The Pope In Belgium

Why don't we review why everyone should know the Belgian priest named Georges Lemaitre, since the Pope is visiting Belgium. 

In the early Twentieth Century it was discovered first, that what were thought to be nebula within our galaxy were actually entirely different galaxies and second, that these galaxies were actually moving away from each other. The more distant the galaxies the faster they seemed to be moving away from us.

What this meant was, not only was the universe much more vast than bad been supposed but it was also expanding. Until then it had been thought that our galaxy encompassed the entire universe.

Working with the then-new telescope atop Mount Wilson, near Los Angeles, Edwin Hubble is generally given credit for discovering the expansion of the universe, which also points to the universe having the beginning that we refer to as the "Big Bang".

Hubble got the revolutionary space telescope, which has far and away exceeded all expectations, named for him.

But Hubble wasn't the first one to propose that the universe had a beginning and was expanding. At the time the scientific community accepted the "Steady State" concept of the universe, that it had always existed and didn't have a beginning. A Belgian priest, who was also a graduate in physics, thought of it first.

His name was Georges Lemaitre. Hubble did the actual observing that confirmed the universe was expanding outward, which definitely pointed to it having a beginning, and deserves credit for establishing that there are many galaxies other than our own. But even the Wikipedia article on Hubble states that Georges Lemaitre wrote about it first.

There was a lot of skepticism but it turned out to be correct. The beginning of the universe was named the "Big Bang", but that term was coined by Britain's Sir Fred Hoyle, who was making fun of the idea. But today it is virtually universally accepted as the beginning of the universe.

Georges Lemaitre deserves more credit and name recognition. His native language was French. Does the Francophone community know that it was one of their own who correctly postulated that the universe had a beginning? I think he is already appreciated in Belgium, but not as much in the outside world.

How about the Catholic Church? We cannot say that this insight was a miracle but it verifies the biblical theology that the universe was created at a certain point by God. The universe had not always been there, as the scientific community had believed. 

I once visited the Mount Wilson Observatory, above Los Angeles. This is where it was discovered that there are many galaxies, other than our own, and confirmed that the universe is expanding outward which means that it had a beginning.

PROOF OF THE BIG BANG 

Most scientists agree that the universe began with what is referred to as the "Big Bang". Scientists didn't arrive at the Big Bang, it was actually introduced by a Belgian Catholic priest, Georges Lemaitre, based on the Christian idea of the beginning, but is now very widely accepted in the scientific community. Before the Big Bang there was the "Steady State" Theory of the universe.

However there have always been a few doubters and doubt about the Big Bang still persists. For some reason my native Britain has been a haven for Big Bang doubters. The name of the "Big Bang" was actually coined by Sir Fred Hoyle, who was making fun of the idea.

I find that we do not even have to go beyond the earth to prove that there must have been a Big Bang. We can see it just by tracing where energy comes from. There are only three ultimate sources of energy, the sun, the supernova that preceded the sun, and the Big Bang.

Solar energy, from the sun, is all around us. The sun makes plants grow so all of our food and fuel is from solar energy. The uneven heating of the earth by the sun creates wind energy. The sun evaporates water and, if it falls as precipitation to a higher level, it gives us hydro power. 

The sun was preceded by a large star that exploded in a supernova. Some of the matter fell back together by gravity to form the present sun and Solar System. We know that the sun is such a second-generation star because it contains heavy elements that are beyond it's current stage in the stellar fusion process.

Tides can be harnessed and used to generate electricity. Tides also move boats, and other floating objects, which takes energy. Tidal energy does not come from the sun. The supernova threw the matter that formed the earth and moon out into space and tidal energy is a redirection of that, it comes from the supernova.

The ordinary stellar fusion process only goes as far as iron. Elements heavier than iron are put together from lighter atoms only when energy is released by a supernova. It takes this tremendous energy to crunch the smaller atoms together.

Some of these new heavy atoms are less-than-stable and gradually release particles or radiation in order to seek a more stable state. These emissions are known as radioactivity. This also releases heat, which builds up from radioactive decay inside the earth. Geothermal heat, some of which may also be directly left over from the supernova, is thus supernova energy. This includes the energy released by volcanoes.

Some of the heavy atoms that are crunched together from smaller atoms only during the tremendous release of energy by a supernova can be split by a high-speed neutron. These are thorium, the 235 isotope of uranium, and man-made plutonium. When this happens some of the binding energy of the nucleus of the atom is released. This is the basis of nuclear fission energy and so the energy from nuclear reactors and conventional nuclear bombs ultimately comes from the supernova that preceded the sun.

During the ice ages vast sheets of ice form at high latitudes. The centrifugal force of the earth's rotation pulls the ice sheets in the direction of the equator. These moving glaciers greatly change the landscape. This energy comes ultimately from the supernova. If there is a landslide the kinetic energy in the falling rocks is from the supernova.

There is one energy source that cannot be accounted for by energy from either the sun or the supernova. That source is nuclear fusion. Nuclear fission, the splitting of a heavy atom, is the opposite process. As the name implies nuclear fusion is the fusing of two or more small atoms together into a larger atom. The new larger atom contains less overall internal energy than the smaller atoms that were fused together to form it. The excess energy is released and that is why fusion is a source of energy.

Natural fusion takes place in the centers of stars. The gravity there is strong enough to overcome the electron repulsion between atoms and fuse lighter atoms into heavier ones. The excess energy is released as radiation, which is why stars shine. The current stage of fusion in the sun is crunching four hydrogen atoms into one helium atom, with the excess energy being released as sunshine.

Fusion of atoms can be done artificially, by pushing the atoms together with lasers or confining very high temperatures in a magnetic field. As with stars the excess energy is released when small atoms are fused into a larger one. There is a lot of hope for fusion as a future source of energy but, at the time of this writing, fusion is still at the experimental stage, no one has yet succeeded in making it into a practical source of energy.

We know from science class that energy can never be created or destroyed, but only changed in form. There are a number of ways that we get energy whose ultimate source is either the sun or the supernova that preceded the sun. The energy from the sun is not rooted in the supernova that preceded it because that star exploded before all of it's hydrogen atoms had fused into heavier atoms and then that process continued as some of the matter of the exploded star fell back together by gravity to form the sun and Solar System.

But neither of these sources can explain where the energy in fusion comes from. Since energy can never be created or destroyed, but only changed in form, it must have come from somewhere. Since it is the internal energy in all atoms, some of it being released when atoms fuse together, it must be from before the formation of atoms.

It's source can only be the Big Bang and it thus proves the reality of the Big Bang.