Since ancient times, it has been widely believed that everything has a beginning and an end, and the universe seems to be an exception.
Over the years, mankind's exploration of the origin of the universe has never stopped, from the scorching "Big Bang" to the cold "Great Collapse", various theories have been repeatedly overturned and re-established.
However, the latest research may once again upend our perception that the universe also "grows old" one day.
Penrose, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist in physics, offers a subversive view: the universe also has a beginning and an end, and not only that, but the universe is constantly circulating!
This view undoubtedly poses a powerful challenge to the theory of the origin of the universe.
If Penrose's theory is true, does our understanding of the origin of the universe need to be completely rewritten?
The formation of the Big Bang cosmology
At the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein used the general theory of relativity to derive an equation of gravitational fields, allowing scientists to calculate that the universe was expanding.
Later, astronomer Edwin Hubble observed the night sky through a homemade telescope and was surprised to discover two phenomena: first, our galaxy is just one of countless galaxies, and second, the galaxies are moving away from each other at different speeds.
And this also heralds the astonishing fact that the universe is expanding.
Hubble's discovery shocked the astronomical community at the time.
In 1927, based on this discovery, the Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître asked a question that opened a new chapter in the study of the universe: How did the universe begin?
He guessed that if galaxies were moving away, they should have been close to each other in the distant past, even clustered together.
Therefore, the conjecture that the universe may have originated as a small, dense sphere and then exploded and expanded to its present state is known as the "Big Bang Theory."
Georges Lemaître's theory was strongly opposed by some conservative astronomers, who considered it too far-fetched, but in the decades that followed, more and more evidence was discovered to support the idea that the universe originated in a Big Bang.
The Big Bang theory holds that 13.7 billion years ago, a singularity with extreme mass, density, and temperature exploded, and the universe was born, and scientists calculated the exact time of the Big Bang by observing the speed at which galaxies moved away.
This theory explains the origin of the universe and provokes us to think about the destructive act of the explosion and the constructive event of the creation of the universe.
But the Big Bang theory was not fully accepted by the scientific community.
In the 70s of the 20th century, the British physicist Penrose proposed a new cosmic cycle theory based on the black hole theory.
The idea that the universe existed before the Big Bang and that it did not come into being but continued through some kind of cycle provides a new perspective for people to continue exploring the origins of the universe.
Roger Penrose in search of the truth of the universe
At the age of 89, Roger Penrose, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, devoted his life to exploring the mysteries of the universe, and his contributions ranged from the study of black holes to the thinking about the origin of the universe.
In 1965, as a student, Penrose teamed up with the famous physicist Stephen Hawking to prove the existence of the singularity.
The discovery that the singularity was created inside a dead star collapsed by gravity sparked Penrose's interest in physics.
At that time, many scientists were skeptical of the singularity, but only Penrose did not give up, but confirmed the existence of the singularity through a large number of calculations, making a pioneering contribution to this field.
Penrose was a generalist, and he also had a deep knowledge of mathematics.
As early as 1955, Penrose invented the generalized inverse matrix, which was an important achievement in matrix theory.
Although mathematics and physics are two disciplines, they are inextricably linked.
It is by virtue of his attainments in mathematics that Penrose has provided strong evidence for the singularity theory in physics with rigorous logical thinking and a large number of calculations.
In 1969, Penrose proposed the cosmic censorship hypothesis, which was considered another milestone in his scientific career.
The cosmic censorship hypothesis has laid a theoretical foundation for people to understand and observe the universe, and any hypothesis involving such a grand proposition as the origin of the universe will inevitably be controversial.
In addition to black holes, Penrose also proposed his own "circular cosmology" about the origin of the universe.
He believed that the universe was in a constant cycle, and every time a universe decayed, a huge explosion would occur, and a new universe would be born.
In order to support this theory, in 2020, he published a paper in a journal saying that six "Hawking points" were found in the cosmic microwave background radiation, which may be the black hole evaporation traces left over from the previous universe.
Penrose's theories challenge existing ideas and are very different from the mainstream Big Bang theory, but he does not let preconceptions or authority influence his judgment, and only believes in facts and figures.
Because of this, even if the theory seems absurd, as long as there is a scientific basis, Penrose will find out.
Will the universe loop indefinitely?
Traditionally, our universe began with a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, which suddenly expanded from one point.
In Penrose's case, the universe is in a never-ending process of ups and downs, cycles.
According to his theory, the universe goes through one cycle after another, and each cycle consists of two phases: the first stage is expansion, the universe expands over time, and when the expansion reaches its limit, the second phase accompanies it, the universe begins to contract, and all galaxies collapse towards the center, being compressed into an incomparably tiny singularity.
At the singularity, there will be a state of extreme heat and high density, triggering the next cycle of big bang and a new round of expansion, and so on.
Penrose's theory was at odds with the mainstream idea, but he found some corroboration, the most crucial of which came from the study of the cosmic microwave background radiation map.
On the radiation map, Penrose found more than 30 swirling "Hawking Spots". These dots are thought to be traces of the evaporation of the black hole after the end of the previous cosmic cycle.
Their very existence proves that the universe we live in may also be just one stage in countless cycles.
Of course, Penrose's theories have also been questioned, with critics arguing that his evidence is insufficient to overturn the widely accepted Big Bang model.
Penrose, on the other hand, firmly believes that the current scientific understanding of mankind is far from solving the mysteries of the universe, and his theory opens a new window for us.
This theory provides new thinking for human beings, the traditional concept that everything will die and end, while in the circular cosmology, death is only the beginning of the birth of new life, and although our universe will eventually come to an end, at the end of it, a new universe will appear.
On a macro scale, the universe is eternal.
Besides, this theory provides a new direction for the study of the origin of the universe, and human beings currently know very little about the previous universe, and if our universe is indeed in a cyclical sequence, then the study of the traces left by the previous universe will become an important topic, which may open a new round of human exploration of the mysteries of the universe.
Of course, Penrose's theory has yet to be further proven, and a few dozen "Hawking points" alone are not enough to completely overturn the mainstream theory. We need more evidence, such as further observations of gravitational waves and microwave background radiation.
As a new thing that challenges the mainstream theory, the conformal cyclic cosmology theory still has a long way to go, but it provides us with another possible form of the universe and provokes us to think about the world, which is of great significance.
Penrose was a persistent theoretical physicist who wanted his theory to attract more attention.
In his view, scientific exploration requires a great deal of imagination rather than resting on his laurels, and he believes that in the near future, the debate about the origin of the universe will come to light and a convincing answer will emerge.
Whatever the outcome, Penrose advanced humanity's quest for the mysteries of the universe, and his dream of a theoretical physicist to explore the unknown, a spirit that is valuable in itself.
The mysteries of the universe continue to be revealed, so let's look forward to new discoveries!
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