What happened in the early universe?
In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe was extremely hot and dense. As the universe cooled, conditions became just right to give rise to the building blocks of matter – the quarks and electrons of which we are all made.
What was the early universe called?
the Big Bang
About 13.75 billion years ago, all of the contents and energy in the universe was contained in a singularity with infinite density and temperature. It began to expand rapidly and this expansion is known as the Big Bang.
What did the early universe only contain?
Today, the universe is filled with large, complex structures such as planets, stars and galaxies. But more than 13 billion years ago, following the big bang, the early universe was hot, and all that existed were a few types of atoms, mostly helium and hydrogen.
Was there an earlier universe?
The universe did not start with the Big Bang… There was actually a universe already existing before it and the Big Bang was merely the end of that universe, said Nobel laureate Roger Penrose. He added that evidence of that previous universe can still be observed today.
How hot was the early universe?
But during a very brief time window, between 10 to 17 million years after the Big Bang, the temperature of the CMB was about 80 degrees Fahrenheit, or close to room temperature.
What did the early universe look like?
There were no stars, and there were no galaxies. After the Big Bang, the universe was like a hot soup of particles (i.e. protons, neutrons, and electrons). When the universe started cooling, the protons and neutrons began combining into ionized atoms of hydrogen and deuterium. Deuterium further fused into helium-4.
How fast did the early universe expand?
According to inflation theory, during the inflationary epoch about 10−32 of a second after the Big Bang, the universe suddenly expanded, and its volume increased by a factor of at least 1078 (an expansion of distance by a factor of at least 1026 in each of the three dimensions).