The Moment
Nov 6, 2022 10:35:09 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Nov 6, 2022 10:35:09 GMT -5
The Moment
by Radrook
by Radrook
The moment of the Big Bang, when all existence started, had held mankind's fascination for centuries. But unfortunately, the event was beyond human observation due to the expansion of space which had created insurmountable and ever-increasing distances separating mankind from the light of the moment of that event. So such an observation had remained mere fantasy. That was until warp drive, which made the speed of light limit of 186,000 miles per second, irrelevant, and allowed the regions previously beyond our reach or detection to be reachable.
It was then that desire to observe the Big Bang personally had become an obsession. So eventually, under the relentless goading of human curiosity, a mission was planned and a crew prepared for the momentous journey. Of course, many religionists considered the ambition as hubris, an affront to nature, and even to God Himself. However, scientifically-disposed minds had prevailed, and a warp-capable spaceship and a crew were finally prepared for the task.
All ship crewmembers, both religious and nonreligious, knew exactly what would be involved, the observation of the gradual evolution of our universe as the light of those previously undetectable events would gradually become detectable. The observational sensation of travelling back in time, as they probed outwards towards those receding hitherto unreachable regions. Locations that warp velocities exceeding thousands of times the speed of light, would now make accessible. To finally and personally observe and record the emergence of that enigmatic cosmic egg or singularity from a safe vantage point, and follow its retreating light as as it would suddenly telescope back into that infinite singularity from which all universal existence had been imagined to have emerged.
That accomplishment was being deemed as the scientific Magnus Opus of mankind. The unequaled epitome of scientific accomplishment. And so it turned out to be. From the safety of the ship’s hyperspaced location, the crew had been privileged to witness the galactic clusters gradually becoming less structurally complex. Viewed stars gradually releasing their individual gravitational grips on one another. They had observed galactic super- clusters once stretched into filaments bordering the great voids, gradually unravel, and the voids themselves slowly become populated by rogue galaxies.
They had observed how the enigmatic Black Holes, stars that had gravitationally collapsed into singularities, began to resemble white holes, rapidly disgorging all that they had absorbed during what had taken billions of years Earth-time occurring in just moments of ship-time.
They had gazed mesmerized as visible light, as well as all other invisible radiations, and even entire stars began to emerge from these mysteriously dark regions, until the stars that had become a black holes suddenly appeared as a supernovas, and regained their main-sequence status, each following its own journey dictated by its mass, returning to the proto-star status, and finally a dissolving back into the cosmic dust and gas nebula from whence they had coalesced.
Then Individual stars commenced to distance themselves from one another, decreasing their mutual gravitational pull until, only a tenuous, dispersal remained. Finally, they themselves dissolved into their individual atoms and there remained only a universal, all-encompassing, tenuous afterglow.
This universal afterglow a consequence of protons and neutrons fusing into nuclei, persisted for the duration of eons of non-ship time, also began to fade until coalescing into subatomic particles called quarks, then the universal laws of physics which made the universe possible suddenly telescoped into back into the cosmic egg or singularity, until only the seemingly-infinite darkness prevailed.
There were gasps and murmurs among the crewmembers as they viewed all this from the safety of the hyperspace ship's observation room fitted with multiple rectangular viewing screens located along its semi-circular walls. They had all cheered uneasily, as if partaking of something tat their human eyes were never mean to see followed by an awed silence.
Then, as if in response, their uneasy celebration, the ship's computer reported a fluctuation anomaly detected a moment after Cosmic Egg’s disappearance, or a full millisecond prior to the Big Bang, which from their theoretical standpoint, was an impossibility, since, according to the current theory, nothing had preceded the Big Bang. This manifestation had demanded a scientific explanation, and was delaying their immediate departure home. Instead, they chose to remain in hyperspace until it could be deciphered.
Of course, the ship's captain, Daniel Caraballo, a slim, middle-aged veteran astronaut of vast experience which had qualified him for the position, had been instantly apprised of the situation by his second-in-command, the tall, blond muscular Joseph Stanton, who was now uneasily standing at attention before him in his quarters as if a great burden had been suddenly placed on his herculean shoulders.
“What exactly is the anomaly’s source?” Captain Caraballo asked calmly.
“No source detected Captain," Stanton responded tentatively, unable to hide his the deep concern.
“What was the exact moment of its manifestation?” the captain inquired while slowly pacing back and forth in an effort to convey professional aplomb during a moment that he wished he were somewhere else. True, he had gladly volunteered for the mission, but had not been prepared for this.
“The disturbance was detected exactly at the moment when the radiation from cosmic egg, or the singularity that became our universe, vanished sir,” Stanton responded self-consciously, uncomfortably aware of just how ridiculously impossible such a thing must have seemed.
“Nothing to worry about," he continued, "Merely a fluctuation that appears to have no theoretical explanation, sir. We have discounted a computer glitch as the cause, and are still trying to figure it out.”
The captain pondered the baffling information, while Stanton stood by nervously waiting for dismissal. Then there was a sudden beeping from Stanton’s communicator, and the captain waited as Stanton listened to the report. Then, when finished, Stanton spoke in a tremulous voice.
“Sir, they have deciphered the pre Big Bang transmission sir,” he uttered apprehensively.
“So what is it? A glitch?” .
“No sir! They found the transmissions to be in Morse Code, sir! They tell me that the exact words are, “Let there be light!” sir."
For a long while, the captain considered having the crewmember who had informed them relieved of his duties and confined to his quarters, if not for sheer incompetence, at least for attempting to play some sort of practical joke at a distance of approx.13 billion light-years from Earth. No he didn’t like the distance, and the sooner they got back the better. So playing such practical jokes of this kind under such a harrowing situation was totally unpardonable.
“Not my idea, sir!” Stanton uttered nervously after noticing the captain’s intensely negative reaction, and the suspiciously intense way he was staring at him.
“The Science Officer is the one you need to talk to, sir,” he added.
“Well, why didn’t he inform me himself?”
“Because he has become suddenly indisposed sir! You see, they tell me that he suffered a slight heart attack and a stroke upon the discovery. You know how fanatically atheistic he is, sir, and that discovery must have really been a tremendous shock. But he isn’t the only one, sir. Most crewmembers are experiencing deep depression and disorienting bouts of vertigo. They were finally forced to place the ship on automatic pilot.”
“What the hell is wrong with these people?” Captain Caraballo shouted.
“And why is it that you seem OK Stanton?” he added while suspiciously.
“Well sir, to me this doesn’t come as a shock at all sir. You see, I am a Roman-Catholic, and a confirmation of the existence of the biblical God, only serves to strengthen my faith. Them? Well sir, you know how fanatically atheists believe in a Godless universe. So when confronted with something of this magnitude, something that resoundingly proves them wrong, naturally they panic.
One of them is even suffering from epileptic seizures, and another has come down with explosive diarrhea, and projectile vomiting. So essentially, sir, you and I are the only ones remaining physically and mentally fit to manage the ship.”
After silently observing the captain’s calm demeanor for a while, he asked:
“Might I ask why you seem so OK with it sir?”
“ Well, no, I am not a Christian, if that’s what you are thinking. I was raised as an agnostic and am still an agnostic. So whichever way things go, I accept them as they are. In any case, let’s get to the cockpit and get us back to the solar system so the crew can benefit from professional medical attention they obviously urgently need.
“Yes sir!” Stanton said smiling broadly as he touched the silver crucifix on his chest with this thumb and index finger and whispered a prayer. He also suddenly remembered the following poem.
High Flight
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds ... and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of ... wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Excerpt:
Most physicists believe the universe was born in a big bang 13.8 billion years ago. In it, the energy making up everything in the cosmos we see today was squeezed inside an inconceivably small space – far tinier than a grain of sand, or even an atom. Then, this unimaginably hot and dense cauldron – for whatever reason – ballooned at a terrifying rate.
In the very first second of the universe’s existence, our understanding of what was going on is surprisingly good. We know that the concepts of time, space and the laws of physics very quickly solidified. From there, order started to emerge out of the chaos. First to take shape were subatomic particles like quarks. Then bigger particles like protons and neutrons. About three minutes later, the universe had cooled to 1 billion °C. This allowed protons and neutrons to come together through fusion and form nuclei, the charged cores of atoms.
But after 20 minutes, the universe was no longer hot enough for fusion. What was left was a hot, cloudy soup of electrons and hydrogen and helium nuclei. This stage lasted for about 380,000 years. Eventually, the cosmos cooled enough for electrons to pair up with nuclei and make the first atoms. It then took hundreds of millions of years for the first stars to form and light up the darkness, and even longer for the universe to start to resemble what we see today.
www.iop.org/explore-physics/big-ideas-physics/big-bang
In the very first second of the universe’s existence, our understanding of what was going on is surprisingly good. We know that the concepts of time, space and the laws of physics very quickly solidified. From there, order started to emerge out of the chaos. First to take shape were subatomic particles like quarks. Then bigger particles like protons and neutrons. About three minutes later, the universe had cooled to 1 billion °C. This allowed protons and neutrons to come together through fusion and form nuclei, the charged cores of atoms.
But after 20 minutes, the universe was no longer hot enough for fusion. What was left was a hot, cloudy soup of electrons and hydrogen and helium nuclei. This stage lasted for about 380,000 years. Eventually, the cosmos cooled enough for electrons to pair up with nuclei and make the first atoms. It then took hundreds of millions of years for the first stars to form and light up the darkness, and even longer for the universe to start to resemble what we see today.
www.iop.org/explore-physics/big-ideas-physics/big-bang