Origins of the Universe Lecture – Vocabulary Flashcards

30 vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, people and concepts from the lecture on the origins of the universe.

Universe

All existing matter, space and time considered as a whole; the cosmos.

Creation Myth

A traditional religious or cultural story explaining how the universe and life began.

Cosmic Egg

Ancient concept that the universe originated from a primordial egg that burst open.

Atomic Universe

Early philosophical idea that the universe is composed of indivisible particles (atoms) moving in empty space.

Static Infinite Universe

Belief that the universe is eternal, unchanging and boundless in space and time.

Einstein Static Universe

Albert Einstein’s 1917 model of a finite, closed universe held static by a cosmological constant.

Big Bang Theory

Widely accepted theory that the universe began ~14 billion years ago from an extremely hot, dense singularity and has been expanding ever since.

Singularity

Infinitely small, infinitely dense point thought to have contained all matter and energy at the start of the Big Bang.

Inflation (Cosmology)

Hypothesized period of exponential expansion fractions of a second after the Big Bang, proposed by Alan Guth.

Steady State Theory

Model proposing an eternal, unchanging universe in which new matter is continuously created as space expands.

Multiverse Theory

Hypothesis that our universe is only one of many co-existing universes or “bubbles.”

Georges Lemaître

Belgian priest-physicist who proposed the “primeval atom” idea, precursor to the Big Bang Theory (1927).

Alexander Friedmann

Russian mathematician whose solutions to Einstein’s equations predicted an expanding universe.

Hermann Bondi

British mathematician who co-proposed the Steady State Theory in 1948.

Thomas Gold

Austrian-British astrophysicist who co-developed the Steady State Theory.

Alan Guth

American physicist who introduced the cosmic Inflation Theory in 1979.

Hugh Everett III

Physicist who formulated the Many-Worlds interpretation, foundational to the Multiverse concept.

Bryce DeWitt and Hugh Everett III

Physicist who popularized Everett’s Many-Worlds idea in the 1960s.

Four Fundamental Forces

Gravity, strong nuclear, electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces governing all interactions in the universe.

Grand Unified Theory (GUT)

Hypothetical framework uniting the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces at very high energies.

Planck Time

Earliest meaningful time after the Big Bang (~10⁻⁴³ s) where current physics can describe phenomena.

Recombination

Epoch (~300,000 years after Big Bang) when electrons joined nuclei to form neutral atoms, letting light travel freely.

Nucleosynthesis

Formation of light elements (hydrogen, helium, deuterium) during the first few minutes after the Big Bang.

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)

Low-energy radiation leftover from the Big Bang, key evidence for a hot, expanding early universe.

Dark Ages (Cosmology)

Period after recombination but before first stars, when the universe lacked light-emitting objects.

Matter Domination Era

Stage when matter density surpassed radiation density, allowing galaxies and large structures to form.

Degenerate Dark Era

Far-future epoch where only dark remnants (black dwarfs, black holes) persist after stars expire.

Universe Expansion

Observation that galaxies are receding from one another, indicating space itself is stretching.

Abundance of Hydrogen

Dominance of hydrogen (~75% of normal matter) predicted by Big Bang nucleosynthesis and observed across the cosmos.