Macrocosmos

Basic Information

This site tells the story of the history of the universe. Click Earlier and Later to follow the story. Note: Many facts have been simplified to make them easier to understand.

The origin of the Universe is unknown -- it is the ultimate mystery of this whole story. The laws of physics which applied in the beginning are not clear, so it is hard to guess where it might have come from. There are several theories of how the Universe began. This web site follows the inflationary theory of creation, which seems the most plausible.

We use the word Macrocosmos to mean "everything there is". We will see that the Cosmos and the Universe are just small parts of the Macrocosmos. So how could it have begun?
Perhaps it was created out of nothing. To us, used to the idea that energy cannot be created, this seems impossible, but even today we find two kinds of matter (matter and antimatter) being created together out of nothing in quantum fluctuations. What is more, gravitational energy is equal and opposite to the matter energy in a closed space. This means that starting from nothing gravity and matter might have separated to create the Macrocosmos.

The amounts of energy in the Macrocosmos were small. The inflation theory predicts the Universe began with only 25g of matter! However this matter was crammed into a very very tiny space, creating an extremely high energy density.

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Earlier 15 Billion Years ago Later

Physical Environment > Macrocosmos

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