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- Why is 96% of the Universe “ Dark”? Because we think we know the total amount of mass-energy in the Universe and ordinary atoms that we understand account for only 4% of this total. 96% is unknown in today’s science. We call what we do not know “Dark Energy” and “Dark Matter“.
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- Why do we think that only 4% of the Universe is ordinary atoms? We have known the Universe is expanding since we had the equations in 1915 and the observed evidence since 1930. Gravity is an attractive force that should be slowing the expansion down. The expansion should eventually stop, reverse, and begin compressing the Universe into a Big Crunch. In fact, that is where the concept of the Big Bang came from. Run time backwards with the same 13.7 billion years that had expansion and you get the Big Crunch.
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- When the laws of physics are applied to a Big Crunch we know that atoms heat up. Eventually atoms break down into their fundamental particles. If compression continues the fundamental particles break down our equations. The equations disappear with their infinities. Space and time go into a Blackhole that remains a mystery. But, let’s reverse it again and start some time after the Big Bang when atomic nuclei first begin to form out of the fundamental Quarks and Gluons. Quarks and Gluons are the most fundamental particles we know that make up the nucleus of atoms.
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- The expanding Universe is cooling. When it cools to 10,000,000,000 Kelvin the atomic nuclei begin to form out of the Quarks and Gluons. The positively charged nuclei and the negatively charged free electrons form a plasma of charge particles. When the expansion cools to 1000 Kelvin the atomic nuclei collect the free electrons and form neutral hydrogen atoms. When neutral atoms form the photons can escape because they are no longer scattered by the charged plasma of nuclei and electrons. This neutral charge phase in the Universe’s expansion occurred at 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
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- When light left the surface it traveled freely through space for 13.7 billion years. Traveling through expanding space meant that the wavelengths were stretched from light waves into microwaves. The light lost energy as the wavelengths got wider. The temperature dropped from 3,000 Kelvin to below 3 Kelvin as the Universe expanded by a factor of 1,000.
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- Today we can see this microwave energy in all directions at a uniform 2.718 Kelvin. It is called the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. This uniform temperature of space is just a few degrees above Absolute Zero Kelvin, - 273.5 C.
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- To understand the phase transition of light escaping the charged plasma of the early Universe consider the plasma in our own Sun. At the center of the Sun the charged nuclei of hydrogen and helium, with free electrons, scatter the photons. Due to this scattering it takes a photon, on average, 3,000,000 years to reach the surface of the Sun. Once past the surface the photon reaches the Earth in 8 minutes. A neutral neutrino that is not affected by the Sun’s charged plasma can reach the surface of the Sun in 3 seconds.
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- Particle Physics can define the process of the Big Bang expanding and cooling quite well. Pressures and temperatures can determine when Quarks and Gluons form nuclei and when nuclei can capture electrons to become neutral atoms. The process to form the nuclei took only 3 minutes. The process to form neutral atoms took 380,000 years.
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- The temperatures and pressures and densities all fit into these calculations. Statistics can calculate the rate of collisions and the formations of new particles. Starting with the protons that are the nuclei of hydrogen atoms. The protons combined to form deuterium and the deuterium nuclei combined to form helium nuclei. Very small amounts of lithium and beryllium formed. But, that is where it stopped. Only these lightest of elements had time to form in the Big Bang expansion. The expansion and cooling occurred too quickly for any of the heavier elements to have formed. All the heavier elements in the Periodic Table were formed in the stars and supernovae millions of years later.
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- Today the average density of the Universe is 10^-29 grams per cubic centimeter. Once the density was reached where particles were too far apart to combine, the combinations stopped at H, He-4, He-3, Li-7 with proportions that can be accurately calculated. These calculations define the total number of atoms in the Universe. That number is only 4% of the mass- energy in the Universe. 96% of the matter-energy are not atoms.
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- Ok, 4% and 96%, but, where did the 73% Dark Energy and 23% Dark Matter come from? See #1595 Review Part II for how an expanding Universe tells more of the story.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email upon request. Some reviews are at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Wednesday, October 23, 2013
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