The greatness and diversity of the world around us is capable ofto impress any imagination. All objects and objects surrounding a person, other people, different kinds of plants and animals, particles that can be seen only with the help of a microscope, as well as incomprehensible star clusters: they are all united by the concept of the "Universe".
Theories of the origin of the universe were developedman for a long time. Despite the absence of even the initial concept of religion or science, the inquisitive minds of ancient people raised questions about the principles of the world order and about the position of man in the space that surrounds him. How many theories of the origin of the universe exist today, it is difficult to count, some of them are studied by leading scientists with world names, others are frankly fantastic.
Modern cosmology is the science of structure anddevelopment of the universe - considers the question of its origin as one of the most interesting and still insufficiently studied riddles. The nature of the processes that contributed to the emergence of stars, galaxies, solar systems and planets, their development, the source of the appearance of the universe, as well as its size and boundaries: all this is only a brief list of issues being studied by modern scientists.
The search for answers to the fundamental riddle ofthe formation of the world led to the fact that today there are various theories of the origin, existence, development of the universe. The excitement of specialists looking for answers, constructing and testing hypotheses, is justified, because a reliable theory of the birth of the universe will reveal to the whole of man the probability of the existence of life in other systems and planets.
Theories of the origin of the universe have the character of scientific concepts, individual hypotheses, religious teachings, philosophical ideas and myths. They are all conventionally divided into two main categories:
As the name suggests, creationism is the religious theory of the origin of the universe. This worldview is based on the concept of creating the universe, the planet and man by God or the Creator.
The idea for a long time was dominant,until the end of the XIX century, when the process of accumulating knowledge in the most diverse fields of science accelerated (biology, astronomy, physics), and evolutionary theory was widely spread. Creationism has become a kind of reaction of Christians, who adhere to conservative views on the ongoing discoveries. The dominant idea of evolutionary development at that time only strengthened the contradictions existing between religious and other theories.
The main differences between the theories of differentcategories are primarily in terms that their adherents use. So, in scientific hypotheses, instead of the creator - nature, and instead of creation - the origin. Along with this, there are questions that are similarly illuminated by different theories or even completely duplicated.
Theories of the origin of the universe, relating toopposite categories, date its appearance in different ways. For example, according to the most common hypothesis (the big bang theory), the universe was formed about 13 billion years ago.
In contrast, the religious theory of the origin of the universe gives quite different figures:
Until the 20th century, most scientistsadhered to the view of the infinity of the universe. With this quality they characterized time and space. In addition, in their opinion, the universe was static and homogeneous.
The idea of the infinity of the universe in spaceput forward Isaac Newton. The development of this assumption was handled by Emmanuel Kant, who developed a theory about the absence of time boundaries as well. Moving on, in theoretical assumptions, Kant extended the infinity of the universe to the number of possible biological products. This postulate meant that in an ancient and vast world without end and beginning there could be an innumerable number of possible variants, as a result of which the appearance of any biological species is real.
Based on this theory of the possiblethe emergence of life forms was later developed by Darwin's theory. Observations of the starry sky and the results of calculations of astronomers have confirmed the cosmological model of Kant.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein waspublished his own model of the universe. According to his theory of relativity, two opposite processes occur simultaneously in the universe: expansion and contraction. However, he agreed with the opinion of most scientists about the stationarity of the universe, so he introduced the concept of cosmic repulsive force. Its impact is designed to balance the attraction of stars and stop the process of motion of all celestial bodies to preserve the static nature of the universe.
The model of the universe - according to Einstein - has a certain size, but there are no borders at that. This combination is feasible only if the space is curved in the same way as it occurs in the sphere.
The characteristics of the space of such a model are:
The creator of the revolutionary expanding modelThe universe, AA Fridman (USSR) built his theory on the basis of equations characterizing the general theory of relativity. True, the generally accepted opinion in the scientific world of the time was the static nature of our world, so its work was not paid due attention.
A few years later, astronomer Edwin HubbleA discovery was made that confirmed Friedman's ideas. It was discovered the removal of galaxies from the nearby Milky Way. At the same time, the fact that the speed of their movement is proportional to the distance between them and our galaxy has become irrefutable.
This discovery explains the constant "run-up" of stars and galaxies in relation to each other, which leads to the conclusion about the expansion of the universe.
In the end, Friedman's findings were recognized by Einstein, he later mentioned the merits of the Soviet scientist as the founder of the hypothesis of expanding the universe.
It can not be said that there are contradictions betweenthis theory and the general theory of relativity, but with the expansion of the universe there must have been an initial impulse, which provoked the flight of stars. By analogy with the explosion, the idea was called "Big Bang".
The result of the calculations and discoveries of Stephen Hawkingbecame anthropocentric theory of the origin of the universe. Its creator argues that the existence of a planet so well prepared for human life can not be accidental.
The theory of the origin of the universe of Stephen Hawking also provides for the gradual evaporation of black holes, their loss of energy and the emission of Hawking radiation.
As a result of the search for evidence,tested more than 40 characteristics, compliance with which is necessary for the development of civilization. American astrophysicist Hugh Ross has estimated the likelihood of such an unintentional coincidence. The result was the figure 10-53.
Our universe includes a trillion galaxies, 100 billion stars each. According to the calculations made by scientists, the total number of planets should be 1020. This figure is 33 orders of magnitude less than previously calculated. Consequently, none of the planets in all galaxies can combine conditions that would be suitable for the spontaneous emergence of life.
Scientists supporting the theory of the big bang,share a hypothesis, according to which the universe is the consequence of a grand explosion. The main postulate of the theory is the assertion that before this event all the elements of the present Universe were enclosed in a particle that had microscopic dimensions. Being inside it, the elements were characterized by a singular state in which indicators such as temperature, density and pressure can not be measured. They are endless. The laws of physics do not influence matter and energy in this state.
The cause of the explosion, which occurred 15 billion years ago, is called instability inside the particle. The scattered minute elements laid the foundation for the world we know today.
At first the universe was a nebula formedthe smallest particles (smaller than the atom). Then, connecting, they formed atoms, which served as the basis of stellar galaxies. The answer to questions about what happened before the explosion, and also what became its cause, are the most important of the tasks of this theory of the origin of the universe.
The table schematically depicts the stages in the formation of the universe after the big bang.
| State of the Universe | Time axis | Estimated temperature |
| Expansion (inflation) | From 10-45to 10-37 seconds | More than 1026TO |
| Quarks and electrons appear | 10-6 from | More than 1013 TO |
| Protons and neutrons are formed | 10-5 from | 1012TO |
| The nuclei of helium, deuterium and lithium | From 10-4 s to 3 min | From 1011 to 109 TO |
| The atoms are formed | 400 thousand years | 4000 K |
| The gas cloud continues to expand | 15 Ma | 300 K |
| The first stars and galaxies are born | 1 billion years | 20 K |
| Explosions of stars provoke the formation of heavy nuclei | 3 billion years | 10 K |
| The process of the birth of stars ceases | 10-15 billion years | 3 K |
| The energy of all stars is depleted | 1014 years | 10-2 TO |
| Black holes are depleted and elementary particles are born | 1040 years | -20 K |
| Evaporation of all black holes is complete | 10100 years | From 10-60 to 10-40 TO |
As follows from the above data, the universe continues to expand and cool.
Constant increase in the distance betweengalaxies - the basic postulate: what distinguishes the theory of the big bang. The appearance of the universe in this way can be confirmed by the found evidence. There are also grounds for refuting it.
Given that the theory of the big bang is not proven in practice, it is not surprising that there are several issues that it is not able to answer:
There is also a discrepancy in the indicatorsthe calculated mass of our galaxy and the data obtained in the study of the rate of its attraction to the Andromeda galaxy. Apparently, the weight of our galaxy is ten times larger than previously thought.
Today there are no cosmological theories that are notwould rely on quantum mechanics. After all, she is engaged in describing the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles. The difference between quantum physics and the classical (described by Newton) is that the second observes and describes material objects, and the first presupposes an exclusively mathematical description of observation and measurement itself. For quantum physics, material values do not represent the subject of research, here the observer himself is part of the investigated situation.
Proceeding from these features, quantum mechanicsis experiencing difficulties with the description of the universe, because the observer is part of the universe. However, when speaking about the origin of the universe, it is impossible to imagine extraneous observers. Attempts to develop a model without the participation of an outside observer were crowned with the quantum theory of the origin of the Universe J. Wheeler.
Its essence is that at every moment of timethere is a splitting of the universe and the formation of an infinite number of copies. As a result, each of the parallel Universes can be observed, and observers can see all the quantum alternatives. At the same time, the original and new worlds are real.
The main task, which the theory of inflation is called upon to solve, is to search for answers to the questions left by the unenlightened theory of the big bang and expansion theory. Namely:
To this end, the inflationary theory of originThe universe provides extrapolation of the expansion at the zero point in time, the conclusion of the entire mass of the universe at one point, and the formation of a cosmological singularity, which is often referred to as a large explosion.
Obvious is the irrelevance of the general theoryrelativity, which can not be applied at this moment. As a result, only theoretical methods, calculations and conclusions can be used to develop a more general theory (or "new physics") and solve the problem of cosmological singularity.
Despite the success of the space modelinflation, there are scientists who oppose, calling it untenable. Their main argument is criticism of the theory's proposed solutions. Opponents argue that the solutions obtained leave some details missing, in other words, instead of solving the problem of initial values, the theory only skillfully drapes them.
An alternative are several exoticTheories, whose idea is based on the formation of initial values before the big bang. The new theories of the origin of the universe can be briefly described as follows:
Regardless of how many theories existthe emergence of the universe, only two of them withstood the test of time and overcome the problem of ever-increasing entropy. They were developed by scientists Steinhardt-Tyurok and Baum-Frampton.
These relatively new theories of originThe universe was put forward in the 1980s. They have many followers who develop models based on it, search for evidence of reliability and work on eliminating contradictions.
One of the most popular among the theorythe origin of the universe is string theory. Before proceeding to a description of her idea, it is necessary to understand the concepts of one of the closest competitors, the standard model. It assumes that matter and interactions can be described as a specific set of particles that are divided into several groups:
These particles are, in fact, the bricks of the universe, since they are so small that they can not be divided into components.
A distinctive feature of string theory becomesthe statement that such bricks are not particles, but ultramicroscopic strings that oscillate. At the same time, varying at different frequencies, the strings become analogues of different particles described in the standard model.
To understand the theory, one should realize that strings are not any matter, it is energy. Consequently, string theory concludes that all elements of the universe consist of energy.
A good analogy is fire. When you look at him, you get the impression of his materiality, but you can not touch him.
Theories of the origin of the universe are briefly studied inschools in the lessons of astronomy. Students describe the main theories about how our world was formed, what is happening to it now and how it will develop in the future.
