The Big Bang
293
No – it was more of an event.
A long time coming
Matter only began to form hundreds
of thousands of years after the Big
Bang – long after the fireball had
cooled. The resulting gases would
form the stars, planets, and galaxies
that exist today.
What’s that?
Scientists have detected
a faint radio signal,
present in any direction
they look for it in
space. They believe it
is a faint glow from
the Big Bang’s superhot
fireball. It is called The
Cosmic Background
Radiation.
No beginning, no end
An alternative to the Big
Bang, the Steady State
Theory claimed there was
no beginning or end for
the Universe. It’s just
always been there.
Few scientists
now believe in
the Steady State
Theory.
At 9 billion years the
Universe looks much
as it does today, if a
little bit smaller. Our
Sun starts to form.
Stars and galaxies start
to form after about
300 million years.
The astronomer
who gave the Big Bang theory
its name didn’t support it. He
termed it Big Bang as a criticism
and was surprised that the
name stuck. He believed in
the Steady State Theory.
W
eird
or
wha
t?
The Cosmic Background Radiation was
discovered by American physicists Arno
Penzias and Robert Wilson in the 1960s.
