Big Bang Sparks
This article is also translated into English and published on Medium .
When summer comes to Chicago, the coast of Lake Michigan turns into a picture from a postcard. Kilometers of volleyball nets, bike lanes, baseball fields and sandy beaches. Snow-white clouds in the high sky. The blue of the lake, dressed in white lines of boats of all kinds and sizes, with colorful lights, cheerful music and happy vacationers. And in August for three days the whole coast becomes a stage for an air show of water and air.
As if this is not enough, every week, from the day of remembrance to the day of work, Navy Pier arranges fireworks. One of these wonderful summer evenings, we stayed on the boat of our friend. It was just Saturday, and at the end of the party, he led the boat directly to the best place under the fireworks. So, when darkness came, exotic multicolored fire flowers exploded around us in all directions.
Then the thought came to my slightly drunk and contented life that I had seen it somewhere before.
')
It all started 13 billion years ago. A flash of colossal power created space and immediately filled it tightly with radiation and hot, opaque plasma. When the universe expanded and cooled, a division of the main forces took place. After 240 thousand years (on an ecumenical scale — one instant), matter was finally able to capture electrons and create the first neutral atoms — hydrogen and helium.
The cosmos turned out to be transparent for some time, the photons were able to freely scatter in all directions, which they did not fail to use. Hydrogen and helium are already formed, but the stars have not yet appeared. We called this period “Dark Ages” because for a while absolutely nothing happened.
The force of gravity gradually collected gas into the clouds. In some places, the shreds of gas were so tightly tightened that the pressure triggered a thermonuclear reaction. The first stars appeared. Illuminating with brilliant lights, wherever you look, the first generation of stars lived a short but extremely fiery life. Violent burning quickly burned all the fuel, and the huge blue giants began to explode with supernovae, filling the universe with heavy elements.
But gravity did not let up. Now she collected stardust in the galaxy. Waves of compression passed through rotating giant disks, collecting gas and dust in their sleeves, which glowed brightly due to the large number of powerful newborn stars. This is how our Sun appeared.
And this is the moment in which we now live. When the night comes - in cloudless weather, leave the city, look at the sky and imagine for a second that you are inside the fireworks, and someone has paused for a while. As if in slow motion, wherever you look, sparkles of burning powder glow. The disks and balls of galaxies are scattered throughout the field of view. The clouds and whole curtains of colored smoke are nebulae.
If we now start the passage of time again, in a few billion years we will see less and less newborn stars. More and more will be burnt smoke and dust. And suddenly, suddenly, the presentation is over. A pair of relativistic streams nearby. Wherever you look, like embers in a dying fire, red dwarfs glow dimly. Slightly warm space extends to infinite distances.
But while the show went on, it was the best show in the universe! Literally!
Let's rewind our film a little in the opposite direction, for a more interesting time, right after the supernova and neutron stars filled the Universe with heavy elements.
This is the era of the reign of the second generation of stars. Thanks to a whole palette of elements in star childrens, this time we see the birth of not only powerful supergiants. Huge, twisting clouds of gas and dense dust around protostars this time gather in solid particles, in cobblestones, in rocky planets.
At the beginning of life, such a newborn star system is full of asteroids flying in all directions. They merge, crash into each other at orbital speeds, create planets and moons. But it is worth waiting for a couple of hundred million years - and now almost everything that could intersect has been encountered, the solar system is as clean as after general cleaning. A shining, fresh star in the center of the system gives warm surfaces to the surfaces of the planets. The magnetic fields generated by the cores and the mantle of the planets protect them from hard radiation. As a result of chemical reactions, complex organic compounds appear.
And, in principle, our story could end there. Chemical reactions use all available elements. During eternity, the planets will heat up during the day and cool down at night. The change of seasons will evaporate the lakes in summer and freeze in winter. We have an example of such an eternity in the Solar System - this is Titan.
But this did not happen on Earth. A self-sustaining chemical reaction once created a proto-life, and evolution took over. And soon the whole planet was covered with living creatures.
In the beginning, complex organic elements provided by inanimate nature were needed to sustain life. Life, like a river mill, used complex low-entropy packets prepared for it, complex molecules, splitting them, releasing potential energy. A small initial stimulus, like the first kindled sprigs in a cooked campfire, gives rise to a whole fire storm.
But the plants have learned to draw energy directly from the sun. There are complex ecosystems. And the more difficult life becomes, the more energy sources it can use. The greater the role begins to play, the more effectively creates entropy. Each stage of development, each change of energy sources transforms the planet. Next - the star system. And then - the universe itself.
If we had a special telescope that knows how to define life, and we would turn it on to our universe, we would see how humanity is born. From a glowing speck, as from a burning chip, more and more bright flame is kindled. From a thin layer of bacteria to the Cambrian explosion. From dinosaurs to anthropocene.
In a show with fireworks the size of the Universe, intelligence plays a special role. He lights his own lights. Intellect changes the face of the universe with its genius and ingenuity. This is a new kind of fireworks. Fireworks of signals in neural networks. Fireworks of personalities. Fireworks of complex communities. The universe as if comes to life, wakes up and begins to realize itself.
But at the very beginning there was a blinding flash. And you and me, and every living thing around us. We are all just the shining sparks of the Big Bang fireworks.
[1] www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_air_and_watershow.html
[2] www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/astronomers-spot-first-generation-stars-made-big-bang
[3] www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj6Kc1mvsdo
[4] www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-process-creates-and
[5] www.amazon.com/Restaurant-Universe-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B001ODEQCU
[6] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_ (moon)
[7] www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122
[8] www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/science/what-is-the-anthropocene
When summer comes to Chicago, the coast of Lake Michigan turns into a picture from a postcard. Kilometers of volleyball nets, bike lanes, baseball fields and sandy beaches. Snow-white clouds in the high sky. The blue of the lake, dressed in white lines of boats of all kinds and sizes, with colorful lights, cheerful music and happy vacationers. And in August for three days the whole coast becomes a stage for an air show of water and air.
As if this is not enough, every week, from the day of remembrance to the day of work, Navy Pier arranges fireworks. One of these wonderful summer evenings, we stayed on the boat of our friend. It was just Saturday, and at the end of the party, he led the boat directly to the best place under the fireworks. So, when darkness came, exotic multicolored fire flowers exploded around us in all directions.
Then the thought came to my slightly drunk and contented life that I had seen it somewhere before.
')
Big explosion
It all started 13 billion years ago. A flash of colossal power created space and immediately filled it tightly with radiation and hot, opaque plasma. When the universe expanded and cooled, a division of the main forces took place. After 240 thousand years (on an ecumenical scale — one instant), matter was finally able to capture electrons and create the first neutral atoms — hydrogen and helium.
The cosmos turned out to be transparent for some time, the photons were able to freely scatter in all directions, which they did not fail to use. Hydrogen and helium are already formed, but the stars have not yet appeared. We called this period “Dark Ages” because for a while absolutely nothing happened.
The force of gravity gradually collected gas into the clouds. In some places, the shreds of gas were so tightly tightened that the pressure triggered a thermonuclear reaction. The first stars appeared. Illuminating with brilliant lights, wherever you look, the first generation of stars lived a short but extremely fiery life. Violent burning quickly burned all the fuel, and the huge blue giants began to explode with supernovae, filling the universe with heavy elements.
But gravity did not let up. Now she collected stardust in the galaxy. Waves of compression passed through rotating giant disks, collecting gas and dust in their sleeves, which glowed brightly due to the large number of powerful newborn stars. This is how our Sun appeared.
And this is the moment in which we now live. When the night comes - in cloudless weather, leave the city, look at the sky and imagine for a second that you are inside the fireworks, and someone has paused for a while. As if in slow motion, wherever you look, sparkles of burning powder glow. The disks and balls of galaxies are scattered throughout the field of view. The clouds and whole curtains of colored smoke are nebulae.
If we now start the passage of time again, in a few billion years we will see less and less newborn stars. More and more will be burnt smoke and dust. And suddenly, suddenly, the presentation is over. A pair of relativistic streams nearby. Wherever you look, like embers in a dying fire, red dwarfs glow dimly. Slightly warm space extends to infinite distances.
But while the show went on, it was the best show in the universe! Literally!
Embers of life
Let's rewind our film a little in the opposite direction, for a more interesting time, right after the supernova and neutron stars filled the Universe with heavy elements.
This is the era of the reign of the second generation of stars. Thanks to a whole palette of elements in star childrens, this time we see the birth of not only powerful supergiants. Huge, twisting clouds of gas and dense dust around protostars this time gather in solid particles, in cobblestones, in rocky planets.
At the beginning of life, such a newborn star system is full of asteroids flying in all directions. They merge, crash into each other at orbital speeds, create planets and moons. But it is worth waiting for a couple of hundred million years - and now almost everything that could intersect has been encountered, the solar system is as clean as after general cleaning. A shining, fresh star in the center of the system gives warm surfaces to the surfaces of the planets. The magnetic fields generated by the cores and the mantle of the planets protect them from hard radiation. As a result of chemical reactions, complex organic compounds appear.
And, in principle, our story could end there. Chemical reactions use all available elements. During eternity, the planets will heat up during the day and cool down at night. The change of seasons will evaporate the lakes in summer and freeze in winter. We have an example of such an eternity in the Solar System - this is Titan.
But this did not happen on Earth. A self-sustaining chemical reaction once created a proto-life, and evolution took over. And soon the whole planet was covered with living creatures.
In the beginning, complex organic elements provided by inanimate nature were needed to sustain life. Life, like a river mill, used complex low-entropy packets prepared for it, complex molecules, splitting them, releasing potential energy. A small initial stimulus, like the first kindled sprigs in a cooked campfire, gives rise to a whole fire storm.
But the plants have learned to draw energy directly from the sun. There are complex ecosystems. And the more difficult life becomes, the more energy sources it can use. The greater the role begins to play, the more effectively creates entropy. Each stage of development, each change of energy sources transforms the planet. Next - the star system. And then - the universe itself.
If we had a special telescope that knows how to define life, and we would turn it on to our universe, we would see how humanity is born. From a glowing speck, as from a burning chip, more and more bright flame is kindled. From a thin layer of bacteria to the Cambrian explosion. From dinosaurs to anthropocene.
In a show with fireworks the size of the Universe, intelligence plays a special role. He lights his own lights. Intellect changes the face of the universe with its genius and ingenuity. This is a new kind of fireworks. Fireworks of signals in neural networks. Fireworks of personalities. Fireworks of complex communities. The universe as if comes to life, wakes up and begins to realize itself.
But at the very beginning there was a blinding flash. And you and me, and every living thing around us. We are all just the shining sparks of the Big Bang fireworks.
[1] www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_air_and_watershow.html
[2] www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/06/astronomers-spot-first-generation-stars-made-big-bang
[3] www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj6Kc1mvsdo
[4] www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-process-creates-and
[5] www.amazon.com/Restaurant-Universe-Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B001ODEQCU
[6] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_ (moon)
[7] www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122
[8] www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/science/what-is-the-anthropocene
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/452830/
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