Looking back to the origins of the universe

Einstein was not happy.

In the early years of the 20th century, he came up with his General Theory of Relativity, an important part of which was a suggested explanation of gravity.

Newton came up with the idea of gravity, but did not know what it was. Einstein was unhappy because his equations were telling him things he didn't like. Einstein believed the universe to be unchanging and eternal. His equations said that could not be the case. It had to either collapse or expand.

So, completely out of his imagination, he added a cosmic fudge factor, a force that would keep the universe static. He gave it the impressive name, Cosmological Constant, which would be represented by a capital Greek letter, lambda. As it turned out decades later, that would be useful.

Working independently, Georges LeMaitre, a senior Jesuit priest, was doing his own calculations, which told him the universe was expanding. However, he did not question his result and concluded billions of years ago the universe was concentrated in a tiny body, which he called the “Primaeval Atom".

He had the opportunity to seek out Einstein at a conference to discuss his work with the famous man. Despite the fact Einstein’s equations, before he added the fudge, predicted exactly what LeMaitre had found, Einstein crushingly told the priest, "your calculations are correct, but your physics is atrocious". Some time later, when it was discovered the universe was, in fact, expanding, Einstein finally apologized.

We now believe the universe started from something tiny, like LeMaitre's “Primaeval Atom,” which then, just under 14 billion years ago, started to expand and cool, leading to the universe we see around us today.

Fred Hoyle, a prominent sceptic of the idea that the universe had a beginning, derisively referred to that beginning as the "Big Bang.” Ironically, that name stuck. That idea raises a very intriguing question: What existed before the Big Bang? Is it possible to find out?

The problem is the conditions at the moment of the Big Bang were so extreme our current knowledge of physics breaks down. Amazingly, thanks to research using particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider, which sits on the boundary between France and Switzerland, researchers have actually got to within a few microseconds after the Big Bang, when material was heated and compressed to an incomprehensible degree. However, for the time being, that is as far as we have been able to get.

One idea widely discussed is that of the “multiverse,” in which universes form and then dissipate like bubbles in foam. In that case, before the Big Bang there was the foam with its evolving universes as bubbles, with one about to become ours.

There may be a way to test this multiverse idea. In our bathtub foams, we get bubbles touching each other. The interface between those bubbles has a different shape. The idea is that if our universe is touching another, the differently shaped interface should be visible in the cosmic microwave background.

Measurements indicate our universe will keep expanding indefinitely, faster and faster, eventually becoming a starless, cold vacuum with scattered black holes. Over time they will evaporate, leaving a dark, cold emptiness.

According to physicist Roger Penrose and others, that will eventually fold back into a singularity, a primaeval atom, which at some point will start to expand, starting the whole thing over again.

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• Venus now lies very low in the pre-dawn glow.

• After sunset, Jupiter shines yellowish-white high in the southwest and red Mars is high in the south.

•The Moon will reach its first quarter on April 4.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.