COS - Early Universe LESSON

Early Universe

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If we assume that the universe is expanding, then we can infer back to a more compact universe. If we assume these conditions back to a singularity then we can determine even more about what the early universe was probably like. There is, of course, scientific data to support both these assumptions. We can gather data back to this point 370,000 years after the Big Bang.
The universe became transparent, which means we can measure some forms of energy left over from this time period. Images from WMAP (seen below) shows that even this long ago, the matter in the universe was starting to clump up. Originally this would have been due to random motion of the particles but after the separation began, gravity would continue the process. So, what happened before the time that we can see?

The earliest moments of the universe involved rapid expansion called inflation. Elements would not exist because protons and neutrons could not combine to form nuclei. As the universe began to cool, light elements, then heavier elements would form. It is hard to imagine that most of the light elements and many of the heavier elements up to iron would have been created in only minutes after the Big Bang began.
This explains the abundance of hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen is the result of protons that never had time to fuse with other protons, and helium is the result of only a simple fusion of two protons and two neutrons.

 

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