The Formation of the Universe

First there was nothing. Then, there was something. This is the general idea behind the formation of the Universe, a topic rife with controversy and passion, one around which a few ideas of settled and become cannon, but the truth of which may never wholly be known.

A Look at the Formation of the Universe

How does one even begin to investigate the formation of the Universe? Coming from a purely scientific, secular view, what are the clues that need to be uncovered, the paths that need to be walked, to even begin to investigate something that, according to current conjecture, happened at least 13 billion years ago? It all started with Edwin Hubble.

Hubble, using a new kind of telescope, began the first discovery of facts that there were galaxies outside of our own, the inkling of proof to theories about the size of the universe. In his observations he noticed that the redshift (the shifting of light toward the red end of the spectrum that often is caused when a light source is moving away from the observer) of galaxies increases in proportion to their distance. This fact became known as Hubble’s Law, and was used to float the theory that galaxies are not stationary and, in fact, are moving.

Continued observation allowed scientists, using Hubble’s Law, to observe the direction that galaxies were moving in and at what rate. From there they were able to extrapolate the approximate centre of the universe and, roughly, its age. By following this trail of facts in reverse, scientists eventually came up with the most prevalent and accepted theory of the universe formation today, the Big Bang.

The Big Bang

Before there was the universe as we know it, all matter and energy was condensed into a super dense point, a condition of unimaginable density and temperature that was the genesis of all we know. The theory runs that there was an explosion of energy and matter, that this super dense point expanded outwards to form the universe. The violence of the process caused atoms and molecules to collide and either stick together or shear off, creating new energy.

Now, even with this being the most widely accepted model of the formation of the universe, there are a few gaps in the process that need filling in. The moments right after the Big Bang, for example, are a question mark of sorts.

An Accelerating Universe

Using Hubble’s Law to ascertain that the universe is expanding and in motion has lead to quite a few interesting theories about the nature of the universe. In addition to leading scientists to formulate the Big Bang theory it has been discovered that the expansion of the universe appears to be speeding up rather than slowing down. In most cases physical law suggests that an object in motion would slow down over time, but the universe doesn’t seem to want to listen.

Some believe that over time the universe will slow down and then shrink back to a “Big Crunch”, starting the whole process over again, but most seem to believe that the universe will go on expanding forever, which leads to the “universe is infinite” theory.

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