Discovery and acceptance of the Big Bang, Dark Matter and Dark Energy

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Discovery and acceptance of the Big Bang, Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Divine Connection| May 16, 2025

1917: Einstein developed General Relativity (GR), assuming a static universe.

1927: Belgian Catholic priest and physicist Lemaitre proposed the theory of expanding universe and the primeval atom (Big Bang idea).

Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann derives solutions to Einstein's GR equations that predict an expanding universe. Belgian Catholic priest and physicist Georges Lemaître independently derives expanding universe solutions similar to Friedmann's. Crucially, he links this theory to American Vesto Slipher's redshift observations and proposes that the universe began as an incredibly dense, hot point – the "hypothesis of the primeval atom" or "cosmic egg." This is arguably the first conceptual proposal of the Big Bang.

1929: Hubble observed galaxy redshift — expansion evidence.

American astronomer Edwin Hubble systematically measures the distances to numerous galaxies and correlates them with their redshifts and provides strong observational evidence that the universe is indeed expanding uniformly.

1933: Dark Matter hypothesis emerges and is largely ignored for decades

Swiss-American astronomer Fritz Zwicky observes the Coma galaxy cluster and notices galaxies are moving too fast to be held together by visible matter alone. He proposes dark matter to explain the missing mass.

1940s: Gamow, Alpher, Herman predicted Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) from hot Big Bang. Hoyle, Gold, and Bondi propose an alternative ‘Steady State’ theory.

George Gamow, along with his students Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman, builds upon Lemaître's idea and theorize the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). They theorize that the initial heat allowed for nuclear fusion in the first few minutes, creating light elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium in proportions that could be calculated and potentially observed. Paper published in 1948.

Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi proposed that the universe was eternal and unchanging on the large scale. As the universe expanded, new matter was continuously created in the gaps to maintain a constant density.

1949: Hoyle accidentally coins the term "Big Bang":

During a BBC radio broadcast, Fred Hoyle, a staunch opponent of the Big Bang concept, dismissively coins the term "Big Bang" to describe the rival theory. The name stuck and the debate between Big Bang and Steady State camps dominates cosmology for the next ~15 years.

1965: Penzias & Wilson discovered the CMB — pivotal evidence.

Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson (Bell Labs, New Jersey, USA) accidentally discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, exactly as predicted and received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery in 1978

1970s: Dark Matter Theory gains momentum

Vera Rubin and Kent Ford measure galaxy rotation curves and observe stars at the outer edges rotate too fast to be explained by visible mass. This offers strong evidence for dark matter halos around galaxies.

1980s: Dark Matter gains acceptance

1992: NASAs’ COBE satellite detected tiny fluctuations in the CMB, confirming early universe structure.

Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 was awarded to John Mather and George Smoot for this work.

1998: Observations of distant supernova studies showed the universe’s expansion is accelerating, leading to the discovery of dark energy

Observations of distant Type Ia supernovae by two independent teams (led by Saul Perlmutter, and Brian Schmidt & Adam Riess) revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, driven by a mysterious component dubbed "dark energy." This discovery earned them the 2011 Nobel Prize.

2019: Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded partly to James Peebles for discovering theoretical framework of physical cosmology.

His work laid much of the theoretical groundwork for our modern understanding of cosmology, including the crucial role that cold dark matter plays in the formation of structure and its impact on the CMB. So, while not solely for dark matter, its importance within the awarded theoretical framework was central.

Relevant Nobel Prizes Awarded:

Year	Laureate(s)	Discovery	Affiliation	Country
1978	Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson	Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation	Bell Labs	USA
2006	John Mather, George Smoot	Precise measurements of the CMB anisotropies (COBE mission)	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; University of California, Berkeley	USA
2011	Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess	Discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae	Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Australian National University; Johns Hopkins University	USA; Australia
2019	James Peebles	Theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology, including insights into the Big Bang, dark matter, and dark energy	Princeton University	Canada/USA
2019	Michel Mayor, Didier Queloz	Discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star (51 Pegasi b)	University of Geneva; University of Cambridge	Switzerland; UK