September 13, 2026

In response to the discoveries pointing to the beginning of the universe, physicists proposed alternatives. Hoyle defended the steady state by hypothesizing mater spontaneously appearing in the spaced between galaxies. Oscillating universe was another alternative in which the universe expands and contracts repeatedly into the infinite past. These theories are not consistent with the second law of thermodynamics. 

Other important discoveries have further bolstered evidence for the big bang. Two important ones relate to cosmic background radiation. Sometimes called the radiation afterglow this refers to low levels of radiation that should be present throughout the universe if there was a big bang at some time in the past. The energy expelled at the big bang should leave a small amount of background radiation throughout the universe. Two physicists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson accidentally discovered this very thing using large antennae. They were getting constant interference coming in from all directions and couldn’t figure out what it was. They eventually realized that it was in the form of microwave wavelengths and could be found everywhere. In other words, they found the predicted residual energy from the big bang. They contacted Robert Dicke at Princeton who had also been searching for evidence of cosmic background radiation who examined their findings and concluded that they had found what he was looking for. 

There is another important discovery related to background radiation. It take a little explanation. If the universe started from the expansion of a singularity and matter radiated uniformly as it expanded then we would expect to see gravitational pull cause material to pull together in a uniform way. We would therefor expect to find a uniform distribution of Galaxies in the universe. However, this is not what we see instead we see clumps of bodies separated by large voids. This would require slight fluctuations in density in the early expansion which would leave evidence in the form of slight fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation. The problem was no such fluctuation could be found remember Penzias and Wilson found the same interference coming from all directions. This problem persisted until NASA launched a satellite (Cosmic Background Explorer, COBE) which could look out into the universe without the obfuscation (interference) of the atmosphere. When they did guess what they found? Exactly the fluctuations expected, indicating small anomalies in density during the early universe. Some cosmologists have termed these fluctuations in radiation galaxy seeds. 

These discoveries have convinced nearly all cosmologists that indeed the universe is not eternal but instead had a beginning in the finite past. Despite their best efforts the evidence to simply too much to ignore. Much to the dismay of those who were wise enough to grasp the immediate implications. 

~ Kevin Cleary