The 'Universe' is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the
space-time in which all events occur. Based on observations of the portion of the Universe that is
observable, physicists attempt to describe the whole of space-time, including all
matter and
energy and events which occur, as a single system corresponding to a
mathematical model.
The generally accepted
scientific theory which describes the origin and evolution of the Universe is
Big Bang cosmology, which describes the
expansion of space from an extremely hot and dense state of unknown characteristics. The Universe underwent a rapid period of
cosmic inflation that flattened out nearly all initial irregularities in the energy density; thereafter the universe expanded and became steadily cooler and less dense. Minor variations in the distribution of mass resulted in hierarchical segregation of the features that are found in the current universe; such as
clusters and
superclusters of
galaxies. There are more than one hundred billion (10
11) galaxies in the Universe,
[1] each containing hundreds of billions of stars, with each star containing about 10
57 atoms of hydrogen.
Etymology
The word "universe" is derived from the Old French ''univers'', from Latin ''universa'', which combines ''uni''- (the combining form of ''unus'', or "one") with ''versus'' (perfect passive participle of ''vertere'', or "turn"). The word, therefore, means "all turned into one" or "revolving as one".
Name of our Universe
In the same way that ''
the Moon'' refers to our (
Earth's) moon, ''the Universe'' is used by some cosmologists to refer to our Universe. In this article, ''the Universe'' is equivalent to ''our observable Universe''.
Theoretical and
observational cosmologists vary in their usage of the term ''the Universe'' to mean either this whole system or just a part of this system.
[2]
As used by observational cosmologists, ''the Universe'' most frequently refers to the finite part of space-time. The Universe is directly observable by making
observations using
telescopes and other detectors, and by using the methods of theoretical and empirical
physics for studying its components. Physical cosmologists assume that the observable part of (
comoving) space (also called ''our universe'') corresponds to a part of a model of the whole of space, and usually not to the whole space. They use the term ''the Universe'' ambiguously to mean either the observable part of space, the observable part of space-time, or the entire space-time.
In order to clarify terminology,
George Ellis, U. Kirchner and W.R. Stoeger recommend using the term ''the Universe'' for the theoretical model of all of the connected space-time in which we live, ''universe domain'' for the observable universe or a similar part of the same space-time, ''universe'' for a general space-time (either our own ''Universe'' or another one disconnected from our own), ''multiverse'' for a
set of disconnected space-times, and ''multi-domain universe'' to refer to a model of the whole of a single connected space-time in the sense of
chaotic inflation models.
5
Observable portion
Main articles: Observable universe
A majority of cosmologists believe that the
observable universe is an extremely tiny part of the whole universe and that it is impossible to observe the whole of
comoving space. It is presently unknown if this is correct, and remains under debate. According to studies of the
shape of the Universe, it is possible that the observable universe is of nearly the same size as the whole of space.
[3][4] If a version of the
cosmic inflation scenario is correct, then there is no known way to determine if the whole universe is finite or
infinite. If it is infinite, the observable Universe is just a tiny speck of the whole universe.
Theory
Theoretical cosmologists study models of the whole of space-time which is
connected together, and search for models which are consistent with physical cosmologists' model of space-time on the scale of the
observable universe. Their models are speculative but use the methods of
theoretical physics.
[5]
Multiverse
Main articles: Multiverse (science)
Some theorists extend their model of "all of space-time" beyond a single connected space-time to a
set of disconnected space-times, or
multiverse.
For example, matter that falls into a
black hole in our universe could emerge as a
Big Bang, starting another universe. However, all such ideas are currently untestable and cannot be regarded as anything more than speculation. The concept of parallel universes is understood only when related to
string theory. String theorist
Michio Kaku offered several explanations to possible
parallel universe phenomena.
Physicist
David Deutsch suggests that a multiverse is a consequence of the
many-worlds interpretation, which he considers to be the best alternative explanation to the
Copenhagen explanations of
quantum theory first presented by
Niels Bohr, over half a century ago.
Evolution
Formation
Main articles: Age of the universe,
Big Bang
The most important result of
physical cosmology—that the universe is
expanding—is derived from
redshift observations and quantified by
Hubble's Law. That is, astronomers observe that there is a direct relationship between the distance to a remote object (such as a galaxy) and the velocity with which it is receding. Conversely, if this expansion has continued over the entire age of the universe, then in the past, these distant, receding objects must once have been closer together.
By extrapolating this expansion back in time, one approaches a
gravitational singularity where everything in the universe was compressed into an infinitesimal point; an abstract mathematical concept that may or may not correspond to reality. This idea gave rise to the
Big Bang Theory, the dominant model in cosmology today.
During the earliest era of the big bang theory, the universe is believed to have formed a hot, dense
plasma. As expansion proceeded, the temperature steadily dropped until a point was reached when atoms could form. At about this time the background energy (in the form of photons) became decoupled from the matter, and was free to travel through space. The left-over energy continued to cool as the universe expanded, and today it forms the
cosmic microwave background radiation. This background radiation is remarkably uniform in all directions, which cosmologists have attempted to explain by an early period of
inflationary expansion following the Big Bang.
Examination of small variations in the microwave background radiation provides information about the nature of the universe, including the age and composition. The
age of the universe from the time of the Big Bang, according to current information provided by
NASA's
WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), is estimated to be about 13.7
billion (13.7 × 10
9) years, with a
margin of error of about 1 % (± 200 million years). Other methods of estimation give different ages ranging from 11 billion to 20 billion.
[6] Most of the estimates cluster in the 13–15 billion year range.
[7][8]
In the 1977 book ''
The First Three Minutes'', Nobel Prize-winner
Steven Weinberg laid out the physics of what happened just moments after the
Big Bang. Additional discoveries and refinements of theories prompted him to update and reissue that book in 1993.
Pre-matter soup
Until recently, the first hundredth of a second after the Big Bang was a mystery, leaving Weinberg and others unable to describe exactly what the universe would have been like during this period. New experiments at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in
Brookhaven National Laboratory have provided physicists with a glimpse through this curtain of high energy, so they can directly observe the sorts of behavior that might have been taking place in this time frame.
[9]
At these energies, the
quarks that comprise
protons and
neutrons (ups and downs) were not yet joined together, and a dense, superhot mix of quarks and
gluons, with some electrons thrown in, was all that could exist in the microseconds before it cooled enough to form into the sort of matter particles we observe today.
[10]
Protogalaxies
Main articles: Protogalaxy
Moving forward to after the existence of matter, more information is coming in on the formation of galaxies. It is believed that the earliest galaxies were tiny "dwarf galaxies" that released so much radiation they stripped gas atoms of their electrons. This gas, in turn, heated up and expanded, and thus was able to obtain the mass needed to form the larger galaxies that we know today.
[11] [12]
Current telescopes are just now beginning to have the capacity to observe the galaxies from this distant time. Studying the light from
quasars, they observe how it passes through the intervening gas clouds. The ionization of these gas clouds is determined by the number of nearby bright galaxies, and if such galaxies are spread around, the ionization level should be constant. It turns out that in galaxies from the period after cosmic reionization there are large fluctuations in this ionization level. The evidence seems to confirm the pre-ionization galaxies were less common and that the post-ionization galaxies have 100 times the mass of the dwarf galaxies.
The next generation of telescopes should be able to see the dwarf galaxies directly, which will help resolve the problem that many astronomical predictions in galaxy formation theory predict more nearby small galaxies.
Ultimate fate
Main articles: Ultimate fate of the universe
Depending on the average density of matter and energy in the universe, it will either keep on expanding forever or it will be gravitationally slowed down and will eventually collapse back on itself in a "
Big Crunch". Currently the evidence suggests not only that there is insufficient mass/energy to cause a recollapse, but that the expansion of the universe seems to be accelerating and will accelerate for
eternity (see
accelerating universe). Other ideas of the fate of our universe include the
Big Rip, the
Big Freeze, and
Heat death of the universe theory. For a more detailed discussion of other theories, see the
ultimate fate of the universe.
Composition
The currently observable universe appears to have a geometrically flat space-time containing the equivalent mass-energy density of 9.9 × 10
-30 grams per cubic centimetre. This mass-energy appears to consist of 73%
dark energy, 23% cold
dark matter and 4% atoms. Thus the density of atoms is on the order of a single hydrogen nucleus (or atom) for every four cubic meters of volume.
[13] The exact nature of dark energy and cold dark matter remain a mystery.
During the early phases of the big bang, equal amounts of matter and
antimatter were formed. However, through a
CP-violation, physical processes resulted in an asymmetry in the amount of matter as compared to anti-matter. This asymmetry explains the amount of residual matter found in the universe today, as nearly all the matter and anti-matter would otherwise have annihilated each other when they came into contact.
[14]
Prior to the formation of the first stars, the chemical composition of the Universe consisted primarily of
hydrogen (75% of total mass), with a lesser amount of
helium-4 (
4He) (24% of total mass) and trace amounts of the
isotopes
deuterium (
2H), helium-3 (
3He) and
lithium (
7Li).
[15][16] Subsequently the
interstellar medium within galaxies has been steadily enriched by heavier elements. These are introduced as a result of
supernova explosions, stellar winds and the expulsion of the outer envelope of evolved stars.
[17]
The big bang left behind a background flux of photons and
neutrinos. The temperature of the background radiation has steadily decreased as the universe expands, and now primarily consists of microwave energy equivalent to a temperature of 2.725
K.
[18] The neutrino background is not observable with present-day technology, but is theorized to have a density of about 150 neutrinos per cubic centimetre.
[19]
Physical structure
Size
Main articles: Observable universe
Very little is known about the size of the universe. It may be
trillions of light years across, or even infinite in size. A 2003 paper
[20] claims to establish a lower bound of 24 gigaparsecs (78 billion light years) on the size of the universe, but there is no reason to believe that this bound is anywhere near tight. ''See''
shape of the Universe ''for more information.''
The ''observable'' (or ''visible'') universe, consisting of all locations that could have affected us since the Big Bang given the finite
speed of light, is certainly finite. The
comoving distance to the edge of the visible universe is about 46.5 billion light years in all directions from the earth; thus the visible universe may be thought of as a perfect sphere with the Earth at its center and a diameter of about 93 billion light years.
[21] Note that many sources have reported a wide variety of incorrect figures for the size of the visible universe, ranging from 13.7 to 180 billion light years. See
Observable universe for a list of incorrect figures published in the popular press with explanations of each.
Shape
Main articles: Shape of the universe,
Large-scale structure of the cosmos
An important open question of cosmology is the shape of the universe. Mathematically, which
3-manifold best represents the spatial part of the universe?
Firstly, whether the universe is spatially ''flat'', i.e. whether the rules of
Euclidean geometry are valid on the largest scales, is unknown. Currently, most cosmologists believe that the observable universe is very nearly spatially flat, with local wrinkles where massive objects distort
spacetime, just as the surface of a lake is nearly flat. This opinion was strengthened by the latest data from
WMAP, looking at "acoustic oscillations" in the cosmic microwave background radiation temperature variations.
[22]
Secondly, whether the universe is
multiply connected is unknown. The universe has no spatial boundary according to the standard Big Bang model, but nevertheless may be spatially finite (
compact). This can be understood using a two-dimensional analogy: the surface of a
sphere has no edge, but nonetheless has a finite area. It is a two-dimensional surface with constant curvature in a third dimension. The
3-sphere is a three-dimensional equivalent in which all three dimensions are constantly curved in a fourth.
If the universe were compact and without boundary, it would be possible after traveling a sufficient distance to arrive back where one began. Hence, the light from stars and galaxies could pass through the observable universe more than once. If the universe were multiply-connected and sufficiently small (and of an appropriate, perhaps complex, shape) then conceivably one might be able to see once or several times around it in some (or all) directions. Although this possibility has not been ruled out, the results of the latest
cosmic microwave background research make this appear very unlikely.
Homogeneity and isotropy
While there is considerable fractalized structure at the local level (arranged in a hierarchy of clustering), on the highest orders of distance the universe is very homogeneous. On these scales the density of the universe is very uniform, and there is no preferred direction or significant asymmetry to the universe. This homogeneity is a requirement of the
Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric employed in modern cosmological models.
[23]
Fluctuations in the microwave background radiation. ''NASA/WMAP image.''
The question of anisotropy in the early universe was significantly answered by the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which looked for fluctuations in the microwave background intensity.
[24] The measurements of this anisotropy have provided useful information and constraints about the evolution of the universe.
To the limit of the observing power of astronomical instruments, objects radiate and absorb energy according to the same
physical laws as they do within our own galaxy.
[25] Based on this, it is believed that the same physical laws and constants are universally applicable throughout the observable universe. No confirmed evidence has yet been found to show that physical constants have varied since the big bang, and the possible variation is becoming well constrained.
[26]
Other terms
Different words have been used throughout
history to denote "all of space", including the equivalents and variants in various languages of "heavens", "
cosmos", and "world".
Macrocosm has also been used to this effect, although it is more specifically defined as a system that reflects in large scale one, some, or all of its component systems or parts. (Similarly, a
microcosm is a system that reflects in small scale a much larger system of which it is a part.)
Although words like
world and its equivalents in other languages now almost always refer to the planet
Earth, they previously referred to everything that exists—see
Copernicus, for example—and still sometimes do (as in "the whole wide world"). Some languages use the word for "world" as part of the word for
Outer space, e.g. in the
German word "Weltraum".
[27]
Notes and references
1. To see the Universe in a Grain of Taranaki Sand
2. JSTOR: One Universe or Many?
3.
4. Dodecahedral space topology as an explanation for weak wide-angle temperature correlations in the cosmic microwave background, , Jean-Pierre, Luminet, Nature,
5. Multiverses and physical cosmology, , George F.R., , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
6. Age of Universe Revised, Again
7. Age of the Universe
8. Age Estimates of Globular Clusters in the Milky Way: Constraints on Cosmology, , Lawrence M., Krauss, Science,
9. Heavy Ion Collisions
10. What Have We Learned From the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider? Thomas Ludlam, Larry McLerran
11. New 'Hobbit' Galaxies Discovered Around Milky Way Ken Tan
12. Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
13. What is the Universe Made Of?
14. Antimatter
15. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
16. Chemical Composition of the Early Universe, M. Harwit, M. Spaans, , , The Astrophysical Journal, 2003
17. Chemical Composition of the Early Universe, C. Kobulnicky, E. D. Skillman, , , Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 1997
18. Tests of the Big Bang: The CMB
19. Background neutrinos join the limelight
20. Neil J. Cornish, David N. Spergel, Glenn D. Starkman, and Eiichiro Komatsu, ''Constraining the Topology of the Universe''. astro-ph/0310233
21. Misconceptions about the Big Bang
22. http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm/mr_content.html
23. Large-scale homogeneity of the Universe measured by the microwave background, N. Mandolesi, P. Calzolari, S. Cortiglioni, F. Delpino, G. Sironi, , , Letters to Nature, 1986
24. New Three Year Results on the Oldest Light in the Universe
25. The Composition of Stars
26. Have physical constants changed with time?
27. Albert Einstein (1952). ''Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Fifteenth Edition)'', ISBN 0-517-88441-0.
See also
External links
★
''Stephen Hawking's Universe'' - why is the universe the way it is?
★
Richard Powell: ''An Atlas of the Universe'' - images at various scales, with explanations.
★
Cosmos - an "illustrated dimensional journey from microcosmos to macrocosmos"
★
Age of the Universe at Space.Com
★
My So-Called Universe arguments for and against an infinite and parallel universes
★
Parallel Universes by Max Tegmark
★
Logarithmic Maps of the Universe
★
Universe - Space Information Centre by Exploreuniverse.com
★
Number of Galaxies in the Universe
★
Size of the Universe at Space.Com
★
Illustration comparing the sizes of the planets, the sun, and other stars
★
Cosmology FAQ
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