As a result, the Big Bang theory quickly became the most widely held view of the origin of the universe.Įinstein and his contemporaries believed in a static universe. These two theories were active contenders until the 1965 discovery, by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, of the cosmic microwave background radiation, a fact that is a straightforward prediction of the Big Bang theory, and one that the original Steady State theory could not account for. ![]() In 1948, Fred Hoyle set out his opposing Steady State theory in which the universe continually expanded but remained statistically unchanged as new matter is constantly created. In 1927, Georges Lemaître set out a theory that has since come to be called the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. From then on, the beginning of the universe and its possible end have been the subjects of serious scientific investigation.īig Bang and Steady State theories In 1929, Edwin Hubble published his conclusion, based on his observations of Cepheid variable stars in distant galaxies, that the universe was expanding. In some of these solutions, the universe has been expanding from an initial singularity which was, essentially, the Big Bang. There are several possible solutions to the equations of general relativity, and each solution implies a possible ultimate fate of the universe.Īlexander Friedmann proposed several solutions in 1922, as did Georges Lemaître in 1927. General relativity can be employed to describe the universe on the largest possible scale. The theoretical scientific exploration of the ultimate fate of the universe became possible with Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity. See also: Timeline of cosmological theories and Chronology of the universe Theory ![]() ![]() įactors that need to be considered in determining the universe's origin and ultimate fate include the average motions of galaxies, the shape and structure of the universe, and the amount of dark matter and dark energy that the universe contains. There is a strong consensus among cosmologists that the shape of the universe is considered "flat" ( parallel lines stay parallel) and will continue to expand forever. Confirmation of the Big Bang mostly depends on knowing the rate of expansion, average density of matter, and the physical properties of the mass–energy in the universe. ![]() This suggests that the universe began very dense about 13.787 billion years ago, and it has expanded and (on average) become less dense ever since. Observations made by Edwin Hubble during the 1930s–1950s found that galaxies appeared to be moving away from each other, leading to the currently accepted Big Bang theory. Several possible futures have been predicted by different scientific hypotheses, including that the universe might have existed for a finite and infinite duration, or towards explaining the manner and circumstances of its beginning. Based on available observational evidence, deciding the fate and evolution of the universe has become a valid cosmological question, being beyond the mostly untestable constraints of mythological or theological beliefs. The ultimate fate of the universe is a topic in physical cosmology, whose theoretical restrictions allow possible scenarios for the evolution and ultimate fate of the universe to be described and evaluated.
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