Big Bang Theory Electromagnetic Spectrum

Big Bang Theory

Remediation

What the model tells us:

●Age: Today says 13.8 Billion Years

●Started from a Singularity (The blue and white ball on
the left end of diagram)

●Past State: Hot and dense early universe (blue and
white is considered the hottest colors on the em
spectrum and the colors are not transparent indicating
a higher density)

●Changing State

○Expanding (Radius outlines of the diagram are
becoming wider as you move left to right)

○Cooling: (diagram goes from hot colors to cool
em spectrum colors)

○Decreasing density (colors are becoming more
transparent as we move left to right)

●Matter generation: protons formed at 1 microsecond;
element nuclei generation: nuclear fusion from begins
and ends from 0.01s to 3 minutes (formed the initial H
& He present in the universe)

History of the Universe Model

Multiple Choice

The universe is ____________ years old.

• 8.13 billion
• 13.8 billion
• 1.83 billion
• 381 million

Multiple Choice

The early universe was extremely ________ & ________.

• Hot/Damp

• Dense/Hot

• Dense/Cold

• Hot/Bright

Multiple Choice

Protons started forming __________ after the big bang.

• 1 million years

• 30 seconds

• 100 years

• Microseconds

Evidence 1: Redshift of Light

What does the data tell us about motion: Galaxies further
from Earth are moving faster than the galaxies closer to Earth.

What does the motion of these galaxies tell us about the
universe: The universe is expanding and if it is expanding, it
was smaller in the past.

Explanation/Reasoning:

●Redshift: The wavelengths of light traveling from the
further galaxies are experiencing cosmological redshift
and therefore being stretched as the space between
galaxies expands.

●Hubble’s Law: Explains the amount of redshift is
proportional to the distance and let’s us calculate the
velocity of the galaxies, as well as the expansion rate. It
can also be used to approximate the age of the universe.

●Doppler Effect: Explains how light waves become longer
as an object moves away from the point of the observer.

●Elastic Band Lab: As we stretched the elastic band, the
dot furthest from the “M” moved the greatest.

Variable Relationship: As distance from
the origin increases, the velocity
increases.

Data Collection: Using the
electromagnetic spectrum (light) emissions
of the galaxies represented in the graph.

Multiple Choice

The change in wavelength that allows us to determine if an object if moving toward us or away from us

• Whiteshift and Blueshift

• Redshift and Greenshift

• Redshift and Blueshift

Multiple Choice

What do we observe when stars/galaxies are moving away from us?

• Cosmic Background Radiation

• Blueshift

• Nothing

• Redshift

Multiple Choice

Ever since the universe began, the universe has been

• expanding

• contracting

• stays the same size

Open Ended

Explain the relationship between distance and recessional velocity. Refer to the graph in your explanation. What changes would occur to the wavelengths of light as the travel towards Earth?

Evidence: Composition of Universe

What does the data tell us about the early universe:
The early universe had to be very hot.

Explanation/Reasoning:

●Law of Conservation of Matter: Matter cannot be
created from nothing so hydrogen and helium had to
be formed from the tiniest forms of pre-matter
known as quarks and hadrons.

●Nucleosynthesis: Hydrogen and helium had to be
formed in a manner similar to the conditions that
exist within a star.

○Since the interior core of stars are extremely hot and
dense, so was the initial Big Bang.

○The process of forming hydrogen and helium is called
Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. Hadron collider
experiments show only hydrogen and helium nuclei
were stable enough to withstand the immense heat
estimated during the early universe.

○Stellar nucleosynthesis: Hydrogen and helium re
converted to the heavier elements.

What we see: 73.9% H & 24% He

What does the data tell us: Hydrogen and helium
had to be present before the first stars formed.
Stars are formed from H & He, which are
converted to heavier elements in the core of a star.

Multiple Choice

The most abundant element in the universe today is:

• water
• hydrogen
• oxygen
• carbon

Multiple Choice

What were the original two elements in our universe?

• Lithium and Carbon
• Hydrogen and Neon
• Helium and Chlorine
• Hydrogen and Helium

Evidence CMBR

Observation From Graph: CMBR (represented by COBE Data) lies
directly on top of the blackbody spectrum.

What does the data tell us: The data tells us CMB is almost identical to
a blackbody spectrum, over a 95% match to the blackbody spectrum.

What does the match tell us about the early universe: Tells us the
past universe was much hotter and has been cooling, and since the
wavelengths are in the microwave range, they are highly redshifted and
therefore the universe is expanding.

Explanation/Reasoning:

●1st Law of Thermodynamics: says energy cannot be created
nor destroyed, but it can be converted. It can go from a
higher temperature state to a cooler temperature state.

●To have an almost perfect match to a blackbody spectrum, the
energy had to be generated around the same time as the Big
Bang.

●Energy cools over time when it travels away from or has
been disconnected from its original source.Because the
CMB is redshifted, we know it has been undergoing
expansion since it was generated. Two scientific laws or
concepts that support this idea are the 1st law of thermodynamics
and phase transitions.

Early Prediction: CMB would have
the frequency, wavelengths, and
intensity of a blackbody spectrum.

Multiple Choice

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is a form of _________.

• Matter

• Energy

• Visible Light

• Water

Multiple Choice

The "afterglow" of the energy from the origin of the universe that we see today.

• Cosmic microwave radiation

• sunlight

• Doppler effect

• Cosmic explosions

Multiple Choice

This thermal energy left over from the big bang is visible on your Tv set in the form of static.

• Solar radiation 
• UV radiation 
• cosmic background radiatiion
• nuclear radiation