Stephen Hawking's making the Universe simple

The late Stephen Hawking has a unique, beautiful gift. He can break down complex and challenging phenomena in cosmology and astrophysics and make it easy to understand with wit, humour, and some jokes added in the mix. From Dark Matter to Black Holes, Quarks to Super Nova, he was able to bring the understanding of space and atoms from the ancients to the current time to a wider and broader audience. He has stimulated the interest in physics, astrophysics and space for a new generation. Hawkings has occupied the chair that Sir Issac Newton once occupied, the Cambridge University's Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics and was born on the 300th death anniversary of Galileo Galilei and died on the 139th birth anniversary of Albert Einstein. Hawkings famously hosted a party, and he did not send invites and announcements till after the event to see if any time-traveller from the future would drop in. I brought this book years ago, and I had read some parts but never in one go. Stephen Hawkings is a recognized genius diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease early in his life and given only a few years to live as a research student. After finding that he had not died and his condition was not rapidly deteriorating, he decided to do his PhD to work as a tutor and get married.

Science is always progressive and adaptive, and what is seen is that the various ideas derived from the observations lead to models, which help in formulating a theory. These get improved or modified based on new findings or observations. The models hold as long as the observations tally with the model, a single observation that is not in line with the model, leads to them discarding the model and finding a new model in keeping with both the new and the old observations. So Hawkings started to explain how we saw the Universe from the earth-centric (geocentric) solar system to the heliocentric solar system. Aristotle believed that the earth was round, but in a geocentric solar system, which was picked up by Ptolemy and the Catholic Church as it was they believed was confirmed by scripture, mainly when the Bible spoke of the Sun moving across the heavens, most readers took this literally. A Polish Catholic priest, Nicolas Copernicus, wrote a theory on the Heliocentric model. This could explain the differences in what has been observed in the heavens. Some of the planets were moving back and forth in the heavens, others were moving erratically, which was not in keeping if there were moving around the earth and a new model was needed. Which postulated a different theory, it seems there were moving around the centre Sun. But it was a century before the was a significant reaction to his work. The Heliocentric solar system was confirmed by a German Johannes Kepler and an Italian Galileo Galilei. Currently, we have found that we are living not in the centre or occupying any position of significance but in the suburbs of our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy near the edge. Initially, the orbits were thought to be circular, and later it was found to be elliptical as some observations did not just quite add up. Predictions and calculations were not in line with observations. And instead of the Newtonian static Universe, but an expanding Universe as with gravity, there would be a tendency for it to collapse on itself. Currently, two theories can explain the general Universe, Relativity and Quantum mechanics. Relatively explains gravity and large scale structures, while Quantum Mechanics deals with the very small. These theories are corrected to explain occurrences and make predictions based on them. These theories are inconsistent with one another, and currently, there is a search for a theory that will incorporate them both into a Complete Unified Theory (Theory Of Everything - TOE)

Albert Einstein 

Until Galileo, most people accepted things or thought through logic and discussions that we could come to the correct conclusions, but it seems Galileo experimented on them. Hence, contrary to popular belief, he found that items of different weights hit the floor at the same time when released at the same time from the same height from the ground. Apollo fifteen's Commander David Scott repeated this experiment on the Moon with a feather and a hammer and performed a live demonstration for the television cameras. Where there is no air resistance to slow down the feather, and they hit the surface of the Moon at the same time. 

But another problem was the orbit of Mercury. The differences were slight, like 1.5० per century, which was picked up by more precise instruments. The Newtonian equations seem to hold on most occasions, but there was a slight discrepancy. They thought that discrepancy could be explained by another inner but smaller asteroid belt, which proved inconclusive. There was a discrepancy in the orbit of Saturn. They could turn the telescope to a particular position using the Newtonian equations. The changes predicted that a large body would be found there, and by using a more powerful telescope, Neptune was discovered. Another scientist said the alterations in the orbit of Mercury was due to a mysterious planet named Vulcan, using the same Newtonian calculations. But finding any planet or body proved impossible. Albert Einstein said that large bodies warped space and time and introduced a concept known as Space-time that gravity affects space and slows time (gravitational time dilation). That Mercury moved along this new discovered warped orbit in space-time, and when the numbers were plugged into his new equation, the orbit of Mercury was seen to match. Also, in keeping with the theory, the position of stars was said to alter due to gravity as large bodies do affect light. This was confirmed by observing the total eclipse of the Sun in 1919. (although the findings were not so precise)

Also, with more giant and more precise telescopes and radiotelephones, it was found that other planets were affected by the Sun as well, but by minor differences which would not have been picked up before, but these matched up with Einstein's new equations. Since time was also affected, this led to the Twin Paradox, the twin who remains on earth has aged more than the one who travelled in the spaceship, especially if the one who had travelled was going nearer to the speed of light. Time is said to slow down the nearer to the speed of light you go. The clock is always moving faster at the bottom of a tower than at the top. These are minuscule or insignificant differences. But, if it is not considered, the GPS system, which depends on the satellite, space, distance and correct timing, will go haywire due to these slight time differences. People get totally different locations as gravity also alters time. Einstein's theories did come up with the Relativity of Time, that light had a finite speed and was constant for each observer. We know that even when travelling, cars passed us or are going towards us with relative speeds, but he got rid of relative speeds and said that it was relative time, as the speed of light was always constant. Light also could be altered by gravity as it had dual properties. It could be regarded as containing particles in some situations and in others as it consists of waves. In another of Einstein's equations, E = mc² means nothing can go faster than the speed of light.

Milky Way Galaxy

Some scientists believe that since they understood the laws of nature and could predict or determine what could happen, this school of thought is Determinism. Instead, they extended it to predict, to some extent, human behaviour. But with the uncertainty principle, which states we cannot measure a particle's position and velocity accurately. Hence, we can never know the particular state at a particular time, introducing some randomness element. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states that you cannot state a particle's state and position; hence it is treated and behaves as a wave. This uncertainty does mean there would be some degree of unpredictability to everything. 

Our Sun is regarded as a second or thrid-generation star. That will continue burning for millions of years. After the Big Bang, this would result in the formation of Hydrogen and Helium. Gas Nebula would form from the collecting of gas, and due to the pressure, the atoms will cause Nuclear Fusion reactions, which will convert Hydrogen to Helium. The equilibrium between the pressure and the Nuclear action will cause an equilibrium and stabilize as in our Sun. More massive stars need to be much hotter to maintain this equilibrium and burn out faster. After using up all the Helium, they converted it to heavier elements like Carbon or Oxygen. It should be noted that all elements heavier than Oxygen are forms in the supernova reaction. As with the reaction, all the other elements are due to nucleosynthesis. Depending on the size, it can explode in a supernova, creating the next generation of stars and planets like our own or collapse into a very dense state, Neutron star or Blackhole.

The Universe is expanding, which Hubble and others theorized as he postulated that since it was not infinite, then the attraction would have caused it to collapse on itself due to gravity. Hubble also noticed redshift in most stars meaning they are moving away from us. A more precise definition would be away from one another faster and faster. This observation was confirmed using Hubble Space Telescope, and not only that, the farther away it is, the faster it is moving. This, with the cosmic microwave background  made the scientist conclude that it was together at one time. The presence of the Background Radiation in every direction seems to confirm the light that was present, and now it has moved or transformed from the light, which has a higher frequency, to infrared, which cannot be seen by our naked eyes. The James Web Space Telephone (JWST) has an infrared telescope to find and search for such phenomena. This will look back in time at the early Universe at the very beginning.

Hawking  also talked about parallel universes and multiple dimensions as hit film "Back to the future". He further explained that in some dimensions where the laws of physics are totally different and others that are just what we saw. The Multiverse is based on his and others calculations and other scientific dicoveries. Hawking postulated extensively about black holes and event horizons, that is the border of the black hole where nothing can escape. He also pointed out that black holes are not so black and radiate thermal rays at the event horzions (Hawking radiation). That time will stop at the event horizon, and the laws of physics will totally change. Hence, it might be possible to go back in time. The concept of going faster than the speed of light is impossible. Still, it might be able to travel to different regions of the Universe, which all millions of light-years away, by warping space-time and producing wormholes. So that if they are stable enough and can take a spaceship, he mentions that there are many small wormholes formed at the microscopic level that Science has postulated. He also explained that electrons, protons and neutrons are made up of smaller elementary particles called quarks, hence in a slap to Dalton and his atomic theory, it even turns out that even electrons, protons and neutrons can be divisible. Hawkings also mention that some unknown mass is thought to be present but has not yet been identified but is known to affect galaxies and the orbit of stars due to its gravitational effect. This is known as Dark Matter. He also explains that time itself was created initially at the Big Bang, and it is difficult for one to get his head around a four-dimensional universe. 

We have got our understanding of the Universe from Science and see that it relates to the Bible. Personally, I do not see the Bible as a Scientific textbook. Therefore, we should not make the same mistake of the Catholic Church with Galileo, about 600 years ago. As scientists, we should always learn to have a broader view, and if Science seems to us to be plagued by discrepancies, that is the nature of Science. So it is always asking and constantly testing, unsure of itself and very sceptical and unconfident of new findings until these have been tested and confirmed numerous times under different types of conditions. As men of faith, we should go on established Science's side. As we have seen, the world is not flat, and the earth is not the centre of the Solar system. So although Science is broad and filled up with discrepancies with our faith, if we consider what we have known about, time, speed, distance, etc., everything is relative and depends on your perspective.