The universe is everything, from the tiniest particles to the largest galaxies.

The origin
of the universe is the origin of everything, multiple scientific theories have tried to
explain its mystery genesis, however, the most widely accepted explanation is the big
bang theory. Although technology today doesn’t allow scientists to observe the
universe’s birth, astronomers can explain it through the cosmic microwave background,
which is known as the "echo" that appears when space expands. CMB also represents
leftover radiation from the time when the universe began. Therefore, scientists can
assume some theories based on mathematical formulas and models, one of which is
the big bang theory. It states that the universe began as a hot and infinitely dense point,
only a few millimeters wide. It was similar to a supercharged black hole. It is essential to
comprehend that the theory is not actually about the explosion but rather about
expanding space which led to the development of the universe. As the theory goes,
when the universe was born it underwent rapid inflation, expansion and cooling. The
universe is still expanding today, and the expansion rate appears different depending on
where you look. About 13.7 billion years ago this tiny singularity exploded and from this,
matter, energy, space, and, time were created. What happened next were the two major
stages of the universe – the radiation era and the matter era. They are defined as the
key events which help in shaping the universe.
The radiation era in the history of the universe is one in which most of the energy is
in the form of radiation. It is the period from about 10−43 s (the Planck era) to 30000
years after the Big Bang. The Era is separated into different epochs - Planck, Grand
unified, Inflationary, Electroweak, Quark, Hadron, Lepton, and Nuclear.
Planck Epoch is the first stage of this era. No matter existed in the universe at this
time only energy and the ancestor to the four forces of nature, the super force, which
includes gravity, strong nuclear, weak and electromagnetic. At the end of the Planck
Era, a major event forced gravity away from the super force.
Next came the grand unification epoch, named for the three remaining forces of
nature. This epoch ended approximately 10−36 seconds after the Big Bang because
one of the forces called strong nuclear broke away from the super force.
Then the Inflationary Epoch during which the universe rapidly expanded at an
unprecedented rate. Almost instantly, the universe grew from the size of an atom to the
size of an orange. The universe during this time was extremely hot.
Then came the electroweak epoch, when the last two forces, electromagnetic and
weak, finally split off. During this time universe cooled down enough for quarks to bind
together and form protons and neutrons. Protons and Neutrons are important as it is the
fundaments of atoms. Everything in the universe in made of atoms.
The last two Epochs in the Radiation Era are the Lepton and Nuclear Epoch. In these
two eras, the Protons and Neutrons went under significant change. They fused and
created Nuclei. This is significant because it in turn created the very first chemical
element - Helium.
After the radiation era, there was the matter era. It began around 30000 years after the
big bang. The name comes from the presence and predominance of matter in the
universe. At some point in the big bang, antimatter was replaced by matter. At that time
the gravitational effect of the matter started to dominate the effect of radiation pressure
and various elements and materials were created. This era consists of three major
epochs - Atomic, Galactic, and Stellar which span for billions of years.
There was a significant cooldown in the atomic epoch compared to the radiation era.
The temperature at that time was about 3000 Kelvin, which is of course still high for
today’s standards. This accelerated the rate of several physical reactions involving
different quarks and elements. During this period, the second universal element
hydrogen was created by attaching electrons and nuclei.
Throughout the second epoch, which is called the Galactic epoch, atomic clouds were
formed. This process was predominated by the construction of helium and hydrogen
with the help of gravity. In addition, massive stars and quasars were spawned. Quasars
are the extremely bright active galactic nucleus, in which a supermassive black hole is
surrounded by a gaseous accretion disk. These became the seeds of galaxies.
The last epoch is the stellar epoch, in which the universe was finally shaped. Even
though stars appeared in the previous epoch, they achieved the final form and were
fully developed during this epoch. The first stars and galaxies emerged within about 200
million years of the big bang. Their life cycle assisted the galaxy with the creation of new
substances, including dust, ice, rocks and minerals.
The big bang theory is the best from the existing explanations of how the universe was
formed. However, it does not exclude the fact that there might be other universes and
scientists suggest theories claiming it. This model, which states that there is a possibility
of coexisting different universes, is called the “multiverse”. They logically explain that
during the first big push of inflation space might have grown at various rates, leading to
carving several sections or as it is known universes with potentially different laws of
physics. Although there is not enough evidence, physicists strongly believe in the
multiverse and they claim that people live in a cosmos that goes through regular cycles
of inflation and deflation, and the present time is just one of these phases.
Additionally, part of the astronomical community does not agree with the big bang
theory and suggests alternative explanations such as eternal inflation or an oscillating
universe. However, a detailed analysis of those is not in the interest of this presentation.
Furthermore, highlighting the recent important discovery of James Webb is essential,
while analyzing the big bang theory, since the pictures from this telescope help us
understand how it is even possible to observe and discover events happening millions
of years ago. Telescopes are not magical tools it is just the nature of light to travel
staggeringly fast. Even stars seen with bear eyes can be from a very long time ago.
This is the highest quality picture of the universe ever taken. A bright cluster of galaxies
magnifies the light of stars more than 13 billion light-years away. Scientists do not stop
attempting to look even further back in time, to the first few hundred million years after
the big bang.
In conclusion, it is important to comprehend that the big bang theory will always occupy
an essential part of science history and understanding it would help people
acknowledge its importance.