On Man and Reality
Part 1 - The Universe

The Evolution of the Universe
The primary aspect of our Reality is the Universe. Sometime, between fifteen and twenty billion years ago it exploded from a singularity into a simple but chaotic, energy-filled, space-time continuum, governed by a surprisingly small number of immutable laws.

It cooled as it expanded. After about 300,000 years, much of its energy had condensed into fundamental particles of matter, many of which grouped to form hydrogen and helium atoms. During the next half billion years, masses of these atoms collected into clouds that evolved into star-filled galaxies. Amongst the ancient stars thus created, giants were common.

Because of their huge mass, gravity causes each giant star to implode rapidly. Its temperature rises as it implodes until, at its core, it is hot enough to excite the fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form helium – a process that releases massive amounts of energy. Once the process is started, the amount of energy it releases increases with temperature as the star implodes. After a time, the explosive energy released balances the implosive energy of gravity and the star becomes stable (It is the same type of nuclear reaction as the one that stabilises our Sun, except that it has to take place tens of thousands of times faster in order to produce the same result).

After about five million years the hydrogen reaction begins to run out of fuel and slow down (our Sun, which is mid-way through its life-cycle, will take about ten billion years to reach the same stage). Gravity regains dominance and the star recommences implosion and heating. When it core becomes hot enough, helium begins to fuse and a new star-stabilisation process begins. Available helium eventually begins to run out, causing the reaction to slow and the star to recommence imploding. When the core temperature becomes hot enough, it triggers the next level of nuclear fusion and the star-stabilisation process starts all over again. In this way, all of heavy atoms in the Universe were created in the bowels of giant stars.

After a time, the fusion events cease to supply enough energy to halt the star’s implosion. However, fusion events continue and much of the energy thus released becomes trapped in the star’s rapidly shrinking volume. Eventually this energy causes the star to explode in a Supernova, the most powerful type of explosion known in the Universe, scattering the atoms that the star hosted far out into space. Many such atoms leave the ancient galaxy and join clouds of primeval hydrogen and helium atoms that have been attracted into the vicinity by gravity.

Under the complex influence of the energy, gravity and magnetic fields that surround the ancient galaxy, these atoms congregate into spiral arms that extend far out into space. The atoms form into clouds that eventually become dense enough to support the formation of new stars. By the time this happens, the ancient galaxy has been suffering gravitational implosion for a very long time. As it implodes, it releases huge amounts of energy out into space. When a pulse of this energy encounters an atomic cloud of the right density, it triggers the formation of new (population one) stars. A new spiral galaxy thus is being created around the ancient galaxy.

Unlike ancient (population two) stars, the population one stars in the spiral arms contain heavy atoms.

The Evolution of Planets
All stars form through the accretion of atoms attracted to each other by gravity. As these atoms collide, they create heat. If a star becomes big enough, the heat it generates causes nuclear-fusion at its core. Most of the energy thus released, radiates from the star’s surface, arresting its growth by driving away the atoms attracted to it by gravity. The radiation drives lighter atoms further out into space than it does heavier ones. The atoms, thus partially segregated, form into clusters that orbit around the hosting star, some collapsing into planets.

Some planets (like the Earth) form at a distance from their hosting star at which its radiant energy is ideal to support life. By lucky coincidence, they also are at the distance from it at which the mix of atoms from which they are formed, is ideal for life-creation. Planets further out are too starved of both heat and heavy atoms to be ideal for life; those closer in, the opposite.

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One Man's View - Robin A McQueen