The Origin of the Universe Flashcards
What is happening to the universe?
It is expanding.
What is red shift?
There is an observed increase in the wavelength of light from most distant galaxies. The further away the galaxies are, the faster they are moving, and the bigger the observed increase in wavelength. This
effect is called red-shift.
What is the Doppler Effect?
When something moves towards you the frequency will seem higher and the wavelength will seem shorter. The Doppler effect happens with longitudinal and transverse waves.
What does red shift show?
That the universe is expanding. This can be seen as more distant galaxies are more red shifted than nearer ones.
What triggered the expansion of the universe?
The Big Bang
What is the Big Bang Theory?
The theory that all the matter and energy started out in one ‘point’. Then it exploded and began expanding.
What is the strongest evidence to support the Big Bang Theory?
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)
What is CMBR?
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. It is a low frequency electromagnetic radiation. coming from all parts of the universe.
How does the Big Bang Theory explain CMBR?
The Big Bang Theory states that while the universe was still hot, everything emitted high frequency radiation. As the Earth cooled the radiation dropped in frequency and became CMBR.
What are the limitations of the Big Bang Theory?
It predicts that the universe’s expansion should be slowing down, but it seems to be speeding up.
It doesn’t explain what caused the explosion.
