Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space

Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space — page 3
the universe One thing we know for certain about the Universe is that it is really really big because it holds all the stars in the sky and much much more In fact the Universe is so big we are not even sure if it ever ends Imagine setting off from Earth in a spaceship and travelling forever without hitting anything that’s how big the Universe is But hold on let’s start at the beginning First of all how was the Universe born The Universe exploded into existence 13 8 billion years ago in an event called the Big Bang Everything in the Universe was created in that moment all the stuff that makes the stars and planets and the energy that flows between them even space and time were created at the Big Bang No one really knows why it happened and to this day it remains one of the great mysteries of science The start is the Big Bang 13 8 billion years ago 13,799,000,000 years 377 thousand years 377,000 years after the Big Bang Atoms form and photons of light travel freely Through time the Universe spread out in all directions and began to take shape From the swirling energy tiny particles popped into existence After a few hundred thousand years they collected together into atoms the basic building blocks of everything we can see in the Universe Also at this time light was released and free to fly through the Universe Wowee