ABSTRACT
Some 13 billion years ago a blob of an extremely condensed form of energy exploded. There was no sound; the particles that cause the compressions and rarefactions of sound waves did not yet exist. In less than a second virtually all the antimatter was consumed, and a few minutes later the nuclei of the hydrogen and helium atoms-which make up 99% of the matter in our universe-were formed.1 –2 After another million years the temperature had cooled sufficiently that electrons could associate with these atomic nuclei to form the atoms of today’s universe. The condensation of these atoms at the centers of galactic stars to form some 114 elements took another billion years to materialize.3 –4 Exploding stars then peppered matter in the form of a coarse dust throughout space. About 4.6 billion years ago some of that matter condensed to form a new stellar system, and planet Earth was born.
