realizing there are seven (formerly eight) others, and further, that there are many other planets. We've gone from a flat Earth belief to a round Earth theory. We've made the leap from a geocentric model of the universe to a heliocentric model of the universe, and now Hubble was on the verge of adding one more tier to the metaphorical cake.
Hubble not only told us that we are in one galaxy among many, but also that these galaxies are moving away from or toward us. This was a major discovery, because it meant that the belief that the universe was static now had to be scrapped. Something had to be hypothesized to explain the movement of these galaxies. And so the Big Bang hypothesis was, well...hypothesized.
Like many theories, The Big Bang theory was not easily accepted. In fact, the name itself was an attempt to ridicule it, given by Fred Hoyle. And today it's the most accepted theory for the origin of the universe.
Think about it this way: if galaxies are flying farther apart, something is pushing them apart (seeing as galaxies can't move on their own). That means that space itself is expanding. Further, it means that space was once much smaller than this. We call this starting point a "singularity".
So, the Big Bang theory states that the universe was, essentially, born out of a singularity that started expansion 13.82 billion years ago, and it still hasn't stopped. What came out of it and how it affects us today will be a topic for the next article.
Like the flat Earth hypothesis, and the geocentric model of our solar system, it was at first thought that the Milky Way was the only galaxy in the universe and that the universe was static. It has no beginning and will have no end.
Then in the 1920s, Edwin Hubble shook this belief by - you guessed it - looking up. So groundbreaking was his discovery that we named a space telescope after him. And, heck, even the space telescope is as famous as he is. See, what Hubble saw was that there were some flecks of light that one could simply not call 'stars'. What Hubble realized was that these flecks were entire galaxies, just like the Milky Way.
I'd like to pause for a moment here, to explain the chain that continues even today.
We've gone from being only one planet to realizing there are seven (formerly eight) others, and further, that there are many other planets. We've gone from a flat Earth belief to a round Earth theory. We've made the leap from a geocentric model of the universe to a heliocentric model of the universe, and now Hubble was on the verge of adding one more tier to the metaphorical cake.
Hubble not only told us that we are in one galaxy among many, but also that these galaxies are moving away from or toward us. This was a major discovery, because it meant that the belief that the universe was static now had to be scrapped. Something had to be hypothesized to explain the movement of these galaxies. And so the Big Bang hypothesis was, well...hypothesized.
Like many theories, The Big Bang theory was not easily accepted. In fact, the name itself was an attempt to ridicule it, given by Fred Hoyle. And today it's the most accepted theory for the origin of the universe.
Think about it this way: if galaxies are flying farther apart, something is pushing them apart (seeing as galaxies can't move on their own). That means that space itself is expanding. Further, it means that space was once much smaller than this. We call this starting point a "singularity".
So, the Big Bang theory states that the universe was, essentially, born out of a singularity that started expansion 13.82 billion years ago, and it still hasn't stopped. What came out of it and how it affects us today will be a topic for the next article.
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