Lemaitre and the Big Bang

1. Lemaitre and the Big Bang

2. Order the events in the Big Bang. Then write your own summary of the events. **What does the theory not explain? What answers could there be for this? B E F C G A D • So as the Universe cools, energy becomes matter - simple elements like Hydrogen and Helium. • In the beginning there is nothing. No time. No space. • The expanding universe was originally just super-hot energy, and space. Guided by Laws of Physics that decided how things are going to interact. • Hydrogen and helium combine to make heavier metals, and these come together to form stars and planets, and our solar system. • Suddenly, 40 billion years ago, “nothing” fluctuates, releasing positive and negative energy, which expands out. • This inflation, or expansion, is called the Big Bang. It creates energy. It creates the universe. It is still expanding today. • One of these laws is Einstein’s equation E=mc2. It says that energy and space can make matter, if temperatures cool down fast enough. *How did something come out of nothing? Really nothing? *Where did the laws come from, that guided matter to interact in the right way? Why is it not all just chaos?

4. Einstein found that mass & gravity pulled everything in. But what stopped everything from being pulled in? He didn’t know. Lemaitre stepped in. He looked at Einstein’s equations, and said - “it is not all being pulled in! In fact,the universe is expanding!”. He said this expansion came from a cosmic explosion, that started the universe off, and exploded with so much force, that it is still expanding to this day. He called this beginning “the cosmic egg” but we call it the Big Bang. Many of the scientists Lemaitre spoke to, didn’t take him seriously. A priest? Making a scientific discovery? But a few years later, he was proved right by Hubble, who saw through his telescope that the universe is expanding, as Lemaitre said. Explain what Lemaitre discovered. Why do you think other scientists did not want to take a priest seriously? **What does this tell you about what people may think about the relationship between science and religion?

5. No one has any idea what happened before the Big Bang. Time stops existing. All our physics and mathematical equations break down and stop working. At the Vatican conference for cosmology Pope John Paul II told the scientists that they shouldn’t pry too closely into what happened before the Big Bang. • What do you think he meant by this ? • - Did he think that before the Big Bang it was only God? And you can’t put God into a physics equation?- Did he feel threatened that the scientists would try investigate into the mystery of God scientifically? - Did he mean that this is an area where we need to show great respect? - Do you agree with him? One one hand, we have Lemaitre, a physicist. On the other hand, John Paul II said better not investigate too closely. Is religion against science?

6. Draw your version of the Big Bang, within the mind of God - or not! If we say God made the Big Bang – then someone could ask: who made God? God is like mathematics – He is not the sort of thing that is made, or can die or pass away. He is not a “thing”. He can only be “discovered” as being there. He could be like an ocean, or mind, of possibilities from which things come into existence and in which many things become possible. Is this more likely than saying there are infinite numbers of “possible worlds”?

7. Einstein Quote The important thing is not to stop questioning. One cannot help but be in awe when we contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.