On July 19, 2022, a paper titled “Panic at the Discus” was published on the website of Cornell University, one of the top private research universities based in New York. As soon as this paper was released, it seemed to create a panic situation in the entire space community.
The reason for this panic was that the paper claimed that the Big Bang never happened, and this claim went viral everywhere. James Webb, through his research, supposedly proved that the Big Bang never occurred.
Now, as a space enthusiast, if someone were to ask me, ” is all of this fake?” my answer would be no. The issue raised here is like an elephant in the room—it cannot be ignored. The date we have calculated for the occurrence of the Big Bang might be wrong. The James Webb Space Telescope, which was sent into space to take space knowledge and technology to the next level, has recently made discoveries that challenge the Big Bang theory, which has been the cornerstone of our understanding of the universe’s existence.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of some of the oldest galaxies. When scientists studied these images, they noticed that the light and structure of these galaxies had some anomalies. These anomalies are so significant that they do not fit into our current theoretical calculations. The question now is, what are these anomalies?
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Why do we believe that the Big Bang happened ?
To understand these anomalies, I need to ask you a question: Why do we believe that the Big Bang happened, and why are other theories based on it? The reason is that this theory was mathematically and theoretically proven by great minds like Einstein, Friedman, and Stephen Hawking. Initially, the scientific world believed that the universe was static, stable, and not expanding. Einstein, using his General Theory of Relativity, tried to prove this but faced a problem. He had to introduce a cosmological constant to prove the universe was static, which meant he was forcing the universe to be stable mathematically. If the universe is not static, it implies that it had a starting point, leading to the concept of the Big Bang.
Later, in 1919, Dutch physicist Willem de Sitter proved that the universe is static without using a cosmological constant, but his solution assumed that there was no matter in the universe. This suggested that if there is matter in the universe, it cannot be static, implying that the Big Bang might have happened. Finally, in 1922, Soviet physicist and mathematician Alexander Friedmann used General Relativity to prove that if the universe is filled with matter, it is either open, marginally bound, or closed.
An open universe means it started from a singularity and continues to expand without boundaries. A closed universe means it will expand to a maximum size and then collapse back, leading to a Big Crunch. A marginally bound universe means it starts expanding from a singularity, but the expansion rate slows down until it reaches its maximum size.
All these models clearly have a starting point, which we call the Big Bang. This theory and mathematical model were created long ago, and scientists continue to conduct experiments to validate it. We test these theories using modern technology, measuring redshifts, studying galaxy structures, and analyzing the concentration of elements, matter, and antimatter in the universe. However, the James Webb Space Telescope has shown us observations that might disprove the theory.
For example, the telescope has captured images of some of the earliest galaxies, which appear to be well-defined and smooth, similar to modern galaxies. According to modern physics, it takes billions of years for galaxies to form such defined shapes. If these galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang, it suggests that the Big Bang might have occurred much earlier than we thought, or perhaps the Big Bang never happened.
Another issue is the amount of lithium in the universe. According to modern physics, light elements like hydrogen, lithium, and beryllium formed shortly after the Big Bang. However, the current amount of lithium in the universe is much higher than what the Big Bang theory predicts, suggesting that the period of element formation might have been longer than we thought.
What are the different states of matter?
Finally, there is the matter-antimatter contradiction. The Big Bang theory states that all matter in the universe was created at the time of the Big Bang, out of nothing. However, this contradicts a basic law of physics: matter cannot be created or destroyed. Scientists have proposed that there might have been a slight excess of matter over antimatter, allowing matter to survive after the Big Bang. But this argument seems speculative.
In conclusion, the Big Bang theory has some weaknesses, and we are using speculations and hypotheses to support it. If the theory is incomplete, future scientists might fill these gaps with more realistic hypotheses. Alternatively, a new theory might emerge that answers all the questions the Big Bang theory cannot, replacing it with a more accurate version of reality. Science is all about updating and upgrading our understanding. If the universe is evolving, our theories must evolve with it. So, whether the Big Bang theory is incomplete or wrong, science will continue to progress, and we will gain a better understanding of the universe.
If you learned something new from this blog , please give it a like. Until next time, stay curious, keep learning, and keep growing.
