Torus: Chapter 4

"The Big Bang occurred around 13.8 billion years ago and it describes the early development of the universe. The universe was a pinprick of energy and that energy blasted outwards in 10^-37 of a second. At that time, the universe was extremely hot and dense and it began expanding rapidly. Even today, the universe is still expanding, not showing any signs of slowing down. After many years, the universe cooled down enough to let some energy to be converted into subatomic particles."


"What are 'subatomic particles'?" Maxina interrupted.

"Particles that are smaller than atoms", George explained.

"What is smaller than an atom?"

"Neutrons, protons and electrons are all smaller than an atom."

Maxina nodded and George continued on.


"Even though many subatomic particles were formed, it took at least thousands of years before electrically neutral atoms were formed. The particles kept smashing into each other in high speed because of the high temperature creating new particles ."


"What does temperature have to do with the speed of things moving?" wondered Maxina.

Inora sighed, "The higher the temperature, the faster particles moved because they have more energy. Duh."

"Yes", George agreed, "The particles had a lot of energy and zoomed across the universe."

"Cool", Maxina replied as Inora rolled her eyes.


"The first elements formed were hydrogen and traces of helium and lithium. Giant clouds if those elements formed stars and many metals were formed inside those stars, exploding into space in a supernova. The metals and new elements coalesced to form planets, asteroids and comets."


"Who made up the Big Bang theory?" Maxina asked, yet again.

"Georges Lemaître first proposed the idea in 1927", responded George.

Inora looked up."I thought Edwin Hubble thought of the Big Bang".

"Wrong," George explained, "Edwin Hubble only expanded on the idea".

Inora pretended not to notice her sister smirking at her.


"Georges Lemaître was a Belgian cosmologist and Catholic priest. However, many astronomers at the time were uncomfortable that the universe is expanding. The idea that the universe started in a bang seemed absurd. In 1927, Lemaître published in Belgium an unnoticed paper that provided a solution to the equations of General Relativity for an expanding universe. By 1930, other cosmologists had concluded that the static models of the universe the cosmologists had worked on for many years were not correct. Furthermore, Edwin Hubble discovered that the distance to far away galaxies were generally proportioned to red shift. With Hubble’s observations, Lemaître paper convinced the majority of astronomers that the universe was indeed expanding."


"Um ..." Olivia asked nervously. "What is red shift?"

"Red shift happens when light and electromagnet radiation from an object moving away from the observer is increased in wavelength so it looks more red," described George, "Like when a high speed train rushes towards you, the pitch of the sound becomes higher."


"A year later, Lemaître explored the logical consequences of an expanding universe. If the universe is expanding, it would have been smaller in the past. Appealing to the new theory of matter, Lemaître proposed that the universe was initially a single particle which he called the "primitive atom" which exploded and expanded. This, my girls, was the birth of the Big Bang theory."

"So what was before the Big Bang?" Olivia questioned.

"There was nothing, just a blank space", said Olivia, exasperated.

"Actually, there was no 'before' and no 'blank space'", George explained.

 Inora and Olivia gave their father a confused look.

"Time was created when the Big Bang happened. 'Before' is a statement about time so there can be no 'before' the Big Bang", George said.

Inora and Olivia still looked confused.

"If I asked you how your brother looks like, what would you say?" George asked.

"Well, we can't answer because we have no brother," Inora answered.

"Exactly!" George exclaimed. "There was no time before the Big Bang so I can't answer what is before the Big Bang. The concept of 'before' simply didn't exist."

"Okay ... ", Olivia said, still confused.



Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5