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Origins Hour 4
Back to the Beginning
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Discovering the Big Bang

This chapter:

• points out that early cosmologists believed the cosmos always existed—an idea known as steady state theory.

• explains the nature of light.

• notes that space bodies emit microwave and radio wave radiation, and the sky is studied using these forms of radiation.

• reports how scientists discovered the cosmic background radiation.

• states how the Big Bang was discovered.

running time 8:55

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A 30-Year Search

This chapter:

• reports on Dr. Arno Penzias' Nobel Prize award for his discovery of the Big Bang.

• questions how the universe became filled with galaxies.

• presents the results of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite that was launched into near Earth orbit to study microwave radiation patterns.

running time 7:52

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Race for a Sharper Image

This chapter:

• explains how the cosmic microwave background can reveal information about the properties of the universe including its age, composition, number of atoms, and expansion rate.

• follows the scientific teams working on the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) as they compete to provide a higher-resolution picture of the cosmic microwave background.

running time 8:21

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The Picture Emerges

This chapter:

• describes WMAP's difficult three-month journey to its destination.

• reports on findings from the CBI and WMAP probes.

• explains that the images can be interpreted to reach back to almost the Big Bang, when the universe was the size of a pea.

• explains how stars form and explode, thereby providing enough energy for the remaining iron to undergo reactions to create all known remaining elements.

running time 9:09

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Forging the Elements

This chapter:

• notes that stars forge all elements in the universe.

• explains how elements are formed in a star.

• explains how humans are made of stardust.

running time 8:37

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A Universe Hospitable to Life

This chapter:

• asks whether life and the conditions for life are widespread throughout the universe.

• shows the Deep Extragalactic Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph being used to study light from distant galaxies.

• explains that elements such as oxygen and others are measured to determine a galaxy's readiness for life and that our Sun's levels of elements are used as a benchmark to consider whether a distant galaxy could have planets and life.

• reports that at least a thousand galaxies have been detected that have elements that, over a great deal of time, could lead to life.

running time 6:45