Origins of the Universe

- adapted from NatGeo -
The most popular theory of our universe's origin centers on a cosmic cataclysm unmatched in all of history—the big bang.
This theory was born of the observation that other galaxies are moving
away from our own at great speed, in all directions, as if they had all
been propelled by an ancient explosive force.
Before the big bang,
scientists believe, the entire vastness of the observable universe,
including all of its matter and radiation, was compressed into a hot,
dense mass just a few millimeters across. This nearly incomprehensible
state is theorized to have existed for just a fraction of the first
second of time.
Big bang proponents suggest that some 10 billion
to 20 billion years ago, a massive blast allowed all the universe's
known matter and energy—even space and time themselves—to spring from
some ancient and unknown type of energy.
The theory maintains
that, in the instant—a trillion-trillionth of a second—after the big
bang, the universe expanded with incomprehensible speed from its
pebble-size origin to astronomical scope. Expansion has apparently
continued, but much more slowly, over the ensuing billions of years.
Scientists
can't be sure exactly how the universe evolved after the big bang. Many
believe that as time passed and matter cooled, more diverse kinds of
atoms began to form, and they eventually condensed into the stars and
galaxies of our present universe.
Origins of the Theory
A
Belgian priest named Georges Lemaître first suggested the big bang
theory in the 1920s when he theorized that the universe began from a
single primordial atom. The idea subsequently received major boosts by
Edwin Hubble's observations that galaxies are speeding away from us in
all directions, and from the discovery of cosmic microwave radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson.
The
glow of cosmic microwave background radiation, which is found
throughout the universe, is thought to be a tangible remnant of leftover
light from the big bang. The radiation is akin to that used to transmit
TV signals via antennas. But it is the oldest radiation known and may
hold many secrets about the universe's earliest moments.
The big
bang theory leaves several major questions unanswered. One is the
original cause of the big bang itself. Several answers have been
proposed to address this fundamental question, but none has been
proven—and even adequately testing them has proven to be a formidable
challenge.


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http://grou.ps/africanatheistsdotorg/blogs/1104712