SUMMARIZING WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE BIG BANG. Ross Pomeroy summarizes the astounding facts that we know about the Big Bang. Again, I have rearranged the quote to demonstrate the detail with which we know what happened 13.8 billion years ago.
“Somewhere around 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe began with a bang.”
We know that: “in less than a second, the four fundamental forces — electromagnetism, gravitation, weak nuclear interaction, and strong nuclear interaction — which initially were joined as a single even more fundamental force, separated.”
We know that: “still within that first second, the Universe started to expand at an exponential rate. Cosmic inflation had begun.”
We know that: “A little later, but still within this initial second, tiny particles called hadrons formed, and neutrinos ceased to interact with other particles.
We know that: “For the next ten seconds, particles called leptons dominated. Their short-lived rule gave way to photons, which governed for approximately 380,000 years. Newly formed atoms of hydrogen and helium took over next, but it wasn’t until around 559 million years later that stars began to shine by fusing them together.”
Notice all that we know about what happened in that first second, over 13 billion years ago.