A Day Without Yesterday By George Lemaitre

One may wonder how has the Big Bang Theory came about? Who created this controversial topic that has created multiple shows, newspaper articles and more? The Big Bang Theory or the “beginning of time” theory is still to this day an ongoing hot topic that has people questioning how, what and when? Well it all started with the creator of this concept by a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic Priest born in the 1800’s, by the name of George Lemaitre. Writing a paper in 1931 he came up with his own abstraction to the Big Bang Theory that eventually expanding out to further research. (Soter and Tyson, 2000)

Lemaitre served as an artillery officer in his younger ages during World War I which put a halt onto his studies but soon was picked back up after

an unknown force – a cosmological constant – which kept the world stable.”, argued that the universe was ever lasting and consistent. Lemaitre’s conclusion was, as stated in ‘A Day Without Yesterday’: George Lemaitre & the Big Bang, by Mark Midbon, “… Lemaitre decided that the universe was expanding. He came to the conclusion after observing the reddish glow, known as a red shift, surrounding objects outside of our galaxy. If interpreted as a Doppler effect, this shift in color meant that the galaxies were moving away from us.” Publishing his reasoning’s in a news article named ‘Annales de la Societe scientifique de Bruxelles’ he had little to no notice (Midbon, 2000), in fact Einstein over looked his paper and completely disagreed with the physical interpretation. He argued, “from the point of view of Physics this seems to me abominable”. One scientist recalls Einstein having a strong favoritism towards a man named Alexander Friedmann, a “Russian mathematician and meteorologist who discovered in 1922-1924 solution of Einstein’s equations corresponding to expanding and contracting universe.” (Lambert, 2009). However, Einstein informed Lemaitre of Friedmann’s statements and used them to further his studies. As the years went on Einstein became to be opened to Lemaitre’s studies in 1933 when he attended California Institute of Technology. Einstein revised his theory and stated it as “the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation

other galaxies are moving away from our own at a great speed, in all directions, as if they had all been propelled by an accident explosive force.” (National Geographic staff). This theory states that about 10 to 20 billion years ago, a blast that was so huge allowed for energy, matter, space, time, etc... to be brought upon by an unknown type of energy. George Lemaitre’s statement says the earth expanded with a complex amount of speed from a small size to an “astronomical scope”. Even to this day we continue to expand but just at a smaller rate. There are many unknown answers that scientist still haven’t figured out especially what caused the Big Bang to occur. (National Geographic