Universe

UNIVERSE

Universe, the whole cosmic system of matter and energy of which Earth, and therefore the human race, is a part. Humanity has traveled a long road since societies imagined Earth, the Sun, and the Moon as the main objects of creation, with the rest of the universe almost as an afterthought. Today it is known that Earth is only a small ball of rock in a space of unimaginable vastness and that the birth of the solar system was probably only one event among many that occurred against the backdrop of an already mature universe. This humbling lesson has unveiled a remarkable fact, one that endows the minutes particle in the universe with a rich and noble heritage: Events that occurred in the first few minutes of the creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago turn out to had a profound influence on the birth, life, and death of galaxies, stars, and planets. Indeed a line can be drawn from the forging of the matter of the universe in primal ‘big bang’ to the gathering on earth of atom versatile enough to serve as the basis of life.