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The Big Bang

13.7 billion years ago

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The Big Bang Theory is the scientific model for the origin of the universe, it was born out of the observation that other galaxies are moving away from our own at great speed as if propelled by an explosive force. The theory states that about 13.7 billion years ago all the matter and radiation of the observable universe was compressed into a hot, dense mass just a few millimetres across. This state is theorised to have existed for just a fraction of the first second of time after which a massive blast allowed all the universe's matter and energy to escape. In the instant (a trillion trillionth of a second) after the Big Bang the universe expanded from a few millimetres to something astronomically vast and has continued to expand , though more slowly in the billions of years since. Cosmic microwave background radiation received from all parts of the universe is thought to be the heat left over from the original explosion.        





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The Creation of Stars and Galaxies

13.7- 4.6 billion years ago

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In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe was extremely hot and dense. As it cooled, conditions gave rise to the building blocks of matter, quarks and electrons. A few millionths of a second later, quarks aggregated to produce protons and neutrons and in minutes these protons and neutrons combined into nuclei. As the universe continued to expand and cool, things slowed down and it took 380,000 years before atoms were formed when electrons were trapped in orbits around nuclei. These atoms were mainly helium and hydrogen, still the most common elements in existence. In the following  half-billion years, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the first stars and galaxies. In the hearts of these stars elements like iron, carbon and oxygen are produced which are then seeded throughout the universe following explosions called supernovae. A little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our solar system was born. We are currently finding out more about the invisible as well as the visible universe, through agencies like NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and CERN ( European Organisation for Nuclear Research) who investigate phenomena like dark matter which does not emit any electromagnetic radiation and dark energy, comprising a huge part of the universe that we can only detect through its effects.





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