THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM! Before I start this thread, I want to say the aim of this thread is for me to tell a story, the story of the universe. If one wants to debate the legitimacy of the story, then they can go to the previous thread, which was converted into controversial. Debate there, not here. This thread will have semi-consistent updates.Any posts attempting to debate the legitimacy of the Big Bang Theory will be reported for failing to comply with the disclaimer and the wishes of the OP. Any other comments/factchecks are welcome. The Universe was born in an event called the "Big Bang". Before this event, it is unknown whether Space and Time can even be applied. Actually, we know that Time and Space as we know them cannot be applied. We know nothing about what came "before"(if before is even applicable) this event, not even on whether Time, Space and Physics apply and exist as we know them. It is speculated what came "before" (if such a concept can even exist) was a "Singularity", containing all the Energy that has ever been, is now, and ever will be. In this "Singularity", the model of Reality we have now fails. General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics simply fails to adequately explain what the Singularity is. It existed, that is all we know. It was there.But then, something happened. Something very important. Something that would become everything.It is unknown what happened.It is unknown why it happened.It is unknown how it happened.All we know is that before, there was nothing.Then, there was everything.Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Universe.You live here, in this vast expanse. But it wasn't always this way.Enjoy your stay; I'll explain a bit about how this place came to be, and how it is, and how it will end.Right this way, reader.I have a story to tell.The biggest story that ever was, and ever will be.The Story of Everything.
Alright.The next second or so in the Universal timeline is... quite speculative.We're still figuring this thing out. We don't know everything about this. And I'll need to use some pretty small numbers here.Do you know about Scientific Notation? If not, here's a crash course.x^y means you multiply x y times.For example, 10^2 is 100. 10^3 is 1000.x^-y means you divide x y times.For example, 10^-2 is 0.01. 10^-3 is 0.001.Now that you understand Scientific notation, we can truly begin.
The next second or so...ah.If you blinked, even once, you would have missed so much.Good Times.It was fun, even if I understood nothing that was happening. The Joy of Creation.Anyway, the Universe was expanding. Rapidly.At roughly 10^-43 seconds, before the Planck Second had passed, we speculate a Force existed in the Universe. This Force, existing due to the unimaginably hot temperatures of the Era, were Gravity, the Strong Force, the Weak Force, and Electromagnetism united as one. It's probable they're all just aspects of the same Force. Keep an eye on Gravity. It becomes very important later. At this point, Gravity breaks away from the others and becomes its own Force.At the 10^-36 second, the Strong Force also broke away from the now Electronuclear Force; what remains after this is now the Electroweak Force. Then that broke apart too, after the whole inflation deal.At some point, the Universe started expanding. Rapidly. It expanded exponentially, making it bigger. A lot bigger. I don't know what happened. But it got bigger. A lot bigger.After this, the Universe was filled with something called "Quark-Gluon Plasma". This was a soup of Quarks and Gluons, Gluons being the Carrier of the Strong Force. Its manifestation given form, if you will. But the thing is, the Quarks and matter were a Soup of Matter and Antimatter, in ostensibly equal amounts. This means they should have continuously destroyed each other as the universe expanded, leaving the Universe all but Energy.But it didn't.Instead, something broke the symmetry. We don't know what, but there wound up being more Matter than Antimatter.This is called "Baryogenesis."In 10^-6 seconds, there were a lot of Baryons and Mesons. Baryons are a type of matter created by 3 quarks, and Mesons are a type of matter created by 2. There are more details, but I won't get into it. Some of your favorite Baryons are the Proton and Neutron. All the Mesons are unstable. Then they all destroyed each other, as mentioned above, and only a bit of Matter remained. The same thing happened with the Leptons, after about 1 second after the Big Bang. Some of your favorite Leptons are the Electron and Neutrino Trio.Don't worry. At about this stage of the Universe, we can finally simulate this stuff in a lab! Yay?
Haha, the next few hundred thousand years were unimaginably boring.Protons, Neutrons, they were already fully formed into things like Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium and just a dash of Beryllium. Nucleosynthesis, in the forge of the Universe. But nothing interesting. I was there, you know. I saw it happen. It was all so fast. I was there, but being there does not allow one to know everything.Sorry, I'm monologuing again.Well, it wasn't that boring. There was an invisible war going on.Gravity, weakest of the fundamental forces, and Dark Energy, the force pulling spacetime apart.Dark Energy, which is still quite a mystery in these days, overwhelmed Gravity in the whole. But Gravity did not give up so easily, no. It fought back and managed to assemble... little clumps of Gas. But those clumps of Gas would be far more influential than you would expect. These clumps would assemble into the Superclusters of today.But other than that, nothing really impressive happened.Things get fun soon. The Electron comes into play.
377,000 years. It's been a while.The Universe undergoes a paradigm shift.Finally, the Electron can combine with the Nuclei that spin around the Universe. Before this, all Ordinary matter was Plasma. Now, the Atom can begin to exist, and all the states of matter as we know them.At the same time, the Photons started moving freely. Moving... long distances. I have to correct a factual error; this was the time period in which the soft white light dominated. I couldn't see anything, but just know it was beautiful. Not that you could see it, the sheer temperatures would destroy one's body. Good thing my form is not dependent on Ordinary matter. (OOC: I am not going crazy, this is just thepersona.)As this goes on, the Universe enters a dark era.The thing is, as the Photons dissipate, there are no light sources in the universe that produces Photons, so there are no Photons to see. The next 150 million years are the most boring in the Universe. It is dark, if reasonably warm. Some speculate the background temperatures could allow for life, as some of the first stars create a Solar System that is hospitable for living beings. Of course, that is all hypothetical. In addition, stars likely did not exist in the times where background temperatures could support life.Other than this, there is nothing special about the Dark Era.But soon, things will get truly exciting.Soon, you will meet the Star.
so are you writing this with a storyline too or do you believe its 100% realistic? just trying to understand your perspective.
The Star. The stars in the early universe were different from the stars you have now. They, for example only consisted of Hydrogen and Helium. Some stars in the era were much bigger than the ones that exist in the present day. I think I should take a moment to explain what stars are, precisely. They are, technically speaking, very hot balls of Plasma. But there are a lot more to them than just that. They are immense stellar furnaces, fusing Hydrogen into Helium. They have different ways of doing that. After thus, massive stars used the Proton-Proton Chain. Two Hydrogens combine into Deuterium, the Neutron-Hydrogen variant of Hydrogen. Repeat this twice. Combine said two Deuterium Nuclei with Protons, one each. Get Helium-3, 2 each. Smash those two Helium-3s together, get 1 Helium-4 and 2 protons. There is some energy being released during this process, as the mass is converted into energy according to E=mc^2. This is the simplest and most easy to explain version. Other versions exist that allow for the creation of heavier elements, and from this comes the Carbon-Neon-Oxygen cycle. This cycle cycles between Carbon, Neon and Oxygen, all while producing Helium and consuming Hydrogen. There are also variants to this. All the heat that comes from this process fights Gravitational Collapse, which would turn the star into a black hole if uncontrolled. They come to an equilibrium, as if Gravity started dominating, Fusion would ignite harder and balance it. If Fusion started dominating, the star would expand, and Fusion would weaken. But Stars... they run out of Hydrogen, sooner or later. This means they switch to... other methods. They fuse Helium that came out of the Fusion process. A few million years is bought, at best. But now, the star is on a path to doom. If they are small, then they die quickly, here. They expand rapidly into Red Giants. They eject their own atmospheres, and dies a quiet death as a dead core, slowly cooling. But if they are big, above 9 solar masses... They start fusing Carbon. It is of note that each fusion of these elements create less and less energy. The measure of control a star has over its own mass is dropping, and it is becoming more and more unstable. The core is repeatedly collapsing in order to fuse these heavier elements. Holds off the end for a thousand years. Then, Neon. A few decades, if the star is lucky. Then, Oxygen. A few years. Then, Silicon. A day or so. Then, Iron. But something is different about this new element. Remember how I said that each element creates less and less energy? Well, Iron consumes it. What follows is probably the most beautiful catastrophic chain of events, ever. I said earlier that the Star has equilibrium because the Star has energy to sustain its stability, correct? Well, now that energy is gone. The core collapses into Subatomic Soup, creating lots of Subatomic Particles. The Outer layers fall to join the Core, but the Core, just for a moment, rebounds and bounces, as the Subatomic particles blast outwards from the Soupification of the Iron. This results in the Outer Layers undergoing furious amounts of fusion, creating heavier elements. But all that energy from fusion has to go somewhere. Out. The end result is this thing, which outshines its entire Galaxy for some time. And thus, stellar matter is returned to the Universe for other Stars to be created. It's beautiful, if catastrophic. I've seen my fair share of these things. Never gets old. But the Core remains. This turns into a Black Hole, or a Neutron Star. I will explain these things soon, stay tuned. Some intelligent readers may be wondering: what about the material that remains in these remnants? Or the material used during fusion? Don't they not return to the Universe? You would be right. Keep that in mind, that becomes very, very important later in the story. (Yes, that is not a Supernova, but in fact a very unstable Star about to go Supennova. It's the best picture I can find on imgur that illustrates the beauty and scale of a Supernova.)
If you like this stuff, i highly recommend this channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Suspicious0bservers/featured daily space news, global weather etc. Also has many eye opening stuff on the sun especially how the sun control earthquake upticks. he can predict them quite accurately too. this is his quake watch site. https://quakewatch.net/ theres info there about how it works and the research behind it if that interests anyone
The Neutron Star. If I want to explain what the Neutron star is, I first have to explain electron degeneracy pressure. Electron Degeneracy Pressure is the natural tendency for Electrons to dislike being crushed against each other. In White Dwarves, this is what holds it up. In Neutron Stars, the Electron Degeneracy Pressure fails to stop Gravity, due to the fact that the core is too massive at above 1.4 Solar masses. This is why small stars don't become Neutron Stars, but instead white dwarves. Then what stops it from collapsing infinitely? Neutron Degeneracy Pressure. This is far more powerful than its Electron Counterpart, and can stop a much larger object, up to 3 solar masses. Neutron stars are very hot. As the massive energy of a dying star is collapsed into a very tiny sphere, all the heat is condensed into Gamma Rays and other types of High-Energy Radiation. Their magnetic fields are also extreme, as the entire magnetic field of the former stars are concentrated into one, very hot ball of neutron matter. Their rotation is extreme, for the same reasons. This all results in something interesting. Some Neutron Stars rotate and have such strong magnetic fields that their emit electromagnetic radiation in one direction, in a very concentrated manner. They are called Pulsars. Magnetars are especially magnetic Neutron Stars. Some Neutron Stars have a field of 1,000 Tesla. 16 Tesla is sufficient to levitate a frog. Others have fields like 100,000,000 Tesla, the lower limit for magnetars. Some of the most powerful Magnetars have fields up to 10^11 Tesla. Magnetic fields from 10^8 to 1^11 is enough to create matter, and frequently do so. The field is so strong sometimes it buckles the crust. Keep in mind the Crusts are very, very dense. Now, anything that results in the Neutron Star sustaining damage in any way is highly catastrophic. They have a very durable crust, and when the crusts break or shift apart (quake) their rotational speeds go up, because the volume always goes down in a quake.These things have such a strong Gravity that at this point, the effects of General Relativity cannot be ignored. Previously the standard model did the job well, but Gravity is becoming incredibly powerful and immense gravitational lensing occurs, the Neutron Star bending Space and Time around it. Don't be scared. You've haven't seen nothing yet, I have. It chills my non-existent spine. In all seriousness, it scares me.But the real shows are when they collide.When these aberrations collide, they either create a more massive Neutron Star or a Black Hole, but that's not all.They blast outwards probably one of the most frightening, and perhaps weaponizable things in the Universe. Yes, you heard me right. Weaponizable. They create immense rays of Gamma Radiation that are quite thin and won't destroy everything in a certain radius, like the Supernova. If one could aim it, all life on whatever it hits would be eviscerated. They are called Gamma-Ray Bursts. They have a lethality radius of about... 30-light years. There are a couple possible that are within that range of your planet, but that's okay, since none of them are pointed at you! I think. Next time, it's on the White and Brown Dwarves!
The Brown and White Dwarves are both very sad. The Brown Dwarf is a failed star, simply not massive enough to initiate Nuclear Fusion. I have to explain a bit about Stellar Creation, so here goes. When a large cloud of Interstellar Gases (Mostly Hydrogen and Helium) collapses, it does so into multiple fragments. They, in turn compete to absorb more gas in accretion disks. It is unknown how the material from such falls into the star, but it does. This is called a Protostar. Then, one of them initiates Nuclear Fusion. Not the Hydrogen Fusion, mind you. Lithium Fusion, requiring much lower temperatures. This allows the Star to create great temperatures. Then, Hydrogen Burning begins, and the Protostar becomes a true star, that will walk down one of the aforementioned fates. But for a Brown Dwarf, it doesn't. Instead, it stalls. Hydrogen Fusion doesn't begin. And then the Lithium runs out. What remains is a sad husk, a cooling ball of gas. With no more Lithium to fuse, it is nothing more than an especially large planet other than the fact they are a lot hotter. Maybe they were just a runt in stellar creation; either way, they don't fuse anything. There is still hope for them. They could, for example accrue more gas from Space and truly begin again, as a Star. Or they could collide with another one of its kind and become large enough to initiate Fusion. For the White Dwarf, there is no such hope. These things are the cores and remnants of stars, packed into a sphere the size of a Planet, below the mass limit to become a Neutron Star. They sit in space, cooling, forever. As long as they don't collide with another of their kind or accrue gas, they will sit there and slowly die. If they do die, they will become the Black Dwarf, with no heat left to give. Fortunately, the Universe is not yet old enough to have any Black Dwarves. If they do accrue gas or collide with another of their kind... they go Supernova. In a similar Mechanism to the Supernovas of massive stars, the White Dwarf furiously fuses the material it has been given and effectively explodes. This is a Supercomputer Simulation of such an event. Spectacular. Never gets old! The next thing is about Black Holes. I might tell you about types of Stars before that.
As warned, an irrelevant post (formerly #18) has been reported and deleted. And nothing of value was lost.
Okay, as promised! Star Types! Whoo! Red Dwarves are the most common type of star in the Universe. They are quite numerous, consisting of 70% of all stars. These things burn for Hundreds of Billions of Years, if not Trillions. This is because they are fully convective, as in they don't just use the material in the core to fuse, but rather the materials in the whole star. They are also: Unstable, Flare up every few centuries, and blast out rays of Magnetism. They undergo a Blue Dwarf stage then die out. There are not yet any Blue Dwarves, because the Universe isn't old enough. Orange and Yellow Dwarves are less common, and burn for 50 to a few billion years. They're a lot less common, aren't convective (and thus burns quicker), and die as White Dwarves. You live on one of those! They're considerably more stable than Red Dwarves (as in they don't roast the planets surrounding them to a crisp), making it conducive for life. Red Giants are aged stars, that have exhausted much of their fuel. They are essentially expanded Orange or Yellow Dwarves. They blow up like a balloon and gobble up anything surrounding them. In a few billion years, (very little in cosmological timescales) you're next! Hopefully you'll be able to find a way off this planet before then. Personally, I'm not optimistic. Massive Stars have their time in the main sequence, for a few million years. The bigger the Star, the shorter the lifespan. They're bright as heck. The Supergiants, bigger than any Giant. There are many flavors of them. The Blue Supergiant is an interesting thing. It undergoes high mass loss, and is generally smaller but brighter than the Red Supergiant. The Yellow Supergiants are kind of a transition stage. They stay for a few thousand years, from the transition from Blue to Red. The Red Supergiant is the biggest by volume. They are relatively cool and large, and they're generally older than the Blues. They have a mass limit of 40 Solar masses. Anything bigger would blow itself apart. Now, we get to the Hypergiants. These guys are more unstable and much brighter versions of the above. They are undergoing very fast mass loss, from stellar winds. Some of the biggest stars in the Universe are these things. The Wolf-Rayet star is what happens when the Hypergiants blow off so much mass they have no outer layers. They are dominated by nitrogen, anything lighter having been blown off. STAY TUNED FOR BLACK HOLES!
