How do we describe and discuss an event which took place 15 billion years ago? We have to speculate, guess or look at today and work our way back in time from what we have observed. In 1927 Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian astronomer suggested that in the “beginning” there was a “cosmic egg” which exploded, sending matter hurtling across the heavens at incredible speeds. The explosion continues to this day. Our Sun is part of but one galaxy which in itself contains about 100 billion stars, which we here on Earth refer to as the Milky Way. A dull glow in the heavens is all that remains of the original flash.
A swirling mix which was to eventually make up our solar disk laid out in space, gathering unto itself. I have a mental image of a large fried egg spinning in space. It’s estimated that this collection of matter took 100,000 years to cool and collect. Within the hydrogen sphere which lay in the center, great pressures were created and helium was formed. And tremendous energy was sent forth and finally we had ignition. The resulting energy release continues to fill our corner of the heavens with light and warmth. The planets formed in a disk around the now-lit Sun.
Figure available in printed form
In the April 1988 issue of Scientific American under a column titled “Cosmic Forgery” its author made the following comment “Supernova 1987A provided spectacular proof that exploding stars forge light elements into heavy elements and fling them through space”. The article went on to suggest that nucleosyntheses could take place in the accretion disks of black holes. Its estimated that temperatures rise to a billion degrees as the hole gathers mass and density. Intense radiation builds forcing matter out from the disk in a path perpendicular to the disk. Thus explaining the vast jets of energy and particles which are seen pouring out of some galaxies and binary star systems.