If all the numerical aspects of this seem a bit much, then PLEASE READ the end of this blog as I will summarise everything, thanks.
The theory about the origin of the Universe has been debated and debated over and over again. Today we have a team of scientists plugging away at the LHC in Geneva, trying to find particles such as the HIGGS BOSON that will establish how our Universe went from a SINGULARITY to all that you see around you.
The Big Bang was not an explosion of space but an EXPANSION of spac, which happened everywhere. Quite possibly a slight imperfection within the singularity would cause this expansion, kind of like order out of disorder.
The Big Bang is split into eras which are more like time scales, periods in which change was occurring. I think it only idealistic to begin with the beginning!
The Planck Era: 10-43 seconds
No-one as of yet truly knows what could have happened during this period.
Max Planck was a very renowned physicist, his surname is attached to many types of measurement, in fact usually it's attached to the shortest possible distance/time/length. It is often referred to as the "smallest possible amount worth measuring".
The Inflation Era: -10-35 seconds - a hundred-billionth of a second!
Diameter of Universe:
10‑26 m
Temperature: 1,000 trillion trillion °CIt is believed that at the end of this period, GRAVITY split from the other forces of nature, followed by the STRONG nuclear force. It is widely accepted that this event triggered INFLATION - a short but rapid expansion. If INFLATION did occur, it helps to explain why the Universe seems so smooth and flat. During inflation, a fantastic amount of mass-energy came into existence, in tandem with an equal but negative amount of gravitational energy. By the end of inflation, matter had begun to appear.
The Quark Era: 10-32 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 10m
Temperature:1,000 trillion trillion °C
Sometimes called the elctroweak era, this period saw vast numbers of quark and antiquark pairs forming from energy and then annihilating back to energy. Gluons and other more exotic particles appeared.
Separation of the electroweak force: 10 seconds
Diameter of Universe:1 billion km/620 million miles
Temperature: 1,000 trillion °C
Near the end of the quark era, the electroweak force separated into the elctromagnetic force and the weak interaction. From then on, the forces of nature and physical laws were as they are now experienced.
Hadron Era: 10-6 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 60 billion miles
Temperture: 10 trillion °C
Around the beginning of this era, quarks and antiquarks began combining to form particles called hadrons. These included baryons (protons and neutrons), antibaryons and mesons.
Lepton Era: 10-3 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 600 billion miles
Temperature: 1,000 billion °C
Leptons are - electrons, neutrinos and their antiparticles. The Leptons were very numerous. By the end of this period, the electrons annihilated with positrons (antielectrons).
Nucleosynthesis Era: 1 second
Diamter of Universe: 5.88 trillion miles/10 light-years
Temperature: 10 billion °C
Neutrons gradually converted into protons as the Universe cooled and slowed down. However, when there was about one neutron for every seven protons, most remaining neutrons combined with protons to make Helium nuclei, each with 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
Opaque Era: 200 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 6,000 light-years/
Temperature: 100 million °C
During this relatively lengthy era, the ocean of matter particles (comprising mainly protons, electrons and helium nuclei) were in a continual state of interaction with photons (radiant energy), this would make the then Universe appear "foggy".
Balance of Elements:
This is the 2nd part of the opaque era. Here, many more free photons existed than helium nuclei, or other atomic nuclei. The scene was set for the first atoms to form. When they did, about 9 Hydrogen atoms were made for each Helium atom. A few Lithium and Deuterium (heavy Hydrogen) atoms also formed.
Matter Era: 300,000 years - present day
Diameter of Universe: 100 million light-years
Temperature: 2,700 °C
At the start of our present era, photons were free to travel through the Universe. Most electrons were bound to atoms until the first stars formed and gave us the PLASMA state of matter and NUCLEAR FUSION - the building of the heavier elements.
Trends of the timeline:
- The Universe is getting bigger at each phase and is STILL expanding today
- The Universe is getting cooler at each phase and MAY still be cooling today
- TIME is the fourth-dimension and there is no stopping it - often referred to as the "Arrow of Time" - it has take a very long time for the Universe to get to where we are today (13.75 billion years!).
Evidence for the Big Bang:
If you look at everything in the Universe, all the matter is moving away from each other. So surely, you could rewind and bring everything back together. Light is the biggest indication of an expanding Universe - we call that REDSHIFT - I'll BLOG about that soon. A cool easy way to show Redshift and the idea that if something is moving away from you, the wavelength of visible light that it emits gets longer is this: get a balloon that isn't inflated, draw a wavelength on it, any will do. Now inflate the balloon, as it INFLATES the WAVELENGTH gets longer.
Hard to believe that everything you can see is from the something the size of a Proton eh? I find it hard to believe too but it seems the only feasible possibility.
The temperature was so high in the beginning that quarks were able to be formed into protons and neutrons, which is great to understand as it makes sense that protons and neutrons are no longer "made" anywhere in the universe. Plus the fact that an Atom is 99.99999% empty space means that every atom could be so tightly packed together.
A random fact to put in here is that the entire human race could fit inside the volume of a sugar cube if it were possible to compact atoms.
The Big Crunch:
What happens when all the stars have burnt their fuel and there's no more Hydrogen to be used? The Universe will become cold, dark and lifeless.......
I personally think that Gravity will step in because as long as there is matter, Gravity will have a say in what happens next. Although Gravity is weak it has an INFINITE range and that gives it the edge. I think Gravity will overcome anything and bring every atom back to the beginning. Remember Gravity is all about attraction of masses, the more mass Gravity brings together, the greater the Gravity of that mass. Think of it as the snowball effect. Once it starts, it will be difficult to stop. Then maybe the Universe will start again?!
Thanks.
Much love, Adam XX :-)
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