Origin of the Universe

According to astronomers, in the beginning, there was no need for geology

because there were no rocks, minerals, or Earth. There were no stars
or galaxies. In the beginning, the universe did not exist. In the 1920s, in
response to Hubble’s discovery that the universe was expanding, Georges
Lemaître proposed that the universe must have originally been compressed
into a golf ball–sized sphere he called the primeval atom. Because of the
conditions of temperature and pressure that would have existed in such a
sphere, matter as we know it could not exist. What existed within the sphere
were basic atomic particles called quarks.

Another theory proposes that the entire universe was contained within a
dimensionless point called a singularity containing only energy. Current
estimates indicate that about 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was
created by an event commonly referred to as the Big Bang. In the case of
the primeval atom, the quarks were released into space in all
directions. Instantly, quarks bonded to make the fundamental components of
atoms, protons, neutrons, and electrons. In the case of the singularity, energy
was converted into matter, according to the Einsteinian equation E = mc , in
2

the form of quarks.

Following the Big Bang, protons, neutrons, and electrons combined to create
hydrogen atoms. As the hydrogen bubble grew and roared out into space,
bundles of hydrogen gas atoms, attracted by the force of gravity, began
to rotate and to collapse along their rotational axes. As the rotating mass
collapsed, some of the gravitational energy was converted to heat. When
temperatures within the core of the collapsing mass rose to about 15 million
degrees, a thermonuclear reaction was initiated that converted hydrogen
atoms into helium atoms.
After a million or so years, the stars within the expanding mass of hydrogen
gas became so numerous that they began to be attracted into huge groups
called galaxies. Eventually, billions of galaxies were created. Although
galaxies take on different shapes, most galaxies are discus-shaped as a result
of their rotation, with most of the stars concentrated in the center. Our galaxy
is the Milky Way. Earth is located on the outer edge of this galaxy.
It is estimated that the universe contains about 100 billion galaxies, all
rotating on their axes, all rotating around some point in space, and all moving
away from each other as the universe expands. The question that now arises
is whether or not the universe will continue forever. According to
astronomers, the fate of the universe depends on the total amount of matter it
contains.

The problem is that the total amount of matter in the universe is unknown,
primarily because much (if not most) of it, what is called dark matter, cannot
be seen. What will ultimately happen depends on the relationship between
the total mass of the universe and an amount of mass called the critical mass.
If the sum of the known and dark matter is less than the critical mass, the
universe will expand forever. This scenario is called an open universe. If the
sum of the known and dark matter exceeds the critical mass, the universe
will collapse back to either another primeval atom or a singularity that will
undergo another Big Bang. If the sum of the known and dark matter equals
the critical mass, the universe may stop expanding but will never collapse.
This scenario is called a open universe. Stars play a critical role in the
formation of all matter as we know it, including Earth and her sister planets.
A star is a thermonuclear reaction in which four hydrogen atoms bond
together to make one helium atom; the residual mass is converted to energy
and released.
Stars are classified into four groups based on mass, using the mass of the
Sun, representing 1 solar mass (SM), as the yardstick.
• Flyweight stars are those with less than 0.5 SM.
• Lightweight stars are those with masses from 0.5 SM to about 4 SM.
At 1 SM, our Sun is a relatively small lightweight star.
• Middleweight stars range from 4 SM to 8 SM.
• Heavyweight stars are those in excess of 8 SM.
Stars are fires, but like any fire, eventually, the fuel will be exhausted and
the fire will go out. All stars, therefore, have a life expectancy that can be
calculated. The life expectancy of a star is inverse to its mass, with Flyweight
stars existing for 55 billion years and the most massive stars lasting only a
few million years. With a life expectancy nearly four times longer than the
estimated age of the universe, all the Flyweight stars ever created still exist.

Stars spend 95% of their lives as main-sequence stars, consuming hydrogen

and converting it to helium while releasing enormous amounts of energy. As
hydrogen is converted to more massive helium atoms and a star becomes
helium-rich, the core of the star undergoes gravitational collapse and begins
to heat up.
In the case of a Flyweight star, the core will collapse and create a star called a
white dwarf. “White” refers to the fact that the star is white-hot, and “dwarf”
refers to its relatively small size, about the size of Earth (approximately 8,000
miles in diameter). Once in the white dwarf stage, the Flyweight star
continues to consume whatever fuel may remain and will burn out after a
very long period of time.
In the case of the larger stars, as the core collapses, the shell will expand to as
much as 100 times its original diameter to become a red giant. At this stage,
helium starts to be converted into bigger atoms, and carbon and oxygen,
among other elements, are generated. All life as we know it is based on
carbon products. Every atom in your body was created in the red giant phase
of a star’s death. The same is true of the oxygen we breathe; plants release
oxygen, but they do not create it.
A star massive enough to create an iron-rich core may collapse
catastrophically within a few seconds and explode to form a supernova.
During a supernova, all of the remaining 92 natural elements are created. The
core of the original massive star may further collapse to become a neutron
star. If the core is quite massive, the star may collapse into a structure with a
force of gravity so great that nothing, not even light, can escape from it. Of
course, these structures are called black holes. Following the supernova, the
remains of the star are dispersed into interstellar space to form cosmic dust
that consists of particles of metals, minerals, rock, and frozen gases referred
to collectively as ices. Basically, dark matter is cosmic dust. It will be from
this mixture that future planets form.
To form planets, a new star must be created within a cloud of cosmic dust. It
is theorized that the energy from a nearby supernova sets a mass of hydrogen
into rotational collapse to create a new star. The newly formed star has a
magnetic field that attracts cosmic dust. The rotation of the star sets the
surrounding cloud of cosmic dust into rotational collapse that eventually
generates a disc of cosmic dust extending outward from the star’s ecliptic.
Simultaneous with the collapse of the dust cloud, the solar wind (high-energy
particles) emitted from the star segregates the cosmic dust by driving the low-
density ices to the outer periphery of the disc while retaining the higher-
density metals, minerals, and rock closer to the star.

In time, eddy currents form within the dust disc. Inside the eddy currents,
cosmic dust starts to rotate and collapse toward the center. Gravitational
attraction within the dust disc causes the bits of dust and ices to collide
to form ever-increasing particle sizes. Eventually, the particles become
planetesimals. These also collide, taking on a spherical shape and forming
protoplanets.

The protoplanets nearest the star are composed of metals, minerals, and
rock fragments, while the outermost protoplanets are composed mainly of
the lower-density ices and gases. As the protoplanets orbit the star, they
continue to grow in mass as the remaining planetesimals plunge to their
surfaces. Eventually, the mass of the protoplanets is large enough to initiate
a gravitational collapse, which generates temperatures sufficiently high to
cause internal melting.

Once melting begins, molten materials start to segregate based on density.

The densest material settles to the center to form a core overlain by
successive layers of decreasing density. The density segregation of
components results in the conversion of a protoplanet to a planet. The planets
nearest the star are composed of the densest material—the metals, minerals,
and rock while the planets most distant from the star consist of frozen gases.
Our solar system consists of a lightweight star surrounded by nine known
planets possessing more than 31 satellites (“moons”), millions of asteroids,
probably billions of meteoroids, and about 100 known comets.

The four innermost planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are grouped

together as the terrestrial planets because of certain similarities. Because of
its near absence of an atmosphere, Mercury is characterized by having the
greatest range of temperatures from day to night. Venus is the brightest planet
due to its thick cloud cover, which reflects light from the Sun. The clouds
surrounding Venus are primarily carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that keeps
the planet’s temperature at about 485° C. Surface features on Mars indicate
quite clearly that water existed on the Martian surface sometime during its
primeval history. Like Earth, they’re all relatively small, ranging from 3,000
to 8,000 miles in diameter, and they all have an average density of about
6 gm/cm3.
The outer planets, including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are
collectively called the Jovian planets. The Jovian planets are giants, ranging
in diameter from Neptune, at about 31,000 miles, to Jupiter, at nearly 90,000
miles. Because they are composed of frozen gases, the densities of the
Jovian planets are low, ranging from 0.7 gm/cm3 for Saturn to 1.7 gm/cm3
for Neptune.
The asteroids are relatively small, odd-shaped rocks that orbit the Sun
between the orbitals of Mars and Jupiter, the largest being about 700 miles
long. Originally thought to be the remains of a terrestrial-type planet that
once existed between Mars and Jupiter and was struck by some object, they
are now thought to be planetesimals that would have formed terrestrialtype
planets had they not been prevented from coalescing by the opposing
gravitational forces of Jupiter and the Sun. Millions, possibly billions, of
meteoroids roam randomly through the solar system. A meteor is the streak
of light that Flashes across the sky when a meteoroid or meteorite plunges
into Earth’s atmosphere. (The term “meteoroid” is used for these objects in
space; “meteorite” is used when they land on Earth.) Most meteoroids never
survive the trip, but it is still estimated that thousands of meteoroids plunge
into Earth’s atmosphere every year.

Fortunately, those that survive to become meteorites are few and small.
Meteorites are of three basic types: stony meteorites, iron meteorites, and
stony-iron meteorites. Stony meteorites seem to be the most abundant. The
frequency of meteorite impacts on Earth has decreased from the primeval
days, when impact craters were as numerous as those now seen on the Moon.
On Earth, most of the early impact craters have been removed by weathering
and erosion. The last major meteorite impacted Earth about 50,000 years
ago in what is now the northeastern corner of Arizona to form the Barringer
Crater, commonly referred to as Meteor Crater.

A ninth planet, Pluto, is not believed to be one of the original planets but
rather an object from deep space that was captured by the gravitational pull of
the Sun. Pluto has a highly elliptical orbit that is inclined about 17º to the
ecliptic within which all the other planets orbit the Sun. Pluto doesn’t seem
to fit anywhere in the solar system’s picture.
Comets are thought to consist mostly of ice with interspersed particles of
rock. One of the foremost astronomers of the last century, Fred Whipple,
called them “dirty snowballs.” The Belgian astronomer Jan Oort proposed
that the comets originated in a layer that surrounds the solar system at a
distance of about two light years, now called the Oort cloud. More recent
studies have suggested that comets travel around the Sun in huge elliptical
orbits. As a comet passes near the Sun, the solar wind causes the material
facing the Sun to vaporize and ionize and be driven away from the Sun,
forming the characteristic tail. Unlike the tails of meteoroids plunging into
Earth’s atmosphere, the tails of comets always point away from the Sun.
The impacts of comets are pretty rare. We think one crashed into the Gulf of
Mexico around 60 million years ago, and this one is reported to have given
the death knell to the dinosaurs. Another one came down in Siberia in 1912.