FIGHT BETWEEN PRESSURE AND GRAVITY
Life as a result of the clash of cosmic forces
All are invited!
The biggest conflict in the next universe is about to begin, so take your place.Yes, the Big Bang is really about to happen!
The power that unites all matter is located in one corner. Give it up for gravity! It affects any mass-containing particle. In the opposite corner stand our competitor with an amazing strength to push matters away. This fighter simply becomes more resilient when things get difficult.It's pressure, that's correct!
These two contestants will battle it out over the next several hundred thousand years for the universe's future. Yes, that's true, this momentous match will have an impact on how the cosmos is structured today.
What conflict do these forces have, though? We'll learn when the Big Bang occurs right here, right now! For the play-by-play, let's close in.Three elements have entered our young cosmos as a result of this great occurrence. Dark matter only interacts with gravity. All matter that has ever been observed is a baryonic substance, which is impacted by both gravity and pressure. And radiation, which is made up of countless light particles called photons. There is no difference in density between any of the three components in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang because all three are in balance.
However, when the universe begins to expand, disparities in density begin to appear.The first action of gravity is to bring matter together. At the centre of these progressively denser regions, dark matter starts to assemble, laying the groundwork for future galaxies. In the meantime, pressure starts to build. Protons and electrons can't combine to form atoms in this hot, high-energy environment, so they are instead free to move around and interact with nearby photons.
As a result, radiation and baryonic matter are almost in a fluid state. However, the fluid becomes hotter as the baryonic particles approach it, forcing photons to ping around with enormous force.Here, radiation pressure—a powerful force that works to push things apart—is at work. Pressure produces a powerful push back as gravity's relentless pulls squeeze photons and matter together. The fluid is heaved back and forth as the two giants struggle, producing enormous vibrations known as baryonic acoustic oscillations. These BAOs ripple through space at about a third the speed of light, having the largest imaginable effects on the universe.
We are more likely to find galaxies at their peaks and empty space in their troughs today—nearly 14 billion years after this battle began—because these rolling waves govern the distribution of things throughout space.
That's not all, either.
These reverberations of this epic fight are still visible in the universe's background radiation. However, after being at a standstill for nearly 370,000 years, the momentum of our conflict finally starts to shift.
Subsequently, the heat from the Big Bang's has largely vanished, cooling the cosmos to a point where free electrons begin to join up with protons. This period, referred known as the "era of recombination," prevents electrons from irrationally pinging around.The universe is illuminated as a result of the first-ever unrestricted flow of light.The pressure on the neutral atoms that these photons interact with is now steadily diminished to a very small force. The time has come to declare our winner.
Gravity is the strongest and most ubiquitous force in the universe.
However, this competition is still ongoing. These two sworn foes are still engaged in a similar conflict today, inside every single star. Pressure rises and pushes the gas of a star inward as gravity draws it in. The Sun and all other stars are kept steady for billions of years by this push and pull. In actuality, this conflict of the titans is what prevents Earth's atmosphere from collapsing .
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