Sunday, September 27, 2009

Evolution of the Universe

When we contemplate the evolution of the universe from big bang to the present time one wonders at the different forms of our universe from the inception of time. Can any one come out roughly with the number of forms sprung from the same universe? At each point in time, we have discovered a new form being evolved. What are these forms and how significant they assume in their evolution of 13 billion and odd years?

I wrote in my first blog ‘Modern Cosmology’ at http://www.rsridharan.blogspot.com/ that how do we combine all the different factions of the universe into a single format. Some of my friends in different science forums ridiculed at me although some others appreciated and even wondered at my blog. To those who are yet to discern my point in my first blog, here is the simple answer. When we go back from the present to the beginning of the universe, we can see that all different aspects of the present day Universe were once combined into a single point in time! This is what I meant. Isn’t that true and so simple?

And so we begin our journey from the start of the time to the present day evolution. The order of evolution appears to be first the Big Bang and the CMB (cosmic microwave background), next the galaxies, supernovae, quasars, stars, elements, blackholes, cluster of galaxies, planets, moons and finally the living things. One can rearrange this order in any form and we still see all these in the universe have evolved accordingly. When we talk of galaxies, we see that it contains different structures, arms and a center point (blackhole). Next the stars have in them their different layers, different chemical elements numbering to roughly 118 in all, the planets, we can only see planets of our Sun and are still trying to discover few others in our neighborhood stars. Actually there can be millions of planets strewn over the entire universe that contains billions and billions of star systems! Now through our journey, we come to the blackholes which contains an event horizon that hides a central point called singularity where any amount of matter is annihilated with infinite gravitational energy. Of course all these are mind boggling evolutions beyond the grasp of any one.

We now finally come to the evolution of planets. Everybody knows that planets have in them their different layers with their crusts on top and the moons circling outside them. The planets have evolved with water, some with mountains with their volcano’s and lava, continents, icecaps, atmospheres, trees, plants and above all the living creatures.

When we talk of living creatures, we see that the universal evolution is at its best with millions of living forms evolved topping with human beings! And this is only known of the planet we inhabit. What of the millions of other star systems that might host a similar or more of life forms? Dizzily our Universe could be populated with millions of creatures, tribes, hitherto unknown superior life forms as its final evolutionary process? Or may be the universe is still in the process of evolving an ultimate and all powerful form? Never mind, let us return to our planet’s evolutionary creatures we know now.

As one is aware, our human body has its own evolutionary forms. The anatomy of a human being includes, the skull, hair, skin, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, lips (I am talking of myriads of evolutionary forms within the human body), nails, bones, bone morrow, liver, intestine, kidney, heart, lungs, toes, fingers, knees, elbows (all not in order), veins, nerves, blood, flesh etc., and above all the all powerful brain. The evolution of brain is still a mystery to everyone. I have only outlined the different forms that are inside the human body. When one thinks of different type of forms evolved inside millions of other creatures and plants, one would really be awe struck and wonder at the miracle of the subtle evolution of the living things from the time of Big Bang.

One has to be aware that this is only from one planet that contains so many life forms. What of the billions of stars that might host millions and millions of planets those again contain millions of living things in their entirely different formats? To conclude our brief saga, the Universe’s 13.7 billion years of evolutionary process has culminated in a final product which is the sophisticated and highly evolved human beings. Naturally we have a very significant role to play in this universe. Hence we can happily say that we are a special lot until the time we might see some other new form of life in the Universe.

One wonders how subtle that new form of life would be in this long process of Universal Evolution.

See below two of my other blogs, The Rules of the Universe and Modern Cosmology

View Science Blog
View The science forum

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello Shridharan,

Manohar here . I am from India too and found your posting today at http://hypography.com/forums/astronomy-cosmology/ forum. My Id is Time_Travel in hypography.

Your ideas are exactly the same i think. We see the patterns repeating themselves from very large to small. I hope to hear from you more on your ideas.