Exploding nebula, from the Hubble Space Telescope
In the beginning was a Bang. . . .11
In the beginning our entire universe was compressed within the confines of an atomic nucleus cosmologists call the Singularity – the moment before creation when space and time did not exist. Ten or twenty billion years ago an unimaginable cosmic explosion – infinitely dense, trillions of degrees in temperature – hurled matter in every direction and created the beginnings of our universe. Fundamental subatomic particles, matter and energy, and space and time itself.
Moments after the explosion the four forces of nature; strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational forces combined as a single "super force" (the Wald). Elementary particles known as quarks began to bond in trios, forming photons – with positrons and neutrinos being created along with their antiparticles.
The density of the Universe in this first moment of life is thought to have been 1094g/cm3 the majority of this in the form of radiation. For each billion pairs of these heavy particles (hadrons) that were created, one was spared annihilation in particle-antiparticle collisions. During this creation and annihilation of particles the universe was expanding at many times the speed of light. In the time known as the "Inflationary Epoch", the universe doubled in size at least one hundred times in less than one thousandth of a second, from an atomic nucleus to 1035 meters in width.
At this point the universe was comprised of an ionised plasma in which matter and radiation were inseparable. Additionally there were equal amounts of particles and antiparticles.
When the universe aged to one hundredth of a second old neutrons begin to decay on a massive scale. This allowed for free electrons and protons to combine with other particles. Eventually the remaining neutrons combined with protons to form heavy hydrogen (deuterium). These deuterium nuclei combined in pairs and formed helium nuclei.
The formation of matter from energy was made possible by photons materialising into baryons and antibaryons with their subsequent annihilations transforming into pure energy (Maffei). Because of these collisions and annihilations matter was unable to remain viable for more than a few nanoseconds before a bombardment of electrons would scatter these photons. Radiation was so dense (1014g/cm3) that no light could escape. In this "Epoch of Last Scattering" the temperature had dropped to the degree that the Strong Nuclear, Weak Nuclear and Electromagnetic interactions were now able to exert their force.
As the gas cloud expanded – one full second after the initial explosion – and the temperature of our Universe had dropped to ten billion degrees, photons no longer had the energy to disrupt the creation of matter as well as to transform energy into matter. After three minutes and a further drop in temperature to one billion degrees, protons and neutrons slowed down enough to allow nucleosynthesis to take place. Atomic nuclei of helium was produced . . . and two protons and neutrons bonded . . . (heavy satisfied sigh)
And that's only in the first three minutes! The beginning in the Singularity, the unimaginable cosmic explosion, bonding quarks, the emergence of a super force Wald, individual hadrons among billions spared in particle-antiparticle collisions, the entering of the Epoch of Last Scattering and . . . finally . . . 'Our Universe' with all its bright stars and asteroids and planets and black holes and goodness knows what else – all that exists, matter and energy, space and time moving on and on and on.
Wonderful mythological, awe-inspiring stuff. With or without divine intervention.
11 Adapted from Barry R. Parker's, , New York: Plenum Press, 1993. http://www.crystalinks.com/bigbang.htm
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