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| At present the best scientific theory for the origin of our Universe, is the Big Bang theory. The theory tell us that the Universe came into existence from a explosion at a finite time in the past, where all matter and space was no larger than a atom, which expanded rapidly first forming the basic building blocks of matter, such as electrons and protons, which then came together to form hydrogen. Once there was hydrogen, matter started to condense into stars and Galaxies. These early galaxies where mostly formed from stars which were fast burning blue stars that eventually exploded after fusing all their hydrogen into heavier elements, such as helium. Once the stars burned up their fuel they exploded, into what is known as supernovae, which for a few hours outshines all the stars in the galaxy. From the explosion even heavier elements are formed such as carbon - one of the building blocks of life. The matter thrown into space by the stars, formed new stars and planets, which could result in the formation of a solar system like our own. The Universe has been expanding for the last 10 to 20 billion years. However, scientists hope that this ever increasing size of the universe will eventually stop, by the collective gravitational pull of all the matter within the Universe, resulting in the galaxies to fall towards each other and collapsing to a finite point again, called the Big Crunch - which is the reverse of the Big Bang. Then the whole process would start all over again. The reason scientists hope this will happen, is, the stars and our Sun will eventually run out of fuel which sustains life and leaving the Universe to become a cold and dark place. |
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