The Origin of the Universe

A survey of the evidence

Introduction
Measurement Overview
    Parallax Distances
    Star Sizes and Absolute Magnitudes
    Cepheid Distances
    Type 1a Supernovae Distances
    Redshift Velocities and Distances
    Age of the Stars in Globular Clusters
    The Oldest White Dwarfs
    The Cosmic Microwave Background
Conclusion

We have measured the distance to the stars and some of the most distant galaxies.

We have measured the rate at which the galaxies are receeding.

The facts force us to a surprising conclusion: 13.7 billion years ago, all the matter in the universe emerged from a point. The more we look, the more we find other evidence confirming this conclusion.

The effort to gather evidence to test this conclusion has produced other surprises.

1. Mysterious Dark Matter outweighs visible matter by a factor of 4 to 1.
2. Mysterious Dark Energy is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate