You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are– Alan Watts

We’ve gone on a tour of the universe, from the solar system to the deepest reaches of space. But have you ever wondered where our fantastic, colorful, intricate universe came from?

Edwin Hubble, a prominent astronomer, discovered that certain galaxies seem to cede away from us? How? He noticed that galaxies further away from us appear red? This color change due to levitating distance is called the redshift.

The image above shows the visible light spectrum. There are seven colors here. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The color red has the lowest wavelength (a wavelength is a measure of the length between two peaks or troughs of a wave) at 700 nanometers (nm) while violet has the shortest wavelength at 400 nm.  Red has a lower frequency compared to violet.

Now that we have introduced the visible light spectrum, we can now explain the redshift. Let’s say that there is a galaxy that is at a distance from us. At that time, we see it having a blue color. After 10 years, when we observe the same galaxy, it becomes redder. This is because light from the galaxy takes a longer time to reach us. The light waves eventually get longer in wavelength, and hence the red color. This is an example of the Doppler effect. It’s like listening to a siren from a firetruck. As it gets closer, the sound gets louder and vice versa. Light behaves like a wave (and so does sound), a longer propagation distance means the waves are more spread-out.

What does this mean for the universe? All the galaxies are receding from us. If you were to do the same observation on another planet, you would witness the same phenomenon.

So what can we conclude about this redshift? The universe is expanding (expanding at an accelerating rate. We will get through that in the future).

If we perceive time reversing, cosmic expansion becomes cosmic deflation. The galaxies will get closer and closer, they will blueshift (the opposite of redshift).

Eventually, we will reach a point where all the stuff in the universe is concentrated at a single point in space. There will be no galaxies, but small particles. All at a singularity.

You are now witnessing the birth of the universe.

 

To My Dear Universe, Welcome to Existence…

In the beginning, there was nothing…

You’ve probably heard this saying a lot in movies. But saying “before the universe” would not make any sense. Why? Because there was literally nothing in the beginning. I know, you must doubt this. There has to be something that triggered the universe to emerge… That would require a theory (more will be discussed in the future). Even I can’t make sense of this…

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At a time almost to an instant, the universe emerged from its shell, releasing gargantuan quantities of energy. Simultaneously, space and time were created alongside a grand force. This is what’s known as the Big Bang. This isn’t really an explosion though. It’s rather an expansion, a rapid one.

We are not absolutely certain on whether the Big Bang authentically happened. It’s all based on Hubble’s Law where the universe is expanding.

Post-Genesis Period

After the Big Bang, the universe entered its Dark Ages. The universe was still expanding. This period marks the formation of matter.

Albert Einstein discovered a relationship between energy and matter: they’re the same thing. When energy condenses, it forms matter. This is all explained through a mathematical formula. E=mc^2. E is the energy, m is the mass and c is the speed of light. 1kg of energy contains at most 90000000000 megajoules of energy!

As energy condenses, they form particles of matter. 6 types of quarks (up, down, top, bottom, strange and charm.), 6 types of leptons (electrons, muons, taus, and their neutrino versions.) These particles are called fermions. In addition, another type of particles called the bosons (force carriers) include the photon, gluon, W boson, Z boson, and the Higgs boson.

For every particle that was formed, an opposite version of them was created. If the net energy of the universe was 0, there had to be an equal proportion of charged particles, in which all elementary particles have (the particles I’ve mentioned). For instance, a quark has an anti-quark with a negative charge, an electron has a positron with a positive charge. When two opposite charges collide, they annihilate each other releasing tremendous amounts of energy. So, matter wouldn’t exist because there are equal amounts of matter and antimatter. But to our surprise, matter survived. This is still an unknown conundrum in physics that is yet to be solved.

After annihilation, there were some particles of matter left. And the formation of atoms began.

Atoms: The Basic Unit of Matter

It all starts with the quarks. Up quarks have a positive charge (+2/3) while down quarks have a negative charge (-1/3). The combination of two up-quarks and one down-quark results in a new particle with an overall +1 charge. This hadron (composite particles made of 3 smaller particles) is called a proton. If we had 2 down-quarks and 1 up-quark, we would have a hadron with no charge. This is the neutron. We can have a hadron with 3 down quarks and 3 up quarks, but they won’t last long. These quarks are held together by a boson called a gluon. This is the strong nuclear force that keeps the quarks together.

Leptons are matter particles of negative charges. The electron is the smallest of the leptons.

Recall that a proton has a positive charge. If the proton and the electron are attracted, they would exchange photons (this is the electromagnetic force). The electron would not fall to the proton due to quantum effects. On an atomic scale, the laws of physics behave very differently.

The electron is now attracted to the proton as their charges cancel each other out. And at last, we have an atom. Hydrogen.

Concerning the other bosons, the W and Z particles drive nuclear decay and the Higgs boson gives the particles their masses through the Higgs field. In the case of gravity, we found nothing about it. But we are still on the lookout for the particle carrying it.

Now that we have atoms, what’s next?

To be continued…

Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you really are– Felix Baumgartner

Well, isn’t the answer obvious? It’s the place where you are reading this!

Just kidding!

You are a small dot located somewhere in the universe. But you are not in the center of it. We will see the reason behind it later. There’s so much in the universe to be mesmerized at, but there are limitations. The only things that are visible in daytime are our closest star, the Sun, which gives us light energy for life and power. And the iconic blue sky. Now you may be wondering, why don’t we see the other stars but rather a blue shade? The sun emits its energy in the form of visible light in the color of white. When that light reaches our planet, the gaseous molecules in the atmosphere scatters the light. As blue has a higher wavelength compared to the other colors in the visible spectrum, it is scattered the most, hence giving us the blue sky we see.

 

However, if we were to look at the sky at night (No sunlight as we are facing away from it), and assuming you are looking at it from a place free from artificial light sources, the cosmic sky will start to be visible to you. You can see the stars and the moon.

Now, to fully experience outer space, let us ascend from the grounds into the sky, leaving the gravitational pull of the Earth and the final layers of the atmosphere. Welcome to the cosmos!

1. The Solar System

You are now in a star system, governed by the gravitational pull of a massive star in the center with eight planets orbiting it. Let’s start our journey at the center, the Sun. Contributing to 99.86% of the mass of this star system, this fireball of light is the heaviest and the largest celestial body of this system. Nuclear fusion (The process of combining two atoms of a certain element to form a new one), gives off energy in the form of small packets of energy called photons. Initially, those photons carry energies of gamma rays (Very high energy levels that are fatal to humans!!!) but as it leaves the sun, some of its energy is lost to the star. The photon then carries energy in visible light and ultraviolet light and heat. This is crucial as all forms of life depend on sunlight for survival on Earth. In addition, the sun is massive. A million Earths could fit inside it! Anything that has mass exerts a force called gravity (More on gravity, gamma rays and other forms of electromagnetic radiation in the future). All the planets are attracted by the sun, hence they orbit around it. The closest planet orbits the fastest while the farthest one orbits the slowest (This is Kepler’s 3rd Law of Planetary Motion in a nutshell).

Now, let’s go to the first four planets of the solar system. First, we have mercury. The smallest planet. Its atmosphere is very thin, so it doesn’t trap a lot of heat from the Sun. It experiences the largest temperature variation on two sides (one with light and one in darkness)

Next, we have Venus. Otherwise known as the demonic twin of Earth. The thick atmosphere traps tons of heat! Making it the hottest planet in the entire solar system! Also, it rains acid most of the time due to the gases present like sulfur dioxide! (It also causes acid rain on Earth)

Thirdly, we have our beautiful home. The Earth. It’s in a suitable area called the Goldilocks Zone (Goldilocks doesn’t like the porridge too hot or too cold.). Water doesn’t vaporize nor freeze, making it a habitable place for life to emerge. It’s also the only known planet in the solar system, or even in the entire universe, to hold life.

The Earth has one natural satellite orbiting it called the Moon. Its gravity influences the tides. We can see it in the night sky because the Sun’s light is reflected from it towards us. Some astronomers believe that the Moon was formed when an unknown celestial object crashed on the infant Earth. The debris left from the impact formed the Moon. 

And now we reach Mars. The notable red color is caused by the iron oxides on the Martian terrain. Recently, there have been traces of water on this planet. Do you think that life could prevail there? Mars has two moons (smaller and more irregular-shaped than ours) namely Phobos and Deimos.

We have been through the 4 terrestrial planets. They consist of rocky surfaces.

After mars, we reach the asteroid belt. Large chunks of rocks orbit the Sun. Occasionally, some of them may be knocked off and pulled in by the Sun’s immense gravity. And in a worst case scenario, we have meteor impacts!

Next, on the list of planets, we have the 4 Jovian planets. They are the gas giants of the solar system. Their surfaces consist of gases with a rocky interior.

Jupiter is the largest of the Jovian planets and the largest one in the solar system. A distinctive feature is the 300-year-old Great Red Spot storm. It is more powerful and more destructive than the ones we have on Earth. And there are 63 moons! The gaseous surface includes mainly helium and hydrogen. Walking on Jupiter would feel like crawling, owing to its massive gravitational force.

Saturn may be the most popular planet with its characteristic rings of ice and crystals. Like Jupiter, Saturn has a lot of moons (62). Its surface also mainly consists of helium and hydrogen. 

Uranus is the oddball of the Jovian planets. Its axis of rotation is tilted, making it a sideways planet. The atmosphere mainly contains ammonia and methane.

Neptune is the final planet of the solar system. It has large wind speeds at 220 km/h. Like Jupiter, Neptune had a storm called the Great Dark Spot. But it has sadly disappeared. 

How about Pluto? It used to be a planet, but it was later taken due to its small size and its irregular orbit. Sad fact: Pluto couldn’t complete its orbit before it was deemed not a planet.

After Neptune, we reach another asteroid belt called the Kuiper Belt.

There’s a hypothetical cloud of ice where comets are believed to come from. It’s called the Oort Cloud (Funny name, isn’t it?)

This concludes our journey of the Solar System… But there’s still more to see…

2. The Milky Way Galaxy

That band of light in the night sky is a cross-sectional view of the Milky Way Galaxy. The small dots are the countless stars that fill it. Our universe is filled with countless galaxies with countless stars.

This is what our galaxy looks like. Notice the spiral arms. They are dense regions of matter (stars, potential planets). There is a black hole with a gargantuan gravitational pull (way stronger than the sun), which causes the shape of this galaxy to form. This type of galaxy is called a spiral galaxy.

 

This is another type of galaxy. An elliptical galaxy.

This type is special. They’re called irregular galaxies. They are formed when two galaxies collide.

Our nearest galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away from us (A light year is a measure of distance. It shows how far light travels in a year)

When we leave the Milky Way, we enter interstellar space. The Voyager 1 space probe is currently there. As we get further away, we see more galaxies. Just imagine… going so far… very far… so far…

You are far from Earth now… And all you can see are colorful stars. Where is the center? Or should I say, is there even one?

3. Deep Space

The Hubble Space Telescope gave us a whole new view of deep space. This is one of the images from it. Now that we are at an isolated distance from home, we can continue with our question: Is there a center to our universe?

Let’s say that you are at one of the stars here. You look around you and see everything. Now you can say that the place where you’re at is the center of the universe. But someone else at another star will argue that their spot is the center of the universe. And someone outside of this image will argue the same thing. No matter where you are, you will always see the universe. So let’s dumb this down. There is no center.

It’s intriguing and at the same time dizzying to contemplate such positioning.

Have you ever heard of how you can travel to the past by looking at the night sky? The speed of light is undoubtedly rapid. But it can take years for light from a distant star to reach us. So by looking at the stars at the night sky, you really are looking at how they used to be. The deeper they are from Earth, the longer it takes for their light to go to us.

We have explored our star system, our galaxy and now deep space. Can we go any further?

4. The limits of our observable universe

Unfortunately, our telescopes have a limit. We can’t see any further from this region.

In 2009, the Planck Satellite was launched and it took a picture of the infant universe. This is the cosmic microwave background. It uses microwaves (Not the one you use for heating food) to detect low-energy light. The light is from the moment where matter first came to existence. The age of the universe is 13.8 billion years. This is how far we can go for now. No telescope has ever penetrated its vision beyond it. This marks the end of our observable universe. But this doesn’t mean the end of the universe as a whole. Maybe one day, we will go beyond this barrier and observe what else is out there.

Epilogue

We have been through the planets of our solar system, the many stars in the Milky Way, the myriad of galaxies in the cosmos and the image of the infant universe. You’ve traveled so far. Be happy about it. And now, it’s time to go back home.

Where are you?

You are a small dot in the sea of space.

You are in the universe, and the universe is in you.

Thank you for reading.

Yes, I am aware that you are already in the universe, but let’s just try to make this exciting!

“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible” – Albert Einstein

Take a good look at everything around you. The blue sky filled with puffy clouds, the green trees that give us fresh air to breathe, the myriad of friends and family who you spend quality time with, the animals and plants in the vast wilderness, it just does not seem to end, does it?

You may think that what’s out there seems too mundane or dull for you to gleam with jubilance. If this is true to you, you must be living under a rock (Not literally of course!).

If you could go out in a clear night sky and look up, you would surely be standing on the ground with an opened mouth and enlarged eyes. There’s still so much for us to explore and comprehend.

Is the sky really the limit? Could we go beyond it? What lies outside there? What is the nature of reality? Why is the universe here in the first place?

 

 

 

If such questions are constantly buzzing around you, then you have come to the right place. We will explore the vast reaches of space and time, explore reality at the quantum scale, discover our origins and the greatest theory that would answer all our questions of the universe, the Theory of Everything. (Do not worry, we will get through that)

 

So are you prepared to take a giant leap into the deepest realms of the universe?

 

*Message from the author: Hello everyone! I apologize if this blog post is quite short. It’s actually my first time writing one. I will guide you through space and time blog post by blog post. Due to my busy schedule, I may not post my next blog entry in a short matter of time. So do stay tuned, and remember, keep on exploring the world around you!