The Big Bang Theory- Part 2

When one glances up at the sky, they rarely comprehend what it actually is. When we look up, we are looking at the expanse of nothingness that surrounds our planet, and the only thing preventing us from falling into it is our planet's gravity. If the Earth did not have such a great mass, we could simply fall into the sky and keep floating around for eternity. There are uncountable celestial bodies out there that are floating around for eternity, but how did they get there in the first place? How did all this start? Let’s take a look!

The initial “Big Bang” marks the beginning of time and space. The explosion, just like the explosions of bombs that we know in the modern world, initially only had energy and radiation. Any description of the amount of heat during the explosion would be an understatement, and matter could only begin to form after a considerable cooling. Finally, protons and neutrons could come together to form the first particles of matter. The first element formed was hydrogen. After hydrogen came helium- the first two elements on the periodic table. These also happen to be the elements present in a star’s core, so you can probably guess what came next- stars. Since black holes are formed after a star dies, black holes started coming up around the universe, and the infinitely high gravity of black holes made them the center of groups of stars that were pulled into proximity of the black holes. These groups are known as galaxies. 

The fusion reactions in the cores of stars led to most of the other elements being created which became the building blocks of all the other celestial bodies- planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and whatnot. The elements that make up our bodies were also created within stars, so technically we all have stardust in us!

Once planets were formed, there was an entirely different process that led to the creation of life on Earth which will be explored in a later post, stay tuned!