The Origin and Fate of the Universe – Physics Essay
After reading Stephen Hawking’s eighth chapter entitled, “The Origin and Fate of the Universe”, I was intrigued and fascinated by his method of thinking on the matter. According to Einstein’s initial general theory of
relativity, the universe was formed with the occurrence of the Big Bang and it would eventually end with the event of the Big Crunch. But when consulting quantum effects further, the mass or energy initially created must ultimately be returned to the rest of universe. That means that black holes and singularities within it would disappear. The drastic clout that quantum effects have is very interesting and captivating. This is a universal topic because it involves every human being that has ever lived and will eventually decide our future. That is why I find this topic so relevant and fascinating.
With the recent death of Pope John Paul II, I really found the part regarding the late Pope’s advice interesting. At the meeting with Stephen Hawking and others, the Pope instructed them all to pursue their interest in the evolution of the universe but not to delve into the Big Bang which is supposed to be the moment of creation. This is a very controversial subject with religion and science and I was intrigued by how they handled the situation.
The model that Hawking had in mind revolved around the basis that when the universe expands, any matter or radiation in the universe becomes cooler. The temperature drops as the universe gets bigger. The temperature is a measure of the energy of the particles and when there are very high temperatures, such as the Big Bang, particles move so incredibly fast that they can avoid any attraction to each other due to the nuclear and electromagnetic forces. With the higher temperatures, particles contain more energy within themselves. So basically, with this theory, at the time of the Big Bang the universe had zero size and was infinitely hot. Then as time progressed, the universe expanded and the temperature decreased.
This is the origin and fate of the universe through the eyes of Stephen Hawking himself.