After the universe was born, energy went into creating matter and its evil twin, antimatter. Antimatter has the curious property of annihilating with normal matter. So the early universe was filled with a war between these two. You cannot have equal matter and antimatter or there will be no type of matter to form galaxies, stars, planets, and eventually people. So there was a small imbalance (thought to be one particle in a billion) between the two and matter won the battle between antimatter. This is due to a complex interaction between a particle called an X boson and energy. But we won't go into that now. We have now ventured one millionth of a second into the universe's life.
After about three minutes, it was beginning to cool down enough for energy to form particles that combined into the first atomic nuclei. The universe was filled at first with hydrogen, helium, and lithium. This all took about 300,000 years and the end dropped the veil of energy so the universe became transparent (space became black). For over 100 million years afterward, the universe was silently cooling down as matter started to coalesce in the darkness. After another 100 million years, stars formed, but it would be another 200 million years before galaxies would form.
This has been a very simplified view of creation, it is just an outline of the big bang theory. After I have delved into quantum mechanics and the forces of nature, this topic will be returned to and given very special attention. If anybody has any questions on what I have layed out so far, please comment with your question and I'll be happy to explain. I'm still not sure about my next post, but I'll get it in as quick as possible. Until then, salutations!
I have a question. What caused the inflation? And what caused the big bang? Oh, and this is a very good post but when you said the matter and antimatter destroyed each other, the laws of physics say that matter and antimatter cannot be destroyed (or created).
ReplyDeleteOkay, inflation was caused by a tiny quantum fluctuation in the microscopic universe. The Big Bang is a more difficult question. I recommend reading Lawrence Krauss' book Something From Nothing to get a clear picture, it's very hard to explain and I'm kinda pressed for time. As for the matter and antimatter, they were annihilated in equal amounts, meaning the net energy lost was 0. Plus, some when they annihilated, they let off vast amounts of energy so once again, the net energy lost was 0
ReplyDeleteYeah, but matter and antimatter can not be destroyed or created. I think there is a theory that matter and antimatter, when they collide, instead of destroying each other, they bounce apart, then go through each other a lot of times, then merge into a new particle. It can not be detected by any eletrical device.
ReplyDeleteThere are quantum fluctuations in a vacuum where a particle and antiparticle are spontaneously created then come together to be destroyed resulting in net energy loss of 0, so matter can be created and destroyed as long as the net matter/energy comes to 0
ReplyDeleteProfessor Physika, why did you stop blogging? Every time I'm on my blog, I check to see if there is anything new in it. Please continue blogging, I was really hoping you'd write something new.
ReplyDeleteHey Professor where did the posts go. come one post some mo please
ReplyDeleteHey, guys, sorry! I'm in the middle of another move and we still haven't installed WiFi yet, but I'll be back soon with the Stellar Lifecycle series of post. Until then, salutations!
DeleteOh, and one more thing, I keep on seeing this new "post" that is titled Her but when I click on it, it said it doesn't exist.
ReplyDelete