Anton Yanaky, Period 6, 10/27/23

The Big Bang Theory is a theory that describes how our universe was created and how it grew. The theory states that 13 billion years ago, our universe was a singularity, an infinitely small point that is infinitely dense. Then, for a reason still unknown, the universe suddenly underwent rapid expansion, for a fraction of a second, it expanded faster than the speed of light. After this initial expansion, matter and light were formed, however, due to the extreme temperature of the universe at that time (18 billion degrees Fahrenheit), matter existed as a hot soup of plasma (NASA). During this time, the universe was opaque, light could not pass through space and matter. Close to four hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled to a point where matter could fully form and electrons could finally bind to nuclei (NASA). This emitted the first light in the universe. In fact, specialized telescopes can still see this light, more commonly called cosmic microwave background radiation. However, this light was temporary, and since there were no stars or galaxies during this time period, the universe fell into another darkness (NASA). Finally, once the first stars formed, the universe became fully transparent and transformed into what we see today, or more accurately, tonight.

Much of what we know about the early universe comes from intricate telescopes and satellites that were made for the sole purpose of observing the vast cosmos. We are constantly learning more about the universe through new observations. Recently, in 2022, the James Webb Telescope became operational. It is currently the largest telescope in space and dwarfs the Hubble Space Telescope, being one hundred times more powerful than the Hubble (NASA). Even though the James Webb Telescope only became operational a little over a year ago, it has already given us new data on the furthest reaches of space and the origin of our universe.

One billion years after the Big Bang, the universe became fully transparent. Before that, the universe was fully opaque, and there was no light. How exactly this transformation happened was not known until recently. With new information from the James Webb Telescope, a research team led by Simon Lilly was able to accurately describe how the universe became transparent. Galaxies largely drove the change from opaque to transparent, the energy that the stars inside the galaxy produced created a bubble of energy around the galaxy that gave it transparency. This “bubble” around galaxies expanded over time and merged with other bubbles until the whole universe became transparent (NASA).



The Greek creation myth has many parallels to the Big Bang Theory, at first, there was nothing, then, inexplicably, something came from that nothingness that was. For us, the universe sprang up out of a singularity, while for the Greeks, Chaos was born. The universe was opaque at its genesis and only later gained light, this is strikingly similar to the order in which the gods were born, Night came first, and Day and Light were born later. Day and Light could be likened to the cosmic microwave background radiation, it was the first time the universe displayed any light, just like how they were the first gods that represented light. However, the universe was only fully illuminated once the stars and galaxies were born, this can be a parallel to Prometheus granting humanity fire. Both of these events are transformative for the world, the cosmos lighting up brought the universe into the current state it is in, and Prometheus giving us fire brought innovation and civilization.


Works Cited

NASA. “Basics | Universe – NASA Universe Exploration.” NASA Universe, 25 October 2023, https://universe.nasa.gov/universe/basics/. Accessed 25 October 2023.

NASA. “NASA's Webb Proves Galaxies Transformed the Early Universe.” NASA, 12 June 2023, https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasas-webb-proves-galaxies-transformed-the-early-universe/. Accessed 25 October 2023.

NASA. “Overview.” NASA Science, 25 October 2023, https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/about-overview/. Accessed 25 October 2023.