Creation of Universe

The universe is about 13.7 billion years old. At its beginning it looked nothing like it does today. Yet, everything in today’s universe did exist in some form back then. It all started with the BIG BANG, a kind of explosion that would not only go on to produce all the matter in the universe but also marked the start of time.

                The term BIG BANG was coined by FRED HOYLE in 1950 to illustrate to his radio listeners the difference between it and his own theory, steady state where the universe has no beginning. At the start, the universe was a hot and dense ball of radiation energy. In one- thousandth of a second, tiny radiation particles produced tiny particles of matter. These combined to form the first ever chemical elements hydrogen and helium. Some regions of the young universe contained slightly more hydrogen and helium than others. These shrank to form the first stars. Nuclear reactions inside the stars produced many other chemical elements including carbon and oxygen. The elements in the universe today were produced in the BIG BANG.

Everything in the universe produces energy. You produce energy when you exercise, and light energy is produced by nuclear reactions inside the stars.

 

The sun formed from hydrogen and helium and small amount other elements.

The top ten chemical elements that make up sun are

Hydrogen               : 71%

Helium                   : 27.1%

Oxygen                  : 0.97%

Carbon                  : 0.4%

Nitrogen                : 0.096%

Silicon                   : 0.099%

Magnesium            : 0.076%

Neon                     : 0.058%

Iron                       : 0.14%

Sulphur                  : 0.04%

4.5 billion years ago some of the material not used up in the sun joined together to form earth.

About 3.7 billion years ago carbon- containing molecules in young earth’s oceans evolved into bacteria- like cells, the first forms of primitive life.

1 million years ago the first humans walked on earth. All the elements on earth, including all the elements in your body, were produced in stars.

Galaxy comes from the GREEK name for the galaxy. We live in the Milky Way galaxy and have its origins in the Greek word for milk. Galaxies are huge stars systems, made of stars and large amounts of gas and dust. They come in a range of sizes and shapes consisting of millions, billions, or even trillions of stars. Some known as active galaxies, have unexpected amounts of energy that come from star material falling into a black hole. Other galaxies are transformed by galactic collisions.

A black hole is a region of incredibly powerful gravity that drags matter towards it and squeezes it into a tiny space or point, which is called a singularity. They are called “black” because the light that is sucked in cannot get out. You get black holes when massive stars explode. These explosions are called supernovas. You can also get black holes at the center of the active galaxies, where their mass is equivalent to millions of suns.

Written by A.Devasena. ECE Dept.