Nepali Wanderer

Let’s start by addressing the title itself, “The Origin of Everything.” But what exactly is “everything”? When we think of the word everything, our minds might conjure up different notions, but the broadest explanation is our Universe.

So, let’s talk about the origin of the Universe.

The Universe encompasses of space, time, and their contents — planets, stars, galaxies, and so forth — in the form of either mass or energy. It consists of billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars and their solar systems, and each solar system, in turn, consisting of many planets and their satellites.

Our planet Earth is one of the eight planets (sorry Pluto) in our solar system. Thus, what we call home is but a tiny entity within the vastness of the Universe.

The origin of the Universe has intrigued people throughout history, giving rise to various theories, assumptions, and even fictional accounts. Whether through science, philosophy, or religion, many arguments around it have emerged over the years. For most of human history, people assumed the Universe was infinite, always existing and encapsulating everything from the beginning. Then came a groundbreaking discovery that profoundly changed our understanding of the Universe and its origin.

In 1931, Edwin Hubble discovered that galaxies were not only moving away from us, but those farther away were moving faster than the closer ones. This led to the idea that the Universe, ever expanding, must have originated from a singular point. This deduction suggested that all the energy and matter in the Universe were initially condensed into a single point. An explosion then sent the energy and matter expanding in all directions, an event termed the Big Bang.

However, the Big Bang theory wasn’t widely accepted until another serendipitous discovery. Two scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey detected radiation in a radio receiver they were building. This radiation was the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Another group of scientists, who were actually looking for the CMB, recognized its significance when they heard about the discovery.

But what is this CMB, and how did it confirm the Big Bang theory?

The Big Bang theory predicts that the early universe was extremely hot and as it expanded, the gas within it cooled. If the Big Bang had occurred, there should be leftover heat from the explosion, known as the CMB. The discovery of the CMB thus provided strong evidence for the Big Bang theory.

After the Big Bang, the spread of mass and energy led to the formation of atoms, the smallest particles of matter. These atoms combined to form molecules, which eventually created everything that exists today — including our planet Earth and ourselves.

Now that we have some inkling on how the Universe came into existence, let’s turn our attention to how the solar system and our home, Earth, came to be.