A brief history of the universe, the beginning, today, and the end

[Knowledge_Seeker]

I am in the process of writing a paper and i need to update my knowledge.
I would appreciate it if you would tell me about the beginning of the universe, the universe today, and the universe's end. In your response you can talk about the different theories and different things currently known to be true.
I would appreciate it if you would post in this format:

Before the beginning of the universe -

The beginning -

The universe today -

The end -

After the end -

the italisized* words are an optional response

[naios]

Do you want philosophical or scientific answers/opinions?

[antoniseb]

Do you need this typed double-spaced with one inch margins?

[Cougar]

Before the beginning of the universe - Well, this is ruled out by definition, but remarkably, there are (rather speculative) theories that offer a "pre-big bang" scenario. Here is a fairly understandable article about one of these.

The beginning - As has recently been emphasized to me, the standard hot big bang theory has nothing to say about the very "beginning", if indeed that's what it was. Shortly thereafter, there are predictions that we can test and verify whether we're on the right track.

The universe today - It's pretty amazing what we can figure out from just looking around. Our telescopes can now see objects ~12 billion lightyears distant and hence objects as they looked 12 billion years ago.

The end - Predictions are difficult, especially of the future.

After the end - Very cold.

[Nowhere Man]

Before the beginning of the universe - What before?

The beginning - BANG!

The universe today - http://www.universetoday.com/

The end - wimper...

After the end - What after?

I know, I'm being a smartarse. I just don't feel like doing anyone's homework for them.

Fred

[novaderrik]

well, since no one took the "other" side of things, i shall play devil's advocate....
there is a rather famous book that explains it all..
the first words are "In the beginning..."
of course, there are many different versions of that book, and they can all be interpretted in many, many different ways..

[Knowledge_Seeker]

Do you want philosophical or scientific answers/opinions?

scientific.

cougar got it right, but it would be better if more theories/ facts / or statements were given

[mickal555]

What is this for... an assignment or something? :s

[ArgoNavis]

there is a rather famous book that explains it all..
the first words are "In the beginning..."

not good enought...we need to know "before the beginning"

and at "the end"

[mickal555]

There are lots of books and idea's that start by saying what happened in the beginning... the only one that has any objective evidence is the scientiffic theory, the big bang.

[antoniseb]

What is this for... an assignment or something?

He said up front it is for an assignment, so we can't help him. Sorry KS. The facts are out there, and should be easy to find with google.

[Knowledge_Seeker]

actually i was kinda embarassed to write this but i think ive posted this topic a while before but im in the process of writing a book and since im just 14 and all im kinda hiding from the embarassment and criticism*.

so what im doing in the book is talking about how science explains the universe before, the universe today, how the universe will end.

and if i get the info i want to write about the universe before the beginning and after the end.

i wanted both scientific beliefs and possible theories.

if you could give me the info yourself or refer me to any book(s) that would be helpful, id appreciate it a lot! thanx again.

this would be my actual topic

[mickal555]

OK

But be carefull you don't plagorise!

[Knowledge_Seeker]

OK

But be carefull you don't plagorise!

all i want to know is information. "common knowledge" if anyone could give me references that would be great

[ArgoNavis]

I am currently reading "Origins - Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution" by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith. The NOVA series is at:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/origins/

This covers much of the topic of current cosmology quite well. I was interested to read that as the Universe expands the portion of dark energy increases. Currently it is 24% dark mass to 73% dark energy (approximately).

As the Universe expands more space comes into existence and with it more dark energy to increase the expansion at a faster rate. The universe will end up either being very cold and dark as the 3% of visible (baryonic) matter and dark matter dissappears over the horizon of the visible universe, or end in the "Big Rip" where dark energy eventually overcomes the atomic forces that holds baryonic matter together. Scary - we are all going to die.

Interestingly, I went to a public talk by Brian Schmidt last night. Brian is working with one of the high-z supernova search teams. He said the Type 1a SN data is currently equivocal on whether the Universe will end up cold and dark or the undergo the Big Rip. The data certainly does not suggest a big crunch.

http://www.science.org.au/events/fro...03/schmidt.htm

I remember that Astronomy magazine had an article on the future of the Universe some time back (several years as I recall). It was quite interesting as they went far into the future of the Universe. I think they have searchable back issue contents on line.

A point Brian made last night was that what happened at the Big Bang and several microseconds after (and no doubt before) is more the realm of metaphysics, not physics. If you think there is a God in there then that's fine - it's just as valid as anyone else's idea.

[mickal555]

A book called the last 3mins is a great speclative book on the last three mins of the current scenarios... Talks about possible proton decay (after like 10^50 years), and elements all ending up in plack holes and fusing because of quatum uncertency.

[DyerWolf]

Shouldn't someone fess up to the truth?

Great A'Tuin is the giant star turtle who travels through space, carrying the four giant elephants (named Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen) who in turn carry the Discworld. A member of the species Chelys galactica, A'Tuin is the only turtle ever to feature on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Its shell is frosted with frozen methane, pitted with meteor craters, and scoured by asteroidal dust. The substance it swims through is called aether, and may be identical to the ancient Greek mythical fifth element the same name, or to the 19th century concept of luminiferous aether.

(*Nod's to Terry Pratchett)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FourEcks (Source)

[gyan prakash singh]

I am in the process of writing a paper and i need to update my knowledge.
I would appreciate it if you would tell me about the beginning of the universe, the universe today, and the universe's end. In your response you can talk about the different theories and different things currently known to be true.
I would appreciate it if you would post in this format:

Before the beginning of the universe -

The beginning -

The universe today -

The end -

After the end -

the italisized* words are an optional response

hi! you asked what i was waiting to be asked. I have some ideas about the conditions before the great BB.
we say that our time began with the big bang. speed of light is said to be ultimate speed. but what if we gain higher speeds. it shows that there may be other universes. i have studied that the moving mass of a photon is infinite. if we slow down a photon, its mass becomes less. and when we produce a photon we produce infinite mass in our universe. i think it is possible that some part of mass of our universe in form of infinitly small mass part of photon may have violeted the rules of our universe. this mass can produce another universe and the event of formation of that photon can be the begging of another universe. in the same way (of course the rules of the other universe will be diffrent) our universe was formated.
So before the big bang there were nothing but other universes. with them we have no contact and hence we can stay with them without any disturbenc.

INGLISH IS NOT MY MOTHER TOUNGE...SORRY........

[Knowledge_Seeker]

if we slow down a photon, its mass becomes less.

thanx for your response but how is this possible? i thought photons were massless...

[HenrikOlsen]

No restmass, but they have momentum.
This confuses people.

[gyan prakash singh]

thanx for your response but how is this possible? i thought photons were massless...

how somthing which is in the world can be massless???????//

[Knowledge_Seeker]

how somthing which is in the world can be massless???????//

exactly. thats the same question i asked when i heard about that. i was told that since photons move at LS they have no mass. Things that move at LS cant have mass.

at least that is what i heard here.

[HenrikOlsen]

Or just as true, the other way around, things without restmass can only move at lightspeed.