II. Conclusion: A History of the Universe

• The Big Bang
  • Approximately 1.2-1.5 x 10¹⁰ years ago, the Universe came into existence and began to expand The Big Bang.
    • The main supporting observational evidence for this is Hubble's Law (i.e., the galaxies are moving away from each other) and the 3 K microwave background radiation.

    • Based on our understanding of nuclear, particle, quantum, and gravitational physics, models indicate that the Big Bang could only produce H (~90%) and He (~10%).

  • As a result, all the metals (i.e., elements heavier than He) in the Universe were produced in stellar furnaces and supernova explosions!
  
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