Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble is one of the most influential minds in the history of astronomy. He discovered that the universe consisted of more than just the Milky Way Galaxy, which was the belief at the time. Hubble's greatest rival was Harlow Shapely, who's reputation came from measuring the size of the Milky Way. However, Shapely also still believed that the Milky Way was the entire universe. Hubble proved him wrong with the discovery of a new Cepheid star millions of miles away, and using Shapely's method of measurement determined that it was a part of it's own galaxy. Along with this discovery was the realization that the universe was expanding, and so the Big Bang theory was born. Another of his great discoveries was the process of redshifting. Hubble discovered that as the distance increased between an object and a source of light, the more faded the light became, and took on a red hue. The Hubble Telescope was named after him so that scientists may find something he had not discovered yet. |
The Big bang
The incredible bulk
The Incredible Bulk is a theory that competes with the Big Bang to explain the origins of the universe. It is a theory that I found interesting myself, seeing as it doesn't completely go against the Big Bang but instead uses evidence that supports it to show that the Bulk might actually be the correct explanation. It also combines some elements of general relativity into it. Some scientists believe that our universe is not the only universe in existence, and that belief is fundamental to the explanation of the the Bulk. The idea behind it is that our universe is a 3D sphere or ball moving in a 4D space. There are other universes that behave in the same way, and the spheres moving around in this space exert gravitational forces on one another. When two of the spheres contact, there is an explosion and expansion, much like the Big Bang. The sphere becomes small from the explosion and begins to expand. When it reaches a certain mass, it exerts such a gravitational pull on the other spheres that they collide and the process starts over again.