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The Beginning of the Universe: How the Big Bang Changed Everything?
The history of the universe is like a magnificent picture scroll, which began with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. This event not only opened the prelude to time and space, but also profoundly changed the structure of the universe and its future development direction. Through continuous observation and research, scientists have outlined a five-stage cosmic history for us, from the initial darkness to the current dense starry sky, which has changed its appearance over time.
"In the moments after the Big Bang, the universe expanded to an unimaginable size, subsequently forming the galaxies and planets we see today."
Phase 1: The Very Early Universe
In the first picoseconds after the Big Bang, the entire universe was filled with extremely high energy and temperature, and the laws of physics at this time may not apply. As the universe expanded, the four fundamental forces of gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force emerged one after another. The tiny fluctuations at this stage will lay the foundation for the future structure of the universe. Although scientists are currently unable to conduct experimental tests on this, the conditions inferred through known physical laws allow us to glimpse the dawn of the universe.
Phase 2: The Early Universe
From about one second to 380,000 years later, the universe continued to cool, its energy gradually decreased, and various subatomic particles were formed one after another. These particles contained almost equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but most of them annihilated each other, leaving only trace amounts of matter to persist today. Around 370,000 years ago, the formation of neutral hydrogen atoms marked the first transparency of the universe, and the subsequent release of photons formed the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) that can still be detected today, which records the face of the universe in its infancy.
"The transparent reconstruction gives us our first glimpse into the history of the universe."
Phase 3: Dark Ages and the Formation of Large-Scale Structures
This period lasted until about 1 billion years ago, when the universe formed stars and galaxies from hydrogen clouds, but entered a dark age due to a lack of light. About 200 to 500 million years ago, the first galaxies and stars began to form, and their formation rapidly changed the face of the universe. High-energy photons from early stars and dwarf galaxies led to the advent of the Reionization Period, which ultimately caused the universe to transition to the modern form we see today.
Stage 4: The Universe Today
After about 1.28 billion years of development, the appearance of the universe became basically stable, similar to what it is today. It wasn't until about 5 billion years ago that our Milky Way galaxy began to form, laying the foundation for the origin of life. During this period, the expansion rate of the universe depends on the interaction between matter and dark energy. The dominance of dark energy causes the expansion rate to gradually accelerate, heralding infinite extension in the future.
"The expansion of the universe and the dominance of dark energy will change the future outcome of the universe."
Stage 5: The distant future
Someday in the future, the era of star formation will end and the expansion of the universe will make it impossible to observe more than just the local galaxy. As for the ultimate fate of the universe, there are currently many hypotheses, and some theories even predict the possibility of a "big rip." Of course, these hypotheses will become more specific as more is learned about the current universe.
During the evolution of the universe, we keep asking ourselves: Is the future of the universe already determined?
