Science & Spirit CHAPTER 1 - Science of Creation In the beginning, was the end. Our universe was born from the matter of the universe before, and ended as ours inevitably will, within a black hole, a near infinite mass compressed into a singular point with gravity so powerful that even light cannot escape. This is the final destination of all things, as all matter eventually finds its way into a black hole. Once this ultra massive black hole accumulated nearly all matter from the previous universe, it rested. However as black holes radiate energy, this eventually became unstable and released all matter, and anti-matter, in a tremendous Universal explosion, infinitely small and infinitely hot. This was the creation of our universe. As the explosion grew, it cooled. For each increment in which the distance of the explosion doubled, the temperature was reduced by half. Anti-matter rejoin with matter, and much was destroyed. For what remained, the forces of gravity were formed, split from electromagnetism, followed by the strong and weak nuclear forces. As it cooled, matter was formed, in particles such as quarks and leptons. As it cooled further, protons and neutrons formed and joined into nuclei. As the nuclei cooled enough to grab electrons, the first element was formed. The majority of the early universe consisted of pure hydrogen gas, and it was dark. These giant clouds of hydrogen varied in density, and gravity eventually began to compress the denser areas. Hydrogen compressed and swirled and heated until atoms begin to smash together, losing mass and releasing energy to create the ignition of the first stars. This was first light. We know this practice as E=mc^2, or Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. This is the tremendous hidden energy within all matter. We know this process of smashing atoms as fusion, as seen within a hydrogen bomb. Not to be confused with fission, the splitting of an atom, as seen in an atomic bomb. These were the first generation of stars, and they were massive. A star can be imagined as a continuous hydrogen explosion, held stable by its own gravitational force. However because of this, the larger a star becomes, the stronger its gravity will be, and the faster it will exhaustive fuel source. A smaller star such as our own would swell into a red giant after exhausting its hydrogen, unable to fuse the by-product helium into higher elements, and generally release its outer layers into a beautiful nebular cloud. Larger stars have the force to fuse helium into even heavier elements, building up further elements, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, until reaching the endothermic element iron. As iron has the ability to absorb energy, it describes a stars delicate balance between gravity and explosive energy. The giant star collapses under its own gravity, compressing its core into a new black hole. But the speed at which a black hole can absorb matter is limited, and after engulfing too much, it suffers a cosmic hiccup, releasing the remaining energy within the star in a massive cosmic explosion, momentarily releasing more energy than the life within the entire Star. This is a supernova, and it has the ability to outshine entire galaxies. The shock wave of a supernova is so powerful that it is able to use even heavier elements and compress surrounding gas into new stars. This is the second generation. Second generation stars are similar and live longer than first, but their story is relatively the same. The highlight of this era is black holes. The black holes left behind by first generation Stars begin to accumulate, combine, and grow. They continue to consume stars and gas, growing to masses a hundred fold of our own star. The resulting supermassive black holes and gain enough gravitational pull to form the first galaxies. Always consuming, they continue to engulf further gas, dust, stars, and smaller black holes until they reach their limit, and burst forth an explosive amount of energy known as a quasar. A quasar is the brightest light source in the universe. It can be imagined as a prolonged supernova on a galactic scale. As excess energy is expelled from the poles of the super massive black hole, gas and dust are pushed away to create a disk shaped spiral galaxy. Once the spiral has stabilized, less matter falls into the active black hole at galactic center, and the quasar calms down. As second generation stars exhaust fuel and explode as supernovas, higher elements are fused together further, and neighboring gas clouds are again compressed to form new stars. This is the third generation of stars and include our own sun. These stars are again smaller and live longer, but are also the most likely to form terrestrial planets with the correct balance of light and heavy elements required to sustain higher forms of life. As gas and dust swirled and compressed to form our own star, a disc of material was left behind, the dusty building blocks that would eventually coalesce to form the planets we see in the solar system today. As gravity pulls smaller dust particles into larger ones, they grow. Initially the size of pedals, they collect into the size of stones, boulders, and mountains. What begins as trillions of objects becomes billions, then millions, then thousands. Small planetoid objects smash together again and again, sometimes growing larger, sometimes destroying each other in the process. Once the planetoids grow beyond 500 kilometers across, internal gravity compresses the objects into spiracle shapes, heating the center into a molten core. Heavy elements sink to the center, lighter elements raised to the crust. This molten metal core is what creates a planets electromagnetic field, protecting the planet from solar storms and allowing life to grow. Eventually our celestial bodies settled into orbits near their current location today. Within the inner solar system, rocky planets are standard, as left over gas is blown away by solar winds. In the outer solar system, rocky bodies collect vast amounts of gas, growing into gas giants. But these circumstances alone were not enough to produce be intelligent life we see today. Our inner solar system initially consisted of at least five proto planets, not the four we see today. Our own earth shared its orbit with another planet, and the two inevitably collided. The collision occurred not head on, but slightly angled, allowing our planet to survive while the other was destroyed. The Earths crust was ejected into space, while the proto planets molten core merged with our own. This important incident resulted in three attributes which separate the earth as a planet hospitable for life. The first was a thin crust, allowing plate tectonics to move the continents through various climates and continuously changing the landscape. The second was a larger core, which provides us with a stronger electro-magnetic field to protect the Earth from solar radiation. The third was our moon. Our moon formed from the leftover material from the earths crust ejected into orbit. As it coalesced, it formed so large that we are technically a double planet system. As a result, the tilt of our planet has been stabilized, allowing us a predictable and stable environment. But it also created title forces which were vital to our evolution onto land. As the earth cooled, comets and asteroids delivered water and trace heavy metals, as well as amino acids used to spark cellular life. Slowly, multicellular life begin to thrive in our oceans. At this point in time, the moon was much closer than it is today. And tidal forces were much stronger. The difference between high and low tides could be as much as a thousand miles along the coast, leaving millions of pools at low tide, teeming with life. It was in these pools we developed the evolutionary advantage is that allowed us to step out of the water, and onto land. Across the universe, stars are grouped together in galaxies, and galaxy clusters, and super clusters, creating a web, containing many similarities to our own brains neural network. There are often strange commonalities between the very large and small. Perhaps our universe is alive, a single living consciousness, a universal brain. With stars acting as atoms and planets as electrons. There has been much debate on why the universe is expanding, but much less confusion if it is instead imagined as growing. Perhaps our individual consciousness is a stone piece of the universal collective, and perhaps just as we live within a larger universal brain, there is a smaller universe within every one of us. A fractal universe. We are all part of a bigger, and smaller, system.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 00:09:54 +0000
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