The beginning     

 

The debate

The beginning of the universe is the debate of the century.
Two theories come far above the other theories, of which one was more accepted after some time.
But how could scientists know which one was right and which one was wrong?

 

Theories:

Steady state - theory

The 'Steady State'-theory says that there has never been a Big Bang, but that the universe was always there and always will be.
This theory says that all the time starsystems beyond the horizon disappear and all the time new starsystems appear, made spontaneously out of    materials that appears out of nowhere.
If the 'Steady State'-theory is correct, then the universe must be the same now as it was millions of years ago.
But astronomers think the contrary.
In the young universe, the starsystems were otherwise devided and there were much more quasars than there are now.
The 'Steady State'-theory doesn't seem to be right.

Big Bang:

The second theory is the Big Bang.
This theory says that the universe started with one big explosion in one point, about 15 billion years ago.
In 1948 scientists calculated that if the universe started with an explosion, the radiation of the Big Bang in the meantime must have cooled down to 3 degrees above the ultimate point zero ( 3°K or -270°C or -454°F).
at that time they couldn't discover the radiation.
Only in the sixties came the required technology and a group of scientists of the American university of Princeton began the search for the 'cosmic background-radiation'.
In the mean time investigations at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey studied radiosignals from certain parts of the galaxy.
Their work was disturbed by background-interference which seemed to come from all directions.
What appeared?
That interference was the 'cosmic background-radiation'.
Within the 'Steady State'-theory, background-radiation can't exist.
The Big Bang-theory seemes to be correct.

Historical fact:

The first person who thought that the universe started with the Big Bang was the Belgian scientist Georges Lemaitre ( 1894 - 1966 ).
He thought that everything that exists now, once began as a comprest lump of material that exploded to continually smaller pieces.
Eventually the smallest pieces became the atoms, the base of all materials that mankind knows.
After the connection between material and energy became more clear, the theory of Georges Lemaitre seemed more wrong than right, but the basic idea of Lemaitre, the Big Bang, is still the most likely theory, for the moment.

Georges Lemaitre

Questions:

However the Big Bang-theory seemes to be accurate, many questions stay unanswered.
One question shall always remain unanswered, what was there before the Big Bang?
Space and time have no meaning there.
And the answer to the biggest question of them all shall also remain unanswered: "Why did the Big Bang happen?" or "Why does the universe exist?"

Artistical impression

of the Big Bang.