Daily Question - 4/3/2024
Welcome to today's Daily Question! 🚀
Welcome to the world of curiosity! 🌌🌟
Rule #1: Embrace the challenge - no Googling allowed! Put on your thinking cap! You’re allowed to guess.💭🌠
Rule #2: Discuss with friends, family, or pets for more fun! 🐠🤔🪐
The answer will be revealed tomorrow(4/4/2024) for an exciting twist! 🎉🌟
Have questions? Reach out anytime for an enjoyable cosmic quest! 🌌
Let the fun cosmic journey begin! 🚀✨
What type of radiation can we still observe from the early universe today that was emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang?
A) Gamma Ray Bursts from early black holes
B) Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
C) Interstellar radiation from early stars
The correct answer is Option B. During the early stages of the universe(the first couple millionth of a second), it was WAY TOO HOT! So hot that the atoms we knew in chemistry class didn’t exist yet. So the entire universe was just hot plasma with free-floating quarks and electrons and photons constantly being emitted through collisions. After about 3 - 4 minutes after the Big Bang, the universe grew large enough to cool itself down enough that nucleons(protons and neutrons) were able to come together to form simple nucleic structures, but something was missing. If you remember back to science class, you might’ve learned about the three atomic particles that make an atom which are a proton, neutron, and an electron. The electron is the missing piece. But even after 4 minutes after the Big Bang, it was still too hot so electrons couldn’t combine with atomic nuclei. When it did try to combine, a highly energetic photon would collide with the electron, preventing it from ‘sticking’ together. After 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe had finally cooled down enough so that electrons could combine with atomic nuclei. Now how does this relate to the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation? When most of the electrons were captured to from simple atomic structures such as Hydrogen, the photons had an easier and more spacious path to travel. The Cosmis Microwave Background Radiation is when this point in time of the universe, where the photons would be able to travel without interfering with resistance. This is the first light that was emitted in the universe. But why is it in the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum? Well as time went on, the universe continued to expand(actually, it expanded faster than ever and is growing in size at a huge rate even today), it started to stretch the wavelengths of the first photons, causing them to be Redshifted!
