What is beyond the Universe? The structure of the Universe. Secrets of space

Universe... What a terrible word. The scale of what is denoted by this word defies any comprehension. For us, driving 1000 km is already a distance, but what do they mean in comparison with the gigantic figure that indicates the minimum possible, from the point of view of scientists, diameter of our Universe.


This figure is not just colossal - it is unreal. 93 billion light years! In kilometers this is expressed as 879,847,933,950,014,400,000,000.

What is the Universe?

What is the Universe? How to grasp this immensity with your mind, because, as Kozma Prutkov wrote, this is not given to anyone. Let's rely on everything familiar to us, simple things that can, through analogies, lead us to the desired comprehension.

What is our Universe made of?

To understand this issue, go to the kitchen right now and take the foam sponge that you use to wash dishes. Have taken? So, you are holding in your hands a model of the Universe. If you take a closer look at the structure of the sponge through a magnifying glass, you will see that it consists of many open pores, bounded not even by walls, but rather by bridges.

The Universe is something similar, but only the material used for bridges is not foam rubber, but... ... Not planets, not star systems, but galaxies! Each of these galaxies consists of hundreds of billions of stars orbiting a central core, and each can be up to hundreds of thousands of light years in size. The distance between galaxies is usually about a million light years.

Expansion of the Universe

The Universe is not just big, it is also constantly expanding. This fact, established by observing the red shift, formed the basis of the Big Bang theory.


According to NASA, the age of the Universe since the Big Bang that began it is approximately 13.7 billion years.

What does the word "Universe" mean?

The word “Universe” has Old Slavonic roots and, in fact, is a tracing paper from the Greek word oikomenta (οἰκουμένη), coming from the verb οἰκέω “I inhabit, I dwell”. Initially, this word denoted the entire inhabited part of the world. In church language, a similar meaning remains to this day: for example, the Patriarch of Constantinople has the word “Ecumenical” in his title.

The term comes from the word “inhabitation” and is only consonant with the word “everything”.

What is at the center of the Universe?

The question of the center of the Universe is an extremely confusing thing and has definitely not yet been resolved. The problem is that it is not clear whether it exists at all or not. It is logical to assume that since there was a Big Bang, from the epicenter of which countless galaxies began to fly apart, it means that by tracing the trajectory of each of them, it is possible to find the center of the Universe at the intersection of these trajectories. But the fact is that all galaxies are moving away from each other at approximately the same speed and practically the same picture is observed from every point in the Universe.


There is so much theorizing here that any academician would go crazy. Even the fourth dimension has been brought into play more than once, even if it were wrong, but to this day there is no particular clarity in the question.

If there is no clear definition of the center of the Universe, then we consider talking about what is in this very center an empty exercise.

What is beyond the Universe?

Oh, this is a very interesting question, but just as vague as the previous one. It is generally unknown whether the Universe has limits. Perhaps there are none. Perhaps they exist. Perhaps, besides our Universe, there are others with other properties of matter, with laws of nature and world constants different from ours. No one can provide a proven answer to such a question.

The problem is that we can only observe the Universe from a distance of 13.3 billion light years. Why? It’s very simple: we remember that the age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years. Considering that our observation occurs with a delay equal to the time spent by light to travel the corresponding distance, we cannot observe the Universe before the moment it actually came into being. At this distance we see the Universe of toddlers...

What else do we know about the Universe?

A lot and nothing! We know about the relict glow, about cosmic strings, about quasars, black holes and much, much more. Some of this knowledge can be substantiated and proven; some things are only theoretical calculations that cannot be confirmed by evidence, and some are only the fruit of the rich imagination of pseudoscientists.


But we know one thing for sure: there will never come a moment at which we can, wiping the sweat from our foreheads with relief, say: “Ugh! The issue has finally been fully studied. There’s nothing more to catch here!”

Each of us has thought at least once about what a huge world we live in. Our planet is an insane number of cities, villages, roads, forests, rivers. Most people don’t even get to see half of it in their lifetime. It is difficult to imagine the enormous scale of the planet, but there is an even harder task. The size of the Universe is something that, perhaps, even the most developed mind cannot imagine. Let's try to figure out what modern science thinks about this.

Basic concept

The Universe is everything that surrounds us, what we know and guess about, what was, is and will be. If we reduce the intensity of romanticism, then this concept defines in science everything that exists physically, taking into account the time aspect and laws governing the functioning, interconnection of all elements, and so on.

Naturally, it is quite difficult to imagine the real size of the Universe. In science, this issue is widely discussed and there is no consensus yet. In their assumptions, astronomers rely on existing theories of the formation of the world as we know it, as well as on data obtained as a result of observation.

Metagalaxy

Various hypotheses define the Universe as a dimensionless or ineffably vast space, most of which we know little about. To bring clarity and the possibility of discussion of the area available for study, the concept of Metagalaxy was introduced. This term refers to the part of the Universe accessible to observation by astronomical methods. Thanks to the improvement of technology and knowledge, it is constantly increasing. The metagalaxy is part of the so-called observable Universe - a space in which matter, during the period of its existence, managed to reach its current position. When it comes to understanding the size of the Universe, most people talk about the Metagalaxy. The current level of technological development makes it possible to observe objects located at a distance of up to 15 billion light years from Earth. Time, as can be seen, plays no less a role in determining this parameter than space.

Age and size

According to some models of the Universe, it never appeared, but exists forever. However, the Big Bang theory that dominates today gives our world a “starting point.” According to astronomers, the age of the Universe is approximately 13.7 billion years. If you go back in time, you can go back to the Big Bang. Regardless of whether the size of the Universe is infinite, the observable part of it has boundaries, since the speed of light is finite. It includes all those locations that can affect an observer on earth since the Big Bang. The size of the observable Universe is increasing due to its constant expansion. According to recent estimates, it occupies a space of 93 billion light years.

A bunch of

Let's see what the Universe is like. The dimensions of outer space, expressed in hard numbers, are, of course, amazing, but difficult to understand. For many, it will be easier to understand the scale of the world around us if they know how many systems like the Solar one fit into it.

Our star and its surrounding planets are only a tiny part of the Milky Way. According to astronomers, the Galaxy contains approximately 100 billion stars. Some of them have already discovered exoplanets. It’s not just the size of the Universe that is striking, but the space occupied by its insignificant part, the Milky Way, inspires respect. It takes light one hundred thousand years to travel through our galaxy!

Local group

Extragalactic astronomy, which began to develop after the discoveries of Edwin Hubble, describes many structures similar to the Milky Way. Its closest neighbors are the Andromeda Nebula and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Together with several other “satellites” they form the local group of galaxies. It is separated from a neighboring similar formation by approximately 3 million light years. It’s even scary to imagine how much time it would take a modern aircraft to cover such a distance!

Observed

All local groups are separated by a wide area. The metagalaxy includes several billion structures similar to the Milky Way. The size of the Universe is truly amazing. It takes 2 million years for a light beam to travel the distance from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Nebula.

The further a piece of space is located from us, the less we know about its current state. Because the speed of light is finite, scientists can only obtain information about the past of such objects. For the same reasons, as already mentioned, the area of ​​the Universe accessible to astronomical research is limited.

Other worlds

However, this is not all the amazing information that characterizes the Universe. The dimensions of outer space, apparently, significantly exceed the Metagalaxy and the observable part. The theory of inflation introduces such a concept as the Multiverse. It consists of many worlds, probably formed simultaneously, not intersecting with each other and developing independently. The current level of technological development does not give hope for knowledge of such neighboring Universes. One of the reasons is the same finiteness of the speed of light.

Rapid advances in space science are changing our understanding of how big the Universe is. The current state of astronomy, its constituent theories and the calculations of scientists are difficult for the uninitiated to understand. However, even a superficial study of the issue shows how huge the world is, of which we are a part, and how little we still know about it.

What do we know about the universe, what is space like? The Universe is a boundless world difficult to comprehend by the human mind, which seems unreal and intangible. In fact, we are surrounded by matter, limitless in space and time, capable of taking various forms. To try to understand the true scale of outer space, how the Universe works, the structure of the universe and the processes of evolution, we will need to cross the threshold of our own worldview, look at the world around us from a different angle, from the inside.

Education of the Universe: first steps

The space that we observe through telescopes is only part of the stellar Universe, the so-called Megagalaxy. The parameters of Hubble's cosmological horizon are colossal - 15-20 billion light years. These data are approximate, since in the process of evolution the Universe is constantly expanding. The expansion of the Universe occurs through the spread of chemical elements and cosmic microwave background radiation. The structure of the Universe is constantly changing. Clusters of galaxies, objects and bodies of the Universe appear in space - these are billions of stars that form the elements of near space - star systems with planets and satellites.

Where is the beginning? How did the Universe come into being? Presumably the age of the Universe is 20 billion years. Perhaps the source of cosmic matter was hot and dense proto-matter, the accumulation of which exploded at a certain moment. The smallest particles formed as a result of the explosion scattered in all directions, and continue to move away from the epicenter in our time. The Big Bang theory, which now dominates scientific circles, most accurately describes the formation of the Universe. The substance that emerged as a result of the cosmic cataclysm was a heterogeneous mass consisting of tiny unstable particles that, colliding and scattering, began to interact with each other.

The Big Bang is a theory of the origin of the Universe that explains its formation. According to this theory, there initially existed a certain amount of matter, which, as a result of certain processes, exploded with colossal force, scattering the mass of the mother into the surrounding space.

After some time, by cosmic standards - an instant, by earthly chronology - millions of years, the stage of materialization of space began. What is the Universe made of? The scattered matter began to concentrate into clumps, large and small, in the place of which the first elements of the Universe, huge gas masses—nurseries of future stars—subsequently began to emerge. In most cases, the process of formation of material objects in the Universe is explained by the laws of physics and thermodynamics, but there are a number of points that cannot yet be explained. For example, why is expanding matter more concentrated in one part of space, while in another part of the universe matter is very rarefied? Answers to these questions can only be obtained when the mechanism of formation of space objects, large and small, becomes clear.

Now the process of formation of the Universe is explained by the action of the laws of the Universe. Gravitational instability and energy in different areas triggered the formation of protostars, which in turn, under the influence of centrifugal forces and gravity, formed galaxies. In other words, while matter continued and continues to expand, compression processes began under the influence of gravitational forces. Particles of gas clouds began to concentrate around an imaginary center, eventually forming a new compaction. The building materials in this gigantic construction project are molecular hydrogen and helium.

The chemical elements of the Universe are the primary building material from which the objects of the Universe were subsequently formed

Then the law of thermodynamics begins to operate, and the processes of decay and ionization are activated. Hydrogen and helium molecules disintegrate into atoms, from which the core of a protostar is formed under the influence of gravitational forces. These processes are the laws of the Universe and have taken the form of a chain reaction, occurring in all distant corners of the Universe, filling the universe with billions, hundreds of billions of stars.

Evolution of the Universe: highlights

Today, in scientific circles there is a hypothesis about the cyclical nature of the states from which the history of the Universe is woven. Arising as a result of the explosion of promaterial, gas clusters became nurseries for stars, which in turn formed numerous galaxies. However, having reached a certain phase, matter in the Universe begins to tend to its original, concentrated state, i.e. the explosion and subsequent expansion of matter in space is followed by compression and a return to a superdense state, to the starting point. Subsequently, everything repeats itself, the birth is followed by the finale, and so on for many billions of years, ad infinitum.

The beginning and end of the universe in accordance with the cyclical evolution of the Universe

However, omitting the topic of the formation of the Universe, which remains an open question, we should move on to the structure of the universe. Back in the 30s of the 20th century, it became clear that outer space is divided into regions - galaxies, which are huge formations, each with its own stellar population. Moreover, galaxies are not static objects. The speed of galaxies moving away from the imaginary center of the Universe is constantly changing, as evidenced by the convergence of some and the removal of others from each other.

All of the above processes, from the point of view of the duration of earthly life, last very slowly. From the point of view of science and these hypotheses, all evolutionary processes occur rapidly. Conventionally, the evolution of the Universe can be divided into four stages - eras:

• hadron era;
• lepton era;
• photon era;
• star era.

Cosmic time scale and evolution of the Universe, according to which the appearance of cosmic objects can be explained

At the first stage, all matter was concentrated in one large nuclear droplet, consisting of particles and antiparticles, combined into groups - hadrons (protons and neutrons). The ratio of particles to antiparticles is approximately 1:1.1. Next comes the process of annihilation of particles and antiparticles. The remaining protons and neutrons are the building blocks from which the Universe is formed. The duration of the hadron era is negligible, only 0.0001 seconds - the period of explosive reaction.

Then, after 100 seconds, the process of synthesis of elements begins. At a temperature of a billion degrees, the process of nuclear fusion produces molecules of hydrogen and helium. All this time, the substance continues to expand in space.

From this moment, a long, from 300 thousand to 700 thousand years, stage of recombination of nuclei and electrons begins, forming hydrogen and helium atoms. In this case, a decrease in the temperature of the substance is observed, and the radiation intensity decreases. The universe becomes transparent. Hydrogen and helium formed in colossal quantities under the influence of gravitational forces turns the primary Universe into a giant construction site. After millions of years, the stellar era begins - which is the process of formation of protostars and the first protogalaxies.

This division of evolution into stages fits into the model of the hot Universe, which explains many processes. The true causes of the Big Bang and the mechanism of matter expansion remain unexplained.

Structure and structure of the Universe

The stellar era of the evolution of the Universe begins with the formation of hydrogen gas. Under the influence of gravity, hydrogen accumulates into huge clusters and clumps. The mass and density of such clusters are colossal, hundreds of thousands of times greater than the mass of the formed galaxy itself. The uneven distribution of hydrogen, observed at the initial stage of the formation of the universe, explains the differences in the sizes of the resulting galaxies. Megagalaxies formed where the maximum accumulation of hydrogen gas should exist. Where the concentration of hydrogen was insignificant, smaller galaxies appeared, similar to our stellar home - the Milky Way.

The version according to which the Universe is a beginning-end point around which galaxies revolve at different stages of development

From this moment on, the Universe receives its first formations with clear boundaries and physical parameters. These are no longer nebulae, accumulations of stellar gas and cosmic dust (products of an explosion), protoclusters of stellar matter. These are star countries, the area of ​​​​which is huge from the point of view of the human mind. The universe is becoming full of interesting cosmic phenomena.

From the point of view of scientific justification and the modern model of the Universe, galaxies were first formed as a result of the action of gravitational forces. There was a transformation of matter into a colossal universal whirlpool. Centripetal processes ensured the subsequent fragmentation of gas clouds into clusters, which became the birthplace of the first stars. Protogalaxies with fast rotation periods turned into spiral galaxies over time. Where the rotation was slow and the process of compression of matter was mainly observed, irregular galaxies were formed, most often elliptical. Against this background, more grandiose processes took place in the Universe - the formation of superclusters of galaxies, whose edges are in close contact with each other.

Superclusters are numerous groups of galaxies and clusters of galaxies within the large-scale structure of the Universe. Within 1 billion St. There are about 100 superclusters for years

From that moment on, it became clear that the Universe is a huge map, where the continents are clusters of galaxies, and the countries are megagalaxies and galaxies formed billions of years ago. Each of the formations consists of a cluster of stars, nebulae, and accumulations of interstellar gas and dust. However, this entire population constitutes only 1% of the total volume of universal formations. The bulk of the mass and volume of galaxies is occupied by dark matter, the nature of which is not possible to determine.

Diversity of the Universe: classes of galaxies

Thanks to the efforts of the American astrophysicist Edwin Hubble, we now have the boundaries of the Universe and a clear classification of the galaxies that inhabit it. The classification is based on the structural features of these giant formations. Why do galaxies have different shapes? The answer to this and many other questions is given by the Hubble classification, according to which the Universe consists of galaxies of the following classes:

• spiral;
• elliptical;
• irregular galaxies.

The first include the most common formations that fill the universe. The characteristic features of spiral galaxies are the presence of a clearly defined spiral that rotates around a bright core or tends to a galactic bar. Spiral galaxies with a core are designated S, while objects with a central bar are designated SB. Our Milky Way galaxy also belongs to this class, in the center of which the core is divided by a luminous bridge.

A typical spiral galaxy. In the center, a core with a bridge from the ends of which spiral arms emanate is clearly visible.

Similar formations are scattered throughout the Universe. The closest spiral galaxy, Andromeda, is a giant that is rapidly approaching the Milky Way. The largest representative of this class known to us is the giant galaxy NGC 6872. The diameter of the galactic disk of this monster is approximately 522 thousand light years. This object is located at a distance of 212 million light years from our galaxy.

The next common class of galactic formations are elliptical galaxies. Their designation in accordance with the Hubble classification is the letter E (elliptical). These formations are ellipsoidal in shape. Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of similar objects in the Universe, elliptical galaxies are not particularly expressive. They consist mainly of smooth ellipses that are filled with star clusters. Unlike galactic spirals, ellipses do not contain accumulations of interstellar gas and cosmic dust, which are the main optical effects of visualizing such objects.

A typical representative of this class known today is the elliptical ring nebula in the constellation Lyra. This object is located at a distance of 2100 light years from Earth.

View of the elliptical galaxy Centaurus A through the CFHT telescope

The last class of galactic objects that populate the Universe are irregular or irregular galaxies. The designation according to the Hubble classification is the Latin symbol I. The main feature is an irregular shape. In other words, such objects do not have clear symmetrical shapes and characteristic patterns. In its shape, such a galaxy resembles a picture of universal chaos, where star clusters alternate with clouds of gas and cosmic dust. On the scale of the Universe, irregular galaxies are a common phenomenon.

In turn, irregular galaxies are divided into two subtypes:

• Irregular galaxies of subtype I have a complex irregular structure, a high dense surface, and are distinguished by brightness. Often this chaotic shape of irregular galaxies is a consequence of collapsed spirals. A typical example of such a galaxy is the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud;
• Irregular, irregular galaxies of subtype II have a low surface, a chaotic shape and are not very bright. Due to the decrease in brightness, such formations are difficult to detect in the vastness of the Universe.

The Large Magellanic Cloud is the closest irregular galaxy to us. Both formations, in turn, are satellites of the Milky Way and may soon (in 1-2 billion years) be absorbed by a larger object.

Irregular galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud - a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy

Despite the fact that Edwin Hubble quite accurately classified galaxies into classes, this classification is not ideal. We could achieve more results if we included Einstein’s theory of relativity in the process of understanding the Universe. The Universe is represented by a wealth of various forms and structures, each of which has its own characteristic properties and features. Recently, astronomers were able to discover new galactic formations that are described as intermediate objects between spiral and elliptical galaxies.

The Milky Way is the most famous part of the Universe

Two spiral arms, symmetrically located around the center, make up the main body of the galaxy. The spirals, in turn, consist of arms that smoothly flow into each other. At the junction of the Sagittarius and Cygnus arms, our Sun is located, located at a distance of 2.62·10¹⁷km from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The spirals and arms of spiral galaxies are clusters of stars whose density increases as they approach the galactic center. The rest of the mass and volume of galactic spirals is dark matter, and only a small part is accounted for by interstellar gas and cosmic dust.

The position of the Sun in the arms of the Milky Way, the place of our galaxy in the Universe

The thickness of the spirals is approximately 2 thousand light years. This entire layer cake is in constant motion, rotating at a tremendous speed of 200-300 km/s. The closer to the center of the galaxy, the higher the rotation speed. It will take the Sun and our Solar System 250 million years to complete a revolution around the center of the Milky Way.

Our galaxy consists of a trillion stars, large and small, super-heavy and medium-sized. The densest cluster of stars in the Milky Way is the Sagittarius Arm. It is in this region that the maximum brightness of our galaxy is observed. The opposite part of the galactic circle, on the contrary, is less bright and difficult to distinguish by visual observation.

The central part of the Milky Way is represented by a core, the dimensions of which are estimated to be 1000-2000 parsecs. In this brightest region of the galaxy, the maximum number of stars is concentrated, which have different classes, their own paths of development and evolution. These are mainly old super-heavy stars in the final stages of the Main Sequence. Confirmation of the presence of an aging center of the Milky Way galaxy is the presence in this region of a large number of neutron stars and black holes. Indeed, the center of the spiral disk of any spiral galaxy is a supermassive black hole, which, like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucks in celestial objects and real matter.

A supermassive black hole located in the central part of the Milky Way is the place of death of all galactic objects

As for star clusters, scientists today have managed to classify two types of clusters: spherical and open. In addition to star clusters, the spirals and arms of the Milky Way, like any other spiral galaxy, consist of scattered matter and dark energy. As a consequence of the Big Bang, matter is in a highly rarefied state, which is represented by tenuous interstellar gas and dust particles. The visible part of the matter consists of nebulae, which in turn are divided into two types: planetary and diffuse nebulae. The visible part of the spectrum of nebulae is due to the refraction of light from stars, which emit light inside the spiral in all directions.

Our solar system exists in this cosmic soup. No, we are not the only ones in this huge world. Like the Sun, many stars have their own planetary systems. The whole question is how to detect distant planets, if distances even within our galaxy exceed the duration of existence of any intelligent civilization. Time in the Universe is measured by other criteria. Planets with their satellites are the smallest objects in the Universe. The number of such objects is incalculable. Each of those stars that are in the visible range can have their own star systems. We can see only the existing planets closest to us. What is happening in the neighborhood, what worlds exist in other arms of the Milky Way and what planets exist in other galaxies remains a mystery.

Kepler-16 b is an exoplanet near the double star Kepler-16 in the constellation Cygnus

Conclusion

Having only a superficial understanding of how the Universe appeared and how it is evolving, man has taken only a small step towards comprehending and comprehending the scale of the universe. The enormous size and scope that scientists have to deal with today suggests that human civilization is just a moment in this bundle of matter, space and time.

Model of the Universe in accordance with the concept of the presence of matter in space, taking into account time

The study of the Universe goes from Copernicus to the present day. At first, scientists started from the heliocentric model. In fact, it turned out that space has no real center and all rotation, movement and movement occurs according to the laws of the Universe. Despite the fact that there is a scientific explanation for the processes taking place, universal objects are divided into classes, types and types, not a single body in space is similar to another. The sizes of celestial bodies are approximate, as is their mass. The location of galaxies, stars and planets is arbitrary. The thing is that there is no coordinate system in the Universe. Observing space, we make a projection onto the entire visible horizon, considering our Earth as the zero reference point. In fact, we are only a microscopic particle, lost in the endless expanses of the Universe.

The Universe is a substance in which all objects exist in close connection with space and time

Similar to the connection to size, time in the Universe should be considered as the main component. The origin and age of space objects allows us to create a picture of the birth of the world and highlight the stages of the evolution of the universe. The system we are dealing with is closely related to time frames. All processes occurring in space have cycles - beginning, formation, transformation and ending, accompanied by the death of a material object and the transition of matter to another state.

Hi all! Today I want to share with you my impressions of the Universe. Just imagine, there is no end, it was always interesting, but could this happen? From this article you can learn about stars, their types and life, about the big bang, about black holes, about pulsars and about some other important things.

- this is everything that exists: space, matter, time, energy. It includes all the planet, stars, and other cosmic bodies.

- this is the entire existing material world, it is limitless in space and time and diverse in the forms that matter takes in the process of its development.

The universe studied by astronomy- this is a part of the material world that is accessible to research by astronomical methods that correspond to the achieved level of science (this part of the Universe is sometimes called the Metagalaxy).

Metagalaxy is a part of the Universe accessible to modern research methods. The metagalaxy contains several billion.

The universe is so huge that it is impossible to comprehend its size. Let's talk about the Universe: the part of it that is visible to us extends over 1.6 million million million million km - and no one knows how large it is beyond the visible.

Many theories try to explain how the universe acquired its current form and where it came from. According to the most popular theory, 13 billion years ago it was born as a result of a giant explosion. Time, space, energy, matter - all this arose as a result of this phenomenal explosion. It is pointless to say what happened before the so-called “big bang”; there was nothing before it.

– according to modern concepts, this is the state of the Universe in the past (about 13 billion years ago), when its average density was many times higher than today. Over time, the density of the Universe decreases due to its expansion.

Accordingly, as we delve deeper into the past, the density increases, right up to the moment when classical ideas about time and space lose their validity. This moment can be taken as the beginning of the countdown. The time interval from 0 to several seconds is conventionally called the period of the Big Bang.

The matter of the Universe, at the beginning of this period, received colossal relative speeds (“exploded” and hence the name).

Observed in our time, evidence of the Big Bang is the concentration of helium, hydrogen and some other light elements, relict radiation, and the distribution of inhomogeneities in the Universe (for example, galaxies).

Astronomers believe the universe was incredibly hot and full of radiation after the big bang.

Atomic particles - protons, electrons and neutrons - were formed in approximately 10 seconds.

The atoms themselves—helium and hydrogen atoms—were formed only a few hundred thousand years later, when the Universe cooled and expanded significantly in size.

Echoes of the Big Bang.

If the Big Bang happened 13 billion years ago, by now the Universe would have cooled to a temperature of about 3 degrees Kelvin, that is, 3 degrees above absolute zero.

Scientists recorded background radio noise using telescopes. These radio noises throughout the starry sky correspond to this temperature and are considered to be echoes of the big bang that are still reaching us.

According to one of the most popular scientific legends, Isaac Newton saw an apple fall to the ground and realized that it happened under the influence of gravity emanating from the Earth itself. The magnitude of this force depends on body weight.

The gravity of an apple, which has a small mass, does not affect the movement of our planet; the Earth has a large mass and it attracts the apple towards itself.

In cosmic orbits, gravitational forces hold all celestial bodies. The Moon moves along the Earth’s orbit and does not move away from it; in circumsolar orbits, the gravitational force of the Sun holds the planets, and the Sun holds in position relative to other stars, a force that is much greater than gravitational force.

Our Sun is a star, and a fairly ordinary one of medium size. The Sun, like all other stars, is a ball of luminous gas, and is like a colossal furnace, producing heat, light and other forms of energy. The solar system is made up of planets in solar orbit and, of course, the sun itself.

Other stars, because they are very far from us, appear tiny in the sky, but in fact, some of them are hundreds of times larger in diameter than our Sun.

Stars and galaxies.

Astronomers determine the location of stars by placing them in or in relation to constellations. Constellation – this is a group of stars visible in a certain area of ​​the night sky, but not always, in reality, located nearby.

Stars in the vast expanses of space are grouped into stellar archipelagos called galaxies. Our Galaxy, which is called the Milky Way, includes the Sun with all its planets. Our galaxy is far from the largest, but it is huge enough to imagine.

Distances in the Universe are measured in relation to the speed of light; humanity knows nothing faster than it. The speed of light is 300 thousand km/sec. As a light year, astronomers use such a unit - this is the distance a ray of light would travel in a year, that is, 9.46 million million km.

Proxima in the constellation Centaur is the closest star to us. It is located 4.3 light years away. We don't see her the way we looked at her more than four years ago. And the light of the Sun reaches us in 8 minutes and 20 seconds.

The Milky Way with hundreds of thousands of millions of stars has the shape of a giant rotating wheel with a protruding axle - the hub. The Sun is located 250 thousand light years from its axis, closer to the rim of this wheel. The Sun revolves around the center of the Galaxy in its orbit every 250 million years.

Our Galaxy is one of many, and no one knows how many there are in total. More than a billion galaxies have already been discovered, and many millions of stars in each of them. Hundreds of millions of light years from earthlings are the most distant of the already known galaxies.

We peer into the most distant past of the Universe by studying them. All Galaxies are moving away from us and from each other. It seems that the Universe is still expanding, and the Big Bang was its origin.

What types of stars are there?

Stars are light gas (plasma) balls similar to the Sun. They are formed from a dusty-gas environment (mostly from helium and hydrogen), due to gravitational instability.

Stars are different, but once they all arose and after millions of years they will disappear. Our Sun is almost 5 billion years old and, according to astronomers, it will exist for just as long, and then it will begin to die.

Sun - this is a single star, many other stars are binary, that is, in fact, they consist of two stars that revolve around each other. Astronomers also know triple and so-called multiple stars, which consist of many stellar bodies.

Supergiants are the largest stars.

Antares, with a diameter 350 times the diameter of the Sun, is one of these stars. However, all supergiants have very low densities. Giants are smaller stars with a diameter 10 to 100 times larger than the Sun.

Their density is also low, but it is greater than that of supergiants. Most visible stars, including the Sun, are classified as main sequence stars, or intermediate stars. Their diameter can be either ten times smaller or ten times larger than the diameter of the Sun.

Red dwarfs are called smallest main sequence stars and white dwarfs - are called even smaller bodies that no longer belong to the main sequence stars.

White dwarfs (about the size of our planet) are extremely dense but very dim. Their density is many millions of times greater than the density of water. There may be up to 5 billion white dwarfs in the Milky Way alone, although scientists have so far discovered only a few hundred such bodies.

Let's watch a video comparing the sizes of stars as an example.

Life of a star.

Every star, as mentioned earlier, is born from a cloud of dust and hydrogen. The universe is full of such clouds.

The formation of a star begins when, under the influence of some other (no one understands) force and under the influence of gravity, as astronomers say, the collapse or “collapse” of a celestial body occurs: the cloud begins to rotate, and its center heats up. You can watch the evolution of stars.

Nuclear reactions begin when the temperature inside a star cloud reaches a million degrees.

During these reactions, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms combine to form helium. The energy produced by the reactions is released in the form of light and heat, and a new star lights up.

Stardust and residual gases are observed around new stars. The planets formed around our Sun from this matter. Surely, similar planets formed around other stars, and there are likely to be some forms of life on many planets, the discovery of which humanity does not know.

Star explosions.

The fate of a star largely depends on its mass. When a star like our Sun uses its hydrogen “fuel,” the helium shell contracts and the outer layers expand.

The star becomes a red giant at this stage of its life. Then, over time, its outer layers sharply move away, leaving behind only a small bright core of the star - white dwarf. Black dwarf(a huge carbon mass) the star becomes, gradually cooling.

A more dramatic fate awaits stars with a mass several times the mass of the Earth.

They become supergiants, much larger than red giants, as their nuclear fuel depletes and they expand to become so huge.

Afterwards, under the influence of gravity, a sharp collapse of their cores occurs. The star is torn to pieces by an unimaginable explosion of released energy.

Astronomers call such an explosion a supernova. Millions of times brighter than the Sun, a supernova shines for some time. For the first time in 383 years, in February 1987, a supernova from a neighboring galaxy was visible to the naked eye from Earth.

Depending on the initial mass of the star, a small body called a neutron star may be left behind after a supernova. With a diameter of no more than a few tens of kilometers, such a star consists of solid neutrons, making its density many times greater than the enormous density of white dwarfs.

Black holes.

The force of core collapse in some supernovae is so great that the compression of matter practically does not lead to its disappearance. A section of outer space with incredibly high gravity remains instead of matter. Such an area is called a black hole; its force is so powerful that it pulls everything into itself.

Black holes cannot be visible due to their nature. However, astronomers believe they have located them.

Astronomers are looking for binary star systems with powerful radiation and believe that it arises from matter escaping into the black hole, accompanied by heating temperatures of millions of degrees.

Such a radiation source was discovered in the constellation Cygnus (the so-called black hole Cygnus X-1). Some scientists believe that in addition to black holes, white ones also exist. These white holes appear in the place where the collected matter is preparing to begin the formation of new stellar bodies.

The Universe is also fraught with mysterious formations called quasars. These are probably the nuclei of distant galaxies that glow brightly, and beyond them we see nothing in the Universe.

Soon after the formation of the Universe, their light began to move in our direction. Scientists believe that energy equal to that of quasars can only come from cosmic holes.

Pulsars are no less mysterious. Pulsars are formations that regularly emit beams of energy. They, according to scientists, are stars that rotate rapidly, and light rays emanate from them, like cosmic beacons.

The future of the Universe.

No one knows what the destiny of our universe is. It appears that after the initial explosion, it is still expanding. There are two possible scenarios in the very distant future.

According to the first of them, open space theory, the Universe will expand until all the energy is spent on all the stars and the galaxies cease to exist.

Second - the theory of closed space, according to which, the expansion of the Universe will someday stop, it will begin to contract again and will continue to shrink until it disappears in the process.

Scientists called this process, by analogy with the big bang, the big compression. As a result, another big bang could occur, creating a new Universe.

So, everything had a beginning and there will be an end, but no one knows what it will be...

What is beyond the Universe? This issue is too complex for human understanding. This is due to the fact that first of all it is necessary to determine its boundaries, and this is far from easy.

The generally accepted answer takes into account only the observable Universe. According to him, dimensions are determined by the speed of light, because it is possible to see only the light that is emitted or reflected by objects in space. It is impossible to look further than the most distant light, which travels throughout the existence of the Universe.

Space continues to expand, but it is still finite. Its size is sometimes referred to as the Hubble volume or sphere. Man in the Universe will probably never be able to know what is beyond its boundaries. So for all exploration, this is the only space that will ever need to be interacted with. At least in the near future.

Greatness

Everyone knows that the Universe is big. How many millions of light years does it extend?

Astronomers are carefully studying cosmic microwave background radiation - the afterglow of the Big Bang. They look for connections between what happens on one side of the sky and what happens on the other. And so far there is no evidence that there is anything in common. This means that for 13.8 billion years in any direction the Universe does not repeat itself. This is how much time light needs to reach at least the visible edge of this space.

We are still concerned with the question of what lies beyond the observable Universe. Astronomers admit that space is infinite. The “matter” in it (energy, galaxies, etc.) is distributed in exactly the same way as in the observable Universe. If this is indeed the case, then various anomalies of what is on the edge appear.

There aren't just more different planets outside the Hubble volume. There you can find everything that can possibly exist. If you go far enough, you might even find another solar system with an Earth identical in every way except that you had porridge instead of scrambled eggs for breakfast. Or there was no breakfast at all. Or let's say you got up early and robbed a bank.

In fact, cosmologists believe that if you go far enough, you can find another Hubble sphere that is completely identical to ours. Most scientists believe that the universe we know has boundaries. What is beyond them remains the greatest mystery.

Cosmological principle

This concept means that regardless of the location and direction of the observer, everyone sees the same picture of the Universe. Of course, this does not apply to smaller scale studies. This homogeneity of space is caused by the equality of all its points. This phenomenon can only be detected on the scale of a galaxy cluster.

Something akin to this concept was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1687. And subsequently, in the 20th century, this was confirmed by the observations of other scientists. Logically, if everything arose from one point in the Big Bang and then expanded into the Universe, it would remain fairly homogeneous.

The distance at which one can observe the cosmological principle to find this apparent uniform distribution of matter is approximately 300 million light years from Earth.

However, everything changed in 1973. Then an anomaly was discovered that violated the cosmological principle.

Great Attractor

A huge concentration of mass was discovered at a distance of 250 million light years, near the constellations Hydra and Centaurus. Its weight is so great that it could be compared to tens of thousands of masses of the Milky Way. This anomaly is considered a galactic supercluster.

This object was called the Great Attractor. Its gravitational force is so strong that it affects other galaxies and their clusters for several hundred light years. It has long remained one of the biggest mysteries in space.

In 1990, it was discovered that the movement of colossal clusters of galaxies, called the Great Attractor, tends to another region of space - beyond the edge of the Universe. So far, this process can be observed, although the anomaly itself is in the “avoidance zone.”

Dark energy

According to Hubble's Law, all galaxies should move evenly away from each other, preserving the cosmological principle. However, in 2008 a new discovery emerged.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) detected a large group of clusters that were moving in the same direction at speeds of up to 600 miles per second. They were all heading towards a small area of ​​the sky between the constellations Centaurus and Velus.

There is no obvious reason for this, and since it was an unexplained phenomenon, it was called "dark energy." It is caused by something outside the observable universe. At present there are only guesses about its nature.

If clusters of galaxies are drawn towards a colossal black hole, then their movement should accelerate. Dark energy indicates the constant speed of cosmic bodies over billions of light years.

One of the possible reasons for this process is massive structures that are located outside the Universe. They have a huge gravitational influence. There are no giant structures within the observable Universe with sufficient gravitational weight to cause this phenomenon. But this does not mean that they could not exist outside the observable region.

This would mean that the structure of the Universe is not homogeneous. As for the structures themselves, they can be literally anything, from aggregates of matter to energy on a scale that can barely be imagined. It is even possible that these are guiding gravitational forces from other Universes.

Endless bubbles

It is not entirely correct to talk about something outside the Hubble sphere, since it still has an identical structure to the Metagalaxy. “The unknown” has the same physical laws of the Universe and constants. There is a version that the Big Bang caused the appearance of bubbles in the structure of space.

Immediately after it, before the inflation of the Universe began, a kind of “cosmic foam” arose, existing as a cluster of “bubbles”. One of the objects of this substance suddenly expanded, eventually becoming the Universe known today.

But what came out of the other bubbles? Alexander Kashlinsky, head of the NASA team, the organization that discovered “dark energy,” said: “If you move far enough away, you can see a structure that is outside the bubble, outside the Universe. These structures must create movement."

Thus, "dark energy" is perceived as the first evidence of the existence of another Universe, or even a "Multiverse".

Each bubble is an area that has stopped stretching along with the rest of space. She formed her own Universe with her own special laws.

In this scenario, space is infinite and each bubble also has no boundaries. Even if it is possible to break the boundary of one of them, the space between them is still expanding. Over time, it will be impossible to reach the next bubble. This phenomenon still remains one of the greatest mysteries of the cosmos.

Black hole

The theory proposed by physicist Lee Smolin suggests that each similar cosmic object in the structure of the Metagalaxy causes the formation of a new one. One has only to imagine how many black holes there are in the Universe. Each one has physical laws that are different from those of its predecessor. A similar hypothesis was first outlined in 1992 in the book “Life of the Cosmos.”

Stars around the world that fall into black holes are compressed to incredibly extreme densities. Under such conditions, this space explodes and expands into its own new Universe, different from the original. The point where time stops inside a black hole is the beginning of the Big Bang of a new Metagalaxy.

The extreme conditions inside the collapsed black hole lead to small, random changes in the underlying physical forces and parameters in the daughter universe. Each of them has characteristics and indicators that are different from their parents.

The existence of stars is a prerequisite for the formation of life. This is due to the fact that carbon and other complex molecules that support life are created in them. Therefore, the formation of beings and the Universe requires the same conditions.

A criticism of cosmic natural selection as a scientific hypothesis is the lack of direct evidence at this stage. But it should be borne in mind that from the point of view of beliefs it is no worse than the proposed scientific alternatives. There is no evidence of what lies beyond the Universe, be it the Multiverse, string theory or cyclic space.

Many parallel universes

This idea seems to be something that has little relevance to modern theoretical physics. But the idea of ​​the existence of a Multiverse has long been considered a scientific possibility, although it still causes active debate and destructive debate among physicists. This option completely destroys the idea of ​​how many Universes there are in space.

It is important to keep in mind that the Multiverse is not a theory, but rather a consequence of the modern understanding of theoretical physics. This distinction is critical. Nobody waved his hand and said: “Let there be a Multiverse!” This idea was derived from current teachings such as quantum mechanics and string theory.

Multiverse and quantum physics

Many people are familiar with the “Schrödinger’s Cat” thought experiment. Its essence lies in the fact that Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian theoretical physicist, pointed out the imperfection of quantum mechanics.

The scientist suggests imagining an animal that was placed in a closed box. If you open it, you can find out one of two states of the cat. But as long as the box is closed, the animal is either alive or dead. This proves that there is no state that combines life and death.

All this seems impossible simply because human perception cannot comprehend it.

But it is quite possible according to the strange rules of quantum mechanics. The space of all possibilities in it is huge. Mathematically, a quantum mechanical state is the sum (or superposition) of all possible states. In the case of Schrödinger's Cat, the experiment is a superposition of "dead" and "live" positions.

But how can this be interpreted so that it has any practical meaning? A popular way is to think of all these possibilities in such a way that the only "objectively true" state of the cat is the observable one. However, one can also agree that these possibilities are true and they all exist in different Universes.

String theory

This is the most promising opportunity to combine quantum mechanics and gravity. This is difficult because gravity is as indescribable on small scales as atoms and subatomic particles are in quantum mechanics.

But string theory, which says that all fundamental particles are made of monomeric elements, describes all the known forces of nature at once. These include gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear forces.

However, mathematical string theory requires at least ten physical dimensions. We can only observe four dimensions: height, width, depth and time. Therefore, additional dimensions are hidden from us.

To be able to use theory to explain physical phenomena, these additional studies are "dense" and too small on small scales.

The problem or feature of string theory is that there are many ways to do compactification. Each of these results in a universe with different physical laws, such as different electron masses and gravity constants. However, there are also serious objections to the compactification methodology. Therefore the problem is not completely solved.

But the obvious question is: which of these possibilities are we living in? String theory does not provide a mechanism for determining this. It makes it useless because it is not possible to thoroughly test it. But exploring the edge of the Universe has turned this error into a feature.

Consequences of the Big Bang

During the earliest structure of the Universe, there was a period of accelerated expansion called inflation. Initially, it explained why the Hubble sphere is almost uniform in temperature. However, inflation also predicted a spectrum of temperature fluctuations around this equilibrium, which was later confirmed by several spacecraft.

Although the exact details of the theory are still hotly debated, inflation is widely accepted by physicists. However, a corollary of this theory is that there must be other objects in the universe that are still accelerating. Due to quantum fluctuations in spacetime, some parts of it will never reach the final state. This means that space will expand forever.

This mechanism generates an infinite number of Universes. Combining this scenario with string theory, there is a possibility that each has a different compactification of additional dimensions and therefore has different physical laws of the universe.

According to the doctrine of the Multiverse, predicted by string theory and inflation, all Universes live in the same physical space and can intersect. They must inevitably collide, leaving traces in the cosmic sky. Their character ranges from cold or hot spots in the cosmic microwave background to anomalous voids in the distribution of galaxies.

Since collisions with other Universes must occur in a certain direction, any interference is expected to disturb the homogeneity.

Some scientists look for them through anomalies in the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang. Others are in gravitational waves, which ripple through space-time as massive objects pass by. These waves can directly prove the existence of inflation, which ultimately strengthens support for the multiverse theory.