SO MUCH SPACE!

Navigation Links

• Home
• Where Space Began
• All About Stars
• What's Next?!

Here is where it all began!

The universe itself is said to be about 13.772 years old. Without a reasonable doubt, according to NASA, the universe had once a beginning. Before then, there was nothing! Scientists today believe that the beginning of the universe was the result of the Big Bang. This is other known as the Big Bang Theory. The evidence behind this is that with the help of the Hubble Telescope and many intelligent scientists, the universe appears to be expanding. Newton's Laws tell us that in order for there to be an object moving, a force must act upon that object. Therefore, in order for the universe to be expanding, there had to be some kind of force to push it!

Between 1927 and 1931, scientist Georges Lemaitre argued with the help of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity and Alexander Freidmann's equations, that early in the life of the universe, which is said to be about 13.772 billion years old, the universe was more compact. Georges also stated that at some point near the beginning of time, all of the matter contained in the universe had to originate from a single point known as the singularity.

Here is a diagram from phys.org that illustrates what happened during and after the big bang occured.

But before the Big Bang Theory was even discovered, there were a couple different models that originated some time around the 16th century about how the universe appeared to look.

• Nicolaus Copernicus came up with the idea that the sun was the center of the universe, also known as the heliocentric model.
  
• Prior to the heliocentric model, Greek astronomers, especially Claudius Ptolemy, believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, hence the term "geocentric" model. Though this may seem like a random discovery, it was actually calculated by many Greek mathematicians. Of course, however, it was proven wrong many years later.



This is the geocentric map drawn by Portuguese cartographer Bartolomeu Velho.

The Geocentric Model
The Heliocentric Model
Different Types of Stars
The Big Bang Theory
Life Cylce of a Star
Black Holes!
Neutron Stars!