THE BIG BANG

THE GREATEST, MOST fundamental
mystery in the history of the world
and the universe is; how did this all
begin? Man now knows a lot about the
different stages of Earth’s development, but
he still has no definite answers for how our
world came to be here or even how the
universe came to be formed. Religion
provides us with one theory – the idea that
God created the planets by hand, but that
does not tally with the few pieces of
scientific evidence that we do possess. For,
although we are still largely ignorant, science
has begun to reveal some of the secrets of the
cosmos. We do not know much, but we do
know it all started with a bang. A Big Bang.
About 15 billion years ago there was an
enormous explosion. Incredible, trilliondegree
heat, matter and anti-matter were
created in a dense expanding cloud. In less
than 1000th of a second, the universe had
doubled in size over 100 times. More matter
than anti-matter was produced, and basic
particles began to form. The universe
remained a thick, plasmatic substance, made
up mainly of radiation at an extreme, but
cooling, heat. After a second, the universe
had a temperature of ten billion degrees
Kelvin. The process continued, with simple
particles gradually slowing in speed,
allowing for more complex reactions to take
place.
About three minutes after the initial
explosion, the temperature was down to a

billion degrees. Nucleosynthesis was
beginning to take place, and deuterium, an
isotope known as heavy hydrogen, was being
created. Deuterium then formed into tritium,
which then became a helium nucleus. With
slightly more cooling, hydrogen atoms were
created. Over the next 300,000 years, helium
atoms were formed, and the universe
dropped to a temperature of 10,000 degrees
Celsius as it expanded. Radiation gradually
became less dense and it, light and matter
were able to separate. Eventually, after 15
billion years, the universe became what we
know today.
Although the Big Bang theory is based on
the guesswork of many eminent cosmologists
and astronomers, it is supported by a
scientific basis. Recent discoveries have also
helped to provide proof. NASA’s COBE
satellite has detected cosmic microwaves
produced at the distant edges of the
universe. The fact that these microwaves
followed a similar rigid structure suggested
the universe developed in a verifiable
pattern. Slight temperature differences at
three far-off points have also helped to prove
scientists’ earlier theories about what
happened as the cosmos cooled. The
different stages in development between
areas of different heat give a good indication
of what happened following the Big Bang.
In June 1995, scientists working on
NASA’s Astro-2 observatory were able to
detect deuterium in the distant corners of the
cosmos. This suggests such elements really
did exist soon after the Big Bang. Similarly,
the Hubble telescope has allowed astronomers
to look deep into the universe and
discover what substances are predominant in
older features. These new discoveries often
lead to new questions, and reworkings of old
theories. What we can be certain of is that the
universe continues to expand, so the Big
Bang phenomenon is still in progress. The
fact that these procedures are still in effect at
the far reaches of the universe provides hope
that, as our observational techniques
improve, we will definitely be able to learn
how the universe initially expanded
As an intelligent life form, we may feel
confident enough to scientifically state the
conditions at the very dawn of time and
space. However, no scientist would dare to
suggest exactly what existed before the Big
Bang. Religious philosophers have stated
that everything has a cause, and have used
our ignorance of the subject as proof of God.
Others state that not all happenings
necessarily have a catalyst, and as we are
entering a completely new realm of the
unknown, the normal rules of the universe
may not apply.
In either case, it is a subject for philosophy,
rather than physics or chemistry. What
science can say is that everything around us
is made up of particles that burst from an
origin smaller than an atom, 15 billion years
ago. Anything else remains a mystery.