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Creation of Universe
About 15 Billion years ago, astronomers believe the Big Bang caused the creation of the universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe started as a very dense, very hot state and expanded rapidly and still is doing so today. -
Vesto Slipher
Vesto Slipher was the first to observe that almost all nebulas were moving away from Earth. This was the first proof against the "static universe" model advocated by Enstine. -
Alexander Friedman
Alexander Friedman was a Russian Mathmatition and was the first to predict the expansion of the universe. -
Georges Lemaitre
Georges Lemaitre was a Belgian mathematician and Catholic priest who developed the theory of the Big Bang. He published his findings and theory in Annales de la Societe scientifique de Bruxelles in 1927. -
Edvwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble (a graduate student of Vesto Slipher) proposed the law of red shifts. This law states that galaxies moving away from Earth demonstrate emission spectra which were towards the red wavelength (longer). -
Fritz Zwicky
Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer who was the first to hypothesize about Dark Matter. While calculating the mass of galaxies, he discovered that the mass was much higher than was expected by their brightness. He concluded that much of the matter in the galaxies must be dark. -
Steady State theory
According to the Steady State theory; Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi state that new matter is created as the universe expands. -
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
In 1965, Radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered Cosmic Microwave Background radiation at the temperature of -454.765 degree Fahrenheit, or 2.725 degree Kelvin. This provided evidence that the big bang caused extreme heat that is still mesurable. -
Hubble Telescope is launched
The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990. Since the telescope is outside the Earth's atmosphere, it gets rid of the problem of distorted pictures form the atmosphere. This allows it to see deeper into space than any telescope before it. -
Astro-1
Astro-1 was launched from Edward's Air Force base with four telescopes; Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT); Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter Experiment (WUPPE); Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT); and Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT). These were being used for around the clock observations of the celestial sphere in ultraviolet and x-ray. -
COBE
NASA launches the Cosmic Background Explorer to search for radiation in the universe. The team announced that they successfully mapped primordial hot and cold spots in the cosmic background radiation. These are related to the gravitational fields from the early universe. -
Astro-2 is launched
Astro-2 is launched out of Edward's Air Force base with 7 crew members and the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT). Sent to take pictures of the chemical makeup of celestial objects. lasted 16 days and is the longest shuttle flight to date. -
Dark Energy
As scientist grasped a better understanding of the Big Bang Theory and the creation of the universe, their observations changed with the discovery of dark energy. This is energy they can not understand that instead of pulling galaxies together, it is pushing them appart and accelerating the separation instead of slowing it. -
Quasars
Quasars are generally young objects that are extremely luminous and active. The discovery of Quasars supported the Big Bang theory and went against the Steady State theory. According to the Steady State Theory, these quasars should be found all throughout the galaxy, but they are only found on the outskirts which supports the Big Bang theory in which the universe is constantly expanding. -
Planck
A third mission, Planck, is led by the European Space Agency was launched in 2009 for the same reason of maping background radiation.
