The Universe is everything that can be detected at the most distant distances by any means, including various technical devices. And as technology, driven by our needs and scientific progress, develops, our understanding of the Universe also changes.

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the source of knowledge about the Universe was observations of a relatively small part of our galaxy in the form of star clusters closest to us. This part was taken to be the entire Universe. Moreover, it was believed that the Universe is a once and for all given, frozen formation, obeying mainly the laws of mechanics and existing forever. The further development of science and the emergence of new powerful means of observation have shown that even our entire galaxy is just one of the star clusters, of which there are billions in the Universe, and in addition to the forces of gravity and inertia, other forces related to electromagnetic, strong and weak interactions act in them .

The use of which appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century. A. Einstein's theory of relativity allowed the Russian scientist Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman (1888-1925) to theoretically predict the possibility of a non-stationary state of the Universe. His calculations showed that the Universe can expand or contract depending on the value of its total mass. Somewhat later, the observations of the American astronomer Edwin Paul Hubble (1889-1953) showed that when moving to more distant stars, the length of the electromagnetic waves emitted by them naturally increases. Since the waves corresponding to red light have the longest wavelength among visible electromagnetic waves, the discovered phenomenon is called redshift. It, in accordance with the laws of physics, meant that distant galaxies were moving away from the observer, and the further away, the faster.

This fact led to the creation of the hypothesis of the origin of the Universe, as a result big bang. According to this hypothesis, it is believed that approximately 15-20 billion years ago all matter was concentrated in a small volume. This age of the Universe is determined based on an estimate of the distance to the most distant galaxies (billions of light years) and their speed of recession, which is comparable to the speed of light. The volume and shape of the state of matter before the Big Bang is impossible to estimate with modern knowledge. Although in the literature there are different assumptions about volumes on the order of kilometers or even the size of atoms. Such reasoning is probably of little use, since it is reminiscent of the reasoning of medieval scholastics, who at their meetings would spend several days without rest, in heated debates, with very serious expressions on their faces, discussing such, for example, a very important question, in their opinion: “ How many devils can fit on the point of a needle?

For science, questions that cannot be verified experimentally are meaningless. We cannot reproduce in the laboratory or even theoretically estimate gravity, temperature, pressure and other conditions when such masses as the entire Universe are concentrated in a small volume. It is not known how the forces causing gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak interactions manifest themselves and whether they even exist in this state.

The difficulty of assessing spatial relationships under given conditions must also be taken into account. In accordance with the theory of relativity, in strong gravitational fields and when processes occur at the speed of light, curved and compressed space does not at all correspond to what usually exists in our imagination. For example, you cannot talk about the place from which the flight began. It cannot be assumed that there is a fixed center from which other galaxies are moving away. This can be shown on a model of two-dimensional space in the form of an inflated ball, on the surface of which points are marked. These points will move equally away from each other, and it is impossible to indicate which of them is the center of retreat. In this model, the space under consideration is two-dimensional, the center of divergence is in the third dimension. The difference between the real expanding Universe and the two-dimensional model is that it is three-dimensional and the structure of our consciousness does not allow us to imagine the center of expansion in the fourth dimension. The only way to solve this problem is to formulate it in the form of mathematical formulas.

Here it is appropriate to recall how A. Einstein himself defined the essence of his theory when he was asked to do it very briefly. According to Einstein, if earlier, before the theory of relativity, it was believed that after the disappearance of matter, empty space remains, now the disappearance of matter means that space also disappears.

In addition to the observed recession of galaxies, there is another significant fact that can be interpreted as evidence in favor of the Big Bang hypothesis. This is the so called cosmic microwave background radiation. Theoretically, it was predicted in 1953 by the American scientist Georgy Antonovich Gamow (1904-1968). His calculations showed that as a result of intense interactions in the initial stages of expansion, strong electromagnetic radiation should have arisen, traces of which may be present to this day. The radiation was actually discovered in 1965 by American scientists Arno Alan Penzias (b. 1933) and Robert Woodrow Wilson (b. 1936), who were awarded the Nobel Prize for this discovery. While setting up a new radio telescope, these scientists could not get rid of interfering background radiation. Further analysis of the nature of this radiation showed that it is constant in time and equal in intensity in all directions and at different points in outer space, as predicted by Gamow's hypothesis. The radiation belongs to the microwave radio range with a wavelength of 7.35 cm.

The initial state of the Universe, from which the expansion of matter and the formation of its modern forms began, is called singular. With some certainty we can say that in this state such forms of matter as photons, elementary particles and atoms, which form the basis of the modern Universe, cannot exist.

Currently, through the joint efforts of many countries, expensive experimental facilities have been built, in which scientists hope to recreate some types of high-energy interactions, similar to the interactions of matter particles during the Big Bang.

The state at the initial moments of scattering due to high speeds and intense interactions of matter is usually called hot Universe. As a result of the explosion, the nature of which still remains a mystery, the already known laws of quantum mechanics, which are responsible for the formation of photons, elementary particles and atoms, came into effect, and the laws of classical Newtonian mechanics also began to operate.

The simplest in structure are hydrogen atoms. In accordance with the laws of quantum mechanics, they are also the most stable. Therefore, hydrogen atoms were formed at the highest rates and made up the bulk of the Universe at the initial stages. Currently, their share is determined by the value of about 90% of the total number of atoms.

In the conditions of a hot Universe, when moving at enormous speeds, collisions of hydrogen atoms led to the destruction of electron shells and the fusion of nuclei. As a result of a process consisting of several stages, four protons, of which two are converted into neutrons, form the nucleus of helium, the second element of the periodic table. This element is also very stable, but is less stable than hydrogen and requires more complex procedures for its formation. Its share in the modern Universe is approximately 10%.

Atoms of other elements can be synthesized in a similar way, but they are much less stable and this stability decreases with increasing atomic number and mass of the atom. The lifetime of atoms of some heavy elements is measured in fractions of a second. Accordingly, their occurrence in the Universe is inversely related to atomic mass. The total share of all elements, without hydrogen and helium, does not exceed 1%.

As with any explosive process, which is a complex set of powerful explosive impulses, the scattering matter of the Universe (mainly hydrogen) was distributed very unevenly. Clusters of a completely different nature arose - from individual molecules, dust grains, gas nebulae and dust clouds to small bodies and relatively large concentrated clusters of masses. Large clusters, obeying the laws of gravity, began to shrink. The final result of compression was determined by the size of the compressed mass.

If the mass exceeded a certain critical value, for example, slightly more than the mass of the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter (section 4.5), then the gravitational compression energy, turning into heat, heated the cosmic body to a million degrees. At this temperature, thermonuclear processes of synthesis of helium from hydrogen begin, and a star lights up.

If the mass compressed by gravity is not very large, then the heating reaches thousands of degrees. This is not enough to start nuclear reactions and a hot, gradually cooling body is formed, usually a satellite of a star (planet) or a satellite of a large planet. For smaller masses, heating occurs only in the central part; they cool faster and also become planets or satellites of planets.

And finally, very small bodies do not heat up. Their low mass does not allow them to effectively retain volatile hydrogen and helium, which are dissipated due to diffusion in outer space. This, in particular, is facilitated by the “blowing out” of light molecules by the “stellar wind” (a stream of rapidly flying elementary particles). Therefore, the composition of not very massive bodies is dominated by heavy elements (for example, silicon or iron) or simple compounds, for example, water in the form of ice. These bodies, depending on their size and specific conditions, become comets, asteroids, small satellites, form rings of debris around planets, or rush through space in the form of meteorites until they collide with other bodies or are captured by their gravity.

As for the further fate of the expanding Universe, it is not yet possible to give a final answer, since the exact mass and average density of matter is not known. Calculations show that, depending on the assumed mass value, one can expect both an infinite expansion of galaxies and a gradual slowdown in expansion under the influence of gravity, followed by a transition to compression. The second option allows us to put forward a hypothesis according to which, on a scale of hundreds of billions of years, the Universe can be considered as a pulsating system, periodically returning to singular states, followed by explosions and expansions.

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.

A look at the vast expanses of space from Earth

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, 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.

The Boshongo tribe in central Africa believe that from ancient times there was only darkness, water and the great god Bumba. One day Bumbu was so sick that he vomited. And so the Sun appeared. It dried up part of the great Ocean, freeing the land imprisoned under its waters. Finally, Bumba vomited the moon, the stars, and then some animals were born. The leopard was the first, followed by a crocodile, a turtle and, finally, a man. Today we will talk about what the Universe is in the modern view.

Decoding the concept

The Universe is a grand, incomprehensibly sized space filled with quasars, pulsars, black holes, galaxies and matter. All these components are in constant interaction and form our universe in the form in which we imagine it. Often stars in the Universe are not found alone, but as part of grandiose clusters. Some of them may contain several hundred or even thousands of such objects. Astronomers say that small and medium-sized clusters (“frogspawn”) formed very recently. But the spherical formations are ancient and very ancient, “remembering” the primary cosmos. The universe contains many such formations.

General information about the structure

Stars and planets form galaxies. Contrary to popular belief, galaxy systems are extremely mobile and move through space almost all the time. Stars are also a variable quantity. They are born and die, turning into pulsars and black holes. Our Sun is a “average” star. Such creatures live (by the standards of the Universe) very little, no more than 10-15 billion years. Of course, in the Universe there are billions of luminaries whose parameters resemble our sun, and the same number of systems similar to the Solar System. In particular, the Andromeda Nebula is located nearby.

This is what the Universe is. But everything is far from so simple, since there are a huge number of secrets and contradictions to which there are no answers yet.

Some problems and contradictions of theories

The myths of ancient peoples about the creation of all things, like many others before and after them, try to answer questions that interest us all. Why are we here, where did the planets of the Universe come from? Where do we come from? Of course, we are beginning to receive more or less clear answers only now, when our technologies have achieved certain progress. However, throughout the history of man, there have often been those representatives of the human tribe who resisted the idea that the Universe had a beginning at all.

Aristotle and Kant

For example, Aristotle, the most famous of the Greek philosophers, believed that “the origin of the universe” is a misnomer, since it has always existed. Something eternal is more perfect than something created. The motivation for believing in the eternity of the Universe was simple: Aristotle did not want to admit the existence of some kind of deity who could create it. Of course, his opponents in polemical disputes cited the example of the creation of the Universe as evidence of the existence of a higher mind. For a long time, Kant was haunted by one question: “What happened before the Universe came into being?” He felt that all the theories that existed at that time had many logical contradictions. Scientists developed a so-called antithesis, which is still used by some models of the Universe. Here are its provisions:

• If the Universe had a beginning, then why did it wait forever before it came into existence?
• If the Universe is eternal, then why does time exist in it at all; Why do we need to measure eternity at all?

Of course, for his time he asked more than the right questions. Only today they are somewhat outdated, but some scientists, unfortunately, continue to be guided by them in their research. The theory of Einstein, which shed light on the structure of the Universe, put an end to the tossing of Kant (or rather, his successors). Why did it so strike the scientific community?

Einstein's point of view

In his theory of relativity, space and time were no longer Absolute, tied to some point of reference. He suggested that they are capable of dynamic development, which is determined by the energy in the Universe. According to Einstein, time is so indefinite that there is no particular need to define it. It would be like figuring out the direction south of the South Pole. Quite a pointless activity. Any so-called "beginning" of the universe would be artificial in the sense that one could try to reason about "earlier" times. Simply put, this is not so much a physical problem as it is a deeply philosophical one. Today, it is being solved by the best minds of humanity, who tirelessly think about the formation of primary objects in outer space.

Today the most common positivist approach. Simply put, we comprehend the very structure of the Universe as we can imagine it. No one will be able to ask whether the model being used is true or whether there are other options. It can be considered successful if it is sufficiently elegant and organically includes all accumulated observations. Unfortunately, we (most likely) incorrectly interpret some facts using artificially created mathematical models, which further leads to distortion of facts about the world around us. When we think about what the Universe is, we lose sight of millions of facts that simply have not yet been discovered.

Modern information about the origin of the Universe

The “Middle Ages of the Universe” is the era of darkness that existed before the appearance of the first stars and galaxies.

It was in those mysterious times that the first heavy elements from which we and the entire world around us were created were formed. Now researchers are developing primary models of the Universe and methods for studying the phenomena that occurred at that time. Modern astronomers say that the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years old. Before the universe began, space was so hot that all existing atoms were divided into positively charged nuclei and negatively charged electrons. These ions blocked all light, preventing it from spreading. Darkness reigned, and there was no end to it.

First light

Approximately 400,000 years after the Big Bang, space had cooled enough for disparate particles to combine into atoms, forming the planets of the Universe and... the first light in space, the echoes of which are still known to us as the “light horizon”. We still don’t know what happened before the Big Bang. Perhaps some other Universe existed then. Perhaps there was nothing. The Great Nothing... It is this option that many philosophers and astrophysicists insist on.

Current models suggest that the universe's first galaxies began to form approximately 100 million years after the Big Bang, giving rise to our universe. The process of formation of galaxies and stars gradually continued until most of the hydrogen and helium were incorporated into the new suns.

Mysteries awaiting their explorer

There are many questions that could be answered by studying the processes that originally took place. For example, when and how did the monstrously large black holes seen in the hearts of virtually all large clusters arise? Today it is known that the Milky Way has a black hole, the weight of which is approximately 4 million times the mass of our Sun, and some ancient galaxies of the Universe contain black holes, the size of which is generally difficult to imagine. The largest is the formation in the ULAS J1120+0641 system. Its black hole weighs 2 billion times the mass of our star. This galaxy arose only 770 million years after the Big Bang.

This is the main mystery: according to modern ideas, such massive formations simply would not have had time to arise. So how did they form? What are the "seeds" of these black holes?

Dark matter

Finally, dark matter, which, according to many researchers, makes up 80% of the cosmos, the Universe, is still a “dark horse”. We still don't know what the nature of dark matter is. In particular, its structure and the interaction of those elementary particles that make up this mysterious substance raise many questions. Today we assume that its constituent parts practically do not interact with each other, while the results of observations of some galaxies contradict this thesis.

On the problem of the origin of stars

Another problem is the question of what the first stars from which the stellar Universe was formed were like. In the incredible heat and pressure at the cores of these suns, relatively simple elements such as hydrogen and helium were transformed, in particular, into the carbon on which our life is based. Scientists now believe that the very first stars were many times larger than the sun. Perhaps they only lived for a couple hundred million years, or even less (this is probably how the first black holes formed).

However, some of the “old-timers” may well exist in modern space. They were probably very poor in heavy elements. Perhaps some of these formations may still be “hiding” in the halo of the Milky Way. This secret is also still not revealed. One has to encounter such incidents every time when answering the question: “So what is the Universe?” To study the first days after its origin, the search for the earliest stars and galaxies is extremely important. Naturally, the most ancient objects are probably those that are located at the very edge of the light horizon. The only problem is that only the most powerful and sophisticated telescopes can reach those places.

Researchers have great hopes for the James Webb Space Telescope. This instrument is designed to give scientists valuable information about the first generation of galaxies that formed immediately after the Big Bang. There are practically no images of these objects in acceptable quality, so great discoveries are still ahead.

Amazing "luminary"

All galaxies emit light. Some formations shine strongly, while others have moderate “illumination”. But there is the brightest galaxy in the universe, the intensity of which is unlike anything else. Her name is WISE J224607.57-052635.0. This “light bulb” is located at a distance of as much as 12.5 billion light years from the Solar System, and it shines like 300 trillion Suns at once. Note that there are about 20 such formations today, and we should not forget about the concept of a “light horizon”.

Simply put, from our place we see only those objects whose formation occurred about 13 billion years ago. Distant areas are inaccessible to the gaze of our telescopes simply because the light from there simply did not have time to reach. So something similar probably exists in those parts. This is the brightest galaxy in the Universe (more precisely, in its visible part).

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Universe

Scale of the Universe

Star systems

You know that our Earth with its planets, other planets and their satellites, comets and small planets revolve around the Sun, that all these bodies make up the Solar System. In turn, the Sun and all other stars visible in the sky are part of a huge star system - our Galaxy. The star closest to the solar system is so far away that light, which travels at a speed of 300,000 km/s, takes more than four years to travel from it to Earth. Stars are the most common type of celestial body; there are more than one in our Galaxy alone several hundred billion. The volume occupied by this star system is so large that light can cross it in only 100 thousand years.

The main structural units of the Universe are “stellar islands” - similar to ours. One of them is located in the constellation Andromeda. This is a giant galaxy, similar in structure to ours and consisting of hundreds of billions of stars. The light from it to the Earth travels more than 2 million years. The Andromeda Galaxy, together with our Galaxy and several other galaxies of smaller mass, form the so-called Local group. Some of the star systems of this group, including the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, galaxies in the constellations Sculptor, Ursa Minor, Draco, and Orion, are satellites of our Galaxy. Together with it, they revolve around a common center of mass. It is the location and movement of galaxies that determines the structure and structure of the Universe as a whole.

The galaxies are so far from each other that only the three closest ones can be seen with the naked eye: two in the Southern Hemisphere - Large Magellanic Cloud, Small Magellanic Cloud, and from the north there is only one - Andromeda's nebula.

Dwarf galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius- closest to . This small galaxy is so close that the Milky Way seems to absorb it. The Sagittarius Galaxy lies 80 thousand light years from the Sun and 52 thousand light years from the center of the Milky Way. The next closest galaxy to us is the Large Magellanic Cloud, located 170 thousand light years away. Until 1994, when a dwarf galaxy in the constellation Sagittarius was discovered, it was thought that the closest galaxy was the Large Magellanic Cloud.

The Sagittarius dwarf galaxy was originally a sphere approximately 1,000 light-years across. But now its shape is distorted by the gravity of the Milky Way, and the galaxy has stretched 10 thousand light years in length. Several million stars that belong to the dwarf in Sagittarius are now scattered throughout the constellation Sagittarius. Therefore, if you just look at the sky, the stars of this galaxy cannot be distinguished from the stars of our own Galaxy.

Cosmic distances

From the most distant galaxies, light reaches Earth in 10 billion years. A significant part of the matter of stars and galaxies is in conditions that cannot be created in earthly laboratories. All outer space is filled with electromagnetic radiation, gravitational and magnetic fields; between stars in galaxies and between galaxies there is very rarefied matter in the form of gas, dust, individual molecules, atoms and ions, atomic nuclei and elementary particles. As you know, the distance to the closest celestial body to the Earth, the Moon, is approximately 400,000 km. The most distant objects are located at a distance from us that is more than 10 times greater than the distance to the Moon. Let's try to imagine the sizes of celestial bodies and the distances between them in the Universe, using a well-known model - the school globe of the Earth, which is 50 million times smaller than our planet. In this case, we must depict the Moon as a ball with a diameter of approximately 7 cm, located at a distance of about 7.5 m from the globe. The model of the Sun will have a diameter of 28 m and be at a distance of 3 km, and the model of Pluto - the most distant planet in the Solar System - will be removed 120 km from us. The closest star to us at this scale of the model will be located at a distance of approximately 800,000 km, i.e. 2 times further than the Moon. The size of our Galaxy will shrink to approximately the size of the Solar System, but the most distant stars will still be located outside of it.

Since all the galaxies are moving away from us, one cannot help but get the impression that our Galaxy is at the center of expansion, at the stationary central point of the expanding Universe. In reality, we are dealing with one of the astronomical illusions. The expansion of the Universe occurs in such a way that there is no “predominant” fixed point in it. Whichever two galaxies we choose, the distance between them will increase over time. This means that no matter which galaxy the observer finds himself in, he will also see a picture of the scattering of stellar islands, similar to the one we see.

Local group at a speed of several hundred kilometers per second, it is moving towards another cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo. The Virgo cluster is the center of an even more gigantic system of stellar islands - Superclusters of galaxies, which includes the Local Group along with our Galaxy. According to observational data, superclusters include over 90% of all existing galaxies and occupy about 10% of the total volume of space in our Universe. Superclusters have masses of the order of 10 15 solar masses. Modern means of astronomical research have access to a colossal region of space with a radius of about 10-12 billion light years. In this area, according to modern estimates, there are 10 10 galaxies. Their totality was called Metagalaxies.

So, we live in a non-stationary, expanding Universe, which changes over time and whose past is not identical to its current state, and the modern is not identical to its future.

Dear visitors!

The Universe (lat. universum) is the entire world that surrounds us, infinite in time and space and infinitely different in the forms of ever-moving matter. In modern astronomy, the Universe we observe is called the Metagalaxy. Its main objects are stars. Star clusters form galaxies. The name of our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains hundreds of billions of stars, and there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our Universe.

Galaxies

What is a galaxy? - The main structural unit in the Universe, the galaxy contains - 150 - 200 billion stars; star systems of various types, which consist of stars, gas and dust nebulae and interstellar scattered matter.

There are single galaxies, but usually they prefer to be located in groups. As a rule, these are 50 galaxies that occupy a diameter of 6 million light years. The Milky Way group contains more than 40 galaxies.

Clusters are a region with 50-1000 galaxies that can reach sizes of 2-10 megaparsecs (diameter). It is interesting to note that their speeds are incredibly high, which means they must overcome gravity. However, they still stick together.

Discussions of dark matter appear at the stage of considering galaxy clusters. It is believed that it creates the force that prevents galaxies from flying apart in different directions.

Sometimes groups unite, thereby forming a supercluster. These are some of the largest universal structures. The largest is the Great Wall of Sloane, which stretches 500 million light-years long, 200 million light-years wide, and 15 million light-years thick.

Black holes

What are Black Holes? — Space objects, the existence of which is predicted by Einstein’s theory of gravity (general relativity), as a result of evolutionary changes in large massive stars in the last stages of their lives, culminating in unlimited gravitational compression (gravitational collapse).

According to the American physicist Nikodim Poplavsky, they lead to other universes. Einstein believed that matter falling into a black hole is compressed into a singularity. According to the scientist's equations, on the other side of the black hole there is a white hole - an object from which matter and light are only ejected. When paired, they form a wormhole, and everything that goes in on one side and comes out on the other forms a new world. In the early 90s of the 20th century, physicist Lee Smolin proposed a similar and somewhat stranger hypothesis: he also believed in universes on the other side of the black hole, but believed that they obey a law like natural selection: they reproduce and mutate during evolution.

Poplavsky with his theory can clarify some “dark” places in modern physics: for example, where the cosmological singularity before the Big Bang and gamma-ray bursts at the edge of our Universe could come from, or why the Universe is not spherical, but, apparently, flat. Even skeptics do not think that Poplavsky’s theory is less plausible than Einstein’s guess about the singularity.

Dimension of the Universe

The problem of the dimension of the Universe has been intensively studied for more than 100 years. A number of phenomena and unique experiments show that the visible physical world may be only a subspace of Hyperspace and forms a complex “geometric formation” in it. The fact that our Universe is a multidimensional object was written in The Secret Doctrine and E. Blavatsky.

Even scientists in Ancient Greece used the concepts of nested concentric spheres to describe the physical processes of our world, in particular the movement of celestial bodies. On the basis of their ideas, Aristotle created the theory of the so-called homocentric spheres and gave it a “physical” justification. According to his theory, celestial bodies are considered rigidly attached to a combination of rigid spheres fastened together with a common center, while the movement from each outer sphere is transmitted to the inner ones. Subsequently, this theory did not find widespread use and was discarded (surprisingly, this theory completely coincides with the proposed process!).

The density of material matter in outer space in the vicinity of the Sun is 0.88·10-22 kg/m3. This is more than a thousand billion billion times less than the density of water. What can keep the structures of stars and galaxies on clearly defined trajectories in such practically empty space?

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Distribution of matter in the Universe

In the 1970s, a group of Soviet and American scientists under the leadership of Academician Zeldovich attempted to build a three-dimensional model of the distribution of matter in the Universe. For this purpose, data on distances to many thousands of galaxies were entered into the computer. The result was stunning - the galaxies, united into metagalaxies, were located in space as if on the edges of a certain cellular structure with a step of about 100 million light years. There was relative emptiness inside these cells. To put it another way, the space-time continuum turned out to be structured! This greatly weakened the authority of the theory and supporters of the Friedmann model of the Universe.

Probably, in addition to our metagalaxy, there are many more metagalaxies, the totality of which forms a system of enormous size - the so-called teragalaxy (“terras” means “monster”); many teragalaxies form a system of even more colossal dimensions, etc.

More hypotheses

1908 - scientist Charlier (France) put forward a hypothesis according to which the Universe is a sequence of systems of increasingly larger sizes. Stars form star clusters that combine into galaxies. In turn, galaxies form clusters of galaxies that make up a metagalaxy. And thus the size of these huge star systems must increase indefinitely. This is the so-called discrete self-similar cosmological paradigm, emphasizing the hierarchical organization of natural systems from the smallest observable elementary particles to the largest visible galaxy clusters.

Charlier's hypothesis was not particularly popular at that time. This is explained by the fact that at the same time the general theory of relativity appeared, which amazed minds with its unusual idea of ​​​​a finite but unlimited Universe. But the results of observations have not yet provided convincing evidence in favor of the conclusions of the theory of relativity and the finitude of the Universe. The infinite universe hypothesis seems more plausible. In such a situation, Charlier's model becomes of particular interest.

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Indeed, the approach proposed in the monograph about a space consisting of mutually nested spheres coincides with both Charlier’s hypothesis and the discrete self-similar cosmological paradigm. Moreover, as Professor G. Alven notes, Charlier’s hypothesis explains Olbers’ paradox, according to which, if galaxies are evenly distributed in the Universe, then the total intensity of their radiation will be unusually high, which is not actually observed. In addition, Charlier's hypothesis avoids another problem associated with the fact that with a uniform distribution of matter in the Universe, the gravitational force due to remote regions of space unusually increases.

Therefore, according to the author of the monograph, the Universe must be considered, in accordance with Charlier’s hypothesis, as a sequence of concentric spheres of increasingly larger sizes. In addition, “the question of what the Universe is without indicating the dimension of the space from which the observation is made is meaningless.”

Scientific confirmation of this has recently emerged.

New hypotheses for the structure of the Universe

English physicist Roger Penrose from Oxford and his colleague Vahan Gurzadyan from the Yerevan Physical Institute, after a thorough study of the so-called. cosmic microwave background radiation, which remained after the Big Bang and preserves information about the origin of the Universe and its development, discovered strange inhomogeneities in the Universe in the form of concentric circles.

According to scientists, Universes arise in sequence - one after another. And the end of the previous one becomes the beginning of the next one.

“In the future, our Universe will return to the state in which it was at the time of the Big Bang,” says Penrose, “and will become homogeneous. And from infinitely large it will again turn into infinitely small.” By the way, astrophysicists Paul Steinhardt from Princeton and Neil Turok from Cambridge share a similar opinion.

Nowadays, many new theories and hypotheses about the structure of the Universe are emerging, in particular, scientists come to the conclusion that “our Universe exists inside a Universe with a greater number of dimensions of space.”

All these examples convincingly show that the evolution of any system from micro to mega sizes is carried out by the deployment of the primary integral monad into its constituent coordinates of matter. This development occurs through a consistent complication of the system with a ternary transition from a simpler system to a more complex one with the formation of three mutually nested worlds. Moreover, each subsequent axis has its own space, in which the previous axis with its own space is located. For example, a three-dimensional object moving in the space of the y-axis, at the same time, moves in the space of its own x-axis of development.

Thus, the theory of connected spaces underlies the structure of man, the Earth and the Universe. In this case, a hierarchical structure of the entire space is built, consisting of hierarchical spheres of the space system nested within each other. From here the hierarchical system of structures of the Universe becomes clear.

This means that in Nature there is a similarity in the forms and properties of structures, regardless of their spatial scale, and the Universe is defined as a multidimensional system in the form of a hierarchy of structures.

Does the Universe have boundaries?

Now there are many hypotheses about the origin of the solar system, including...

This also implies the answer to the question whether the Universe has boundaries. When considering the development of the Universe according to the proposed theory of connected spaces, the answer will be unequivocal - the Universe, like everything in our world, has boundaries. Only these boundaries are so large that a person is not able to grasp them with his mind. This coincides with the opinion of A. Einstein: in his opinion, the Universe is a closed shell of a hypersphere. Modern science considers the Universe to be multidimensional, in which our “local” three-dimensional Universe is only one of its layers, which also coincides with the theory of connected spaces.

This theory also makes it possible to explain the paradox that arose with the movement of the two spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which were the first in the history of mankind to go beyond. For some unknown reason, their braking occurred, although it would seem that they are moving in airless space and there should be no braking. Based on the hypothesis proposed in the monograph, having gone beyond the solar system, spacecraft found themselves in a different space, in which the vector of development is directed perpendicularly, because the new space has completely different characteristics compared to the previous one.

A new scientific paradigm is already emerging on the basis of the knowledge accumulated by humanity. The multidimensional structure of the Universe is gradually becoming an understandable and explainable factor. This gives grounds to assert that general patterns have been found in the hierarchy of systems.

The most distant stars that we can see look the same as they did 14,000,000,000 years ago. The light from these stars reaches us through space after many billions of years, and has a speed of 300,000 km/sec.

Mysterious Black Holes are one of the most curious and little-studied objects in the Universe. They have such an enormous attraction that nothing can go beyond the Black Hole, not even light.

There is a giant bubble in the Universe, which contains only gas. It appeared, by universal standards, not so long ago, only two billion years after the Big Bang. The long bubble is 200 million cosmic years, and the distance from Earth to it is 12 billion cosmic years.

Quasars are incredibly bright objects (much brighter than the Sun).

In the Solar System there is a body similar to the Earth. This is Saturn's moon, Titan. On its surface there are rivers, volcanoes, seas, and the atmosphere has a high density. The distance from Saturn to its satellite is approximately equal to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the ratio of body masses is approximately the same. However, there will most likely be no intelligent life on Titan due to the reservoirs - consisting of methane and propane.

Weightlessness in space has a bad effect on human health. One of the most significant changes in the human body in zero gravity is the loss of calcium in the bones, the upward movement of fluids and the deterioration of bowel function.