Big Bang Theory

With thousands of different religions existing around the world, many unique creation stories have been developed. Some religions believe in a supreme being, who, with omnipotent power, designed and created the universe, as well as all it contains. Others believe that the universe has always existed and will continue to exist forever. Whatever it may be, creation stories hold an important position in religions because they help to define our place in the universe and reason for being. Cromulism takes a slightly unusual approach with its creation story by having you that is subject to change. This is unique because clearly the creation of the universe cannot change over time, yet our understanding of it does resulting in this shift.

Our creation story starts in 1929 with Edwin Hubble who, through observations of distant stars, determined that the universe was expanding. This had a profound impact on the scientific community who had previously believed the universe was static. What Hubble discovered was that the further away a star is the faster it is travelling away. This was done by measuring the red shift of Cepheids in various galaxies and plotting their values against their relative distance. Once it had been determined that the universe was expanding, it became clear that there most exist a previous point in time when it was much smaller. With the later discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, it has become easier to determine the state of the universe at previous points in time. The present estimate for the age of the universe puts it at 13.77 billion years old.

The current scientific theory to explain how the universe was formed is called the Big Bang Theory. It revolves around the central idea that the universe sprang into being from one immensely small, infinitely hot, and infinitely dense singularity. That within one second the universe rapidly cooled to 5.5 billion degrees Celsius and expanded to more than 20 light years in diameter. The next 240,000 years would be known as the Photon Epoch. During this time the universe was filled with plasma, with most of the universe’ energy is contained in photons which continue to interact with protons and electrons. Then comes the period of Recombination. At this point the universe has cooled to 3,000 degrees, and its density has decreased allowing for hydrogen and helium atoms to capture electrons and become neutral. Once the electrons have been absorbed by atoms visible light can pass through the newly transparent universe. This is the first light that can be seen today as cosmic background radiation. At the end of this period the universe contains 75% hydrogen 25% helium and only small amounts of lithium.

Next comes the Dark Era, from 300,000 to 150 million years after the big bang. Now the universe is dark because no stars have formed yet to give off light. This is a period of low energy and slow progress with very little happening. This period is followed by reionization for the next 850 billion years. Quasars, which are compact regions at the centre of a galaxy with an abnormally high luminosity, form due to gravitational collapse. This reionizes the surrounding universe causing most of it to revert from neutral atoms to ionized plasma. At the same time the formation of Stars and Galaxies has begun. Gravity causes irregularly dense pockets of gas to compact and collapse under their own gravitational attraction. These dense clouds of gas then heat up to a high enough temperature for nuclear fusion reactions to happen between hydrogen atoms, creating the first stars. These stars are short-lived supermassive stars, about a hundred times the mass of the Sun. These supermassive stars will eventually explode in supernovas. The dust created by the explosion allows for new stars to form and gravitational attraction pulls large volumes of matter together into galaxies.

A full 8.5 – 9 billion years after the Big Bang, the Milky Way forms. Its sun is the product of previous generations of stars that exploded in supernovas. The Milky Way itself is a type of galaxy known as a “cannibal” galaxy. This is because of its formation through the absorption of other smaller galaxies. Even now the Milky Way is in the process of absorbing the Canis Major Dwarf galaxy. The Milky way is home to our Sun as well as the Earth where we reside. Within a universe that began, 13.7 years ago, with a Big Bang.