1. The Big Bang’s Baby Book of the Universe

2. Snapshot of the Life Story of the Universe

3. Time =0  From nothing, a speck of light appeared - almost infinitely hot § Inside it was all of space § It was the birth of time § There was no matter, but we got a bouncing bundle of particles and antiparticles, which appeared and immediately annihilated § This annihilation resulted in the release of energy that kept the temperature high.

4. Time = 10 -36 to 10 -32 seconds  Inflation; The Big blowup § Size of the Universe increased by trillion trillion trillion trillion times § Reason today's Universe is so big and so uniform § Nearly all the mass in current Universe was made, not necessarily in form we recognize today

5. Time = 10 -32 to 10 -8 seconds § Temperature of Universe soared, which fueled a flurry of particle~antiparticle creation § Many massive particles came into being; mini black holes & cosmic strings too  This particle soup would have been a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion times denser than water.

6. Time = 10 -32 to 10 -8 seconds (cont’d) Particles formed included: § quarks § leptons § massive WIMPS § X bosons § Higgs Bosons § magnetic monopoles § "Messenger" particles -gluons, photons, W and Z bosons, and gravitons

7. Time = 10 -8 to a few seconds § The particles started on a cannibalistic feeding frenzy § Particles and their antiparticles annihilated each other, releasing a flood of radiation  The radiation created new particle-antiparticle pairs

8. Time = 10 -8 to a few seconds (cont’d) § In the end, radiation weakened …stopped creating pairs; a slight surplus of matter won the war § In the end, protons, neutrons, electrons, and neutrinos were all there  In the end, the density of matter in the Universe was only a million times that of water

9. Time = a few seconds to a few years § The young Universe was cooling fast -it could build things § By the end of the first 3 minutes; -hydrogen, helium, and lithium made - the density was now about 10 times that of water

10. Cosmic Abundances

11. Time = a few seconds to a few years (cont’d) § In the beginning; equal numbers of protons and neutrons § But neutrons are unstable -they decay into protons -Result: protons have upper hand § Proportions of the early elements created: -77% hydrogen to 23% helium  At the age of about 20 minutes, the density fell below water.

12. Time = a few years to a few hundreds of thousands of years § The Universe relaxes § The foggy, opaque mass expands and cools §Universe was still busy however l When the temperature dropped below 5500 °F (3000°C), electrons combine with nuclei forming atoms.

13. Time = a few years to a few hundreds of thousands of years (cont’d) § Light now had free passage -before it was blocked by electrons § At about 300,000 years, the Universe became transparent § Looking back to that instant, radio (microwave) telescopes can see the divide -opaque wall of the dying fireball of the big bang

14. Cosmic Microwave Background COBE DMR Image

15. Time = a few hundred thousand years to a few hundred million years § The cosmic fog disperses as Universe continued to expand and cool § Freed from the domination of radiation; -matter formed -matter developed into structures §Dark Matter led the way, shepherding hydrogen, helium, and lithium into dense clumps; -seeds of galaxies and stars

16. Time = a few billion years to 14 billion years § Most galaxies went through a period as quasars before settling down to become placid cities of stars § Note: In a quiet suburb of such a city about 4.6 billion years ago, an ordinary star began its life, along with some planets and … eventually us! § Stars took up the process of making elements -forging helium from hydrogen, carbon from helium, and beyond

17. Time = 14 billion years to 10 trillion years § Stars will use up all their fuel (hydrogen gas) -will become white/black dwarfs, neutron stars, or black holes -only heavy elements, which cannot fuel stars, will remain § Galaxies hang on to dead stars which orbit supermassive black holes  Mini black holes, formed in the big bang, explode in puffs of radiation

18. Time = a Long, Long Time from Now  The Universe will expand forever § In each galaxy, star corpses will either -be sucked into the central black hole -be flung out into space § Black holes will eventually decay into radiation, probably exploding in the end -spraying subatomic particles into space  The Universe will become darker and darker as stars die, matter decays, and black holes explode and fade.

19. Time = a Long, Long Time from Now (cont’d) § At the very end, the tiny particles born in the big bang will have the last say § The infinite future will be one of a bitterly cold expanse -thinly populated with electrons, positrons, neutrinos, and the elusive WIMPs.

20. Obituary After a hectic early Childhood (i.e., the first 3 seconds), the Universe settled down for a Long and productive life. Underweight, in the end it froze to death. It leaves no survivors.