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The Big Bang Theory in 12 Easy Steps  
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Tags: science, big bang, universe, creation

Easy? Maybe not. But here are the crucial points about this influential theory of creation you need to know.

1.	We begin 13.7 billion years ago, the time when Big Bang theorists estimate the universe began. Ten to the negative 43rd seconds later, the four fundamental forces (electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force and gravity) may have possibly unified into one force (this is still a theory, remember). This is known as the Planck Epoch.
2.	The Planck Epoch causes the "universe" to expand, and gravity begins separating from the other three fundamental forces. Strong separates from weak nuclear force, creating "magnetic monopoles". This is known as the Grand Unification Epoch.
3.	This is when it gets exciting! Triggered by the phase transition (As the scalar field of the Grand Unification Epoch settled into its lowest energy state throughout the universe, it generated a repulsive force that led to a rapid expansion of the fabric of space-time) the universe expands rapidly and exponentially! A mix of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons are now present in the universe.
4.	With the presense of this quark-gluon plasma, the temperature of the universe is high enough to merge electromagnetism and the weak interaction into a single electroweak interaction. Particle interactions are energetic enough to create large numbers of exotic particles, including W and Z bosons and Higgs bosons.
5.	Then, in a series of things too complicated to be correctly described by a list title including "easy", hadrons are created and destroyed, leptons and anti-leptons are created and destroyed, and then protons are created and reign supreme for the next 300, 000 years.
6.	Matter domination- (70,000 years) At this time, the densities of non-relativistic matter (atomic nuclei) and relativistic radiation (photons) are equal. The Jeans length, which determines the smallest structures that can form (due to competition between gravitational attraction and pressure effects), begins to fall and perturbations, instead of being wiped out by radiation free-streaming, can begin to grow in amplitude.
7.	Recombination- (300,000 years) Hydrogen and helium atoms begin to form and the density of the universe falls. During recombination decoupling occurs, causing the photons to evolve independently from the matter. Most importantly, this means that the photons that compose the cosmic microwave background are a picture of the universe during this epoch.
8.	Dark ages-In this epoch, very few atoms are ionized, so the only radiation emitted is the 21 cm spin line of neutral hydrogen. There is currently an observational effort underway to detect this faint radiation, as it is in principle an even more powerful tool than the cosmic microwave background for studying the early universe.
9.	Structure formation in the big bang model proceeds hierarchically, with smaller structures forming before larger ones. The first structures to form are quasars, which are thought to be bright, early active galaxies and population III stars.
10.	Formation of galaxies- Large volumes of matter collapse to form a galaxy. Population II stars are formed early on in this process, with Population I stars formed later.
11.	Formation of groups, clusters and superclusters- Gravitational attraction pulls galaxies towards each other to form groups, clusters and superclusters.
12.	Formation of the solar system (8 billion years)- Finally, objects on the scale of our solar system form. Our sun is a late-generation star, incorporating the debris from many generations of earlier stars, and formed roughly 5 billion years ago, or roughly 8 to 9 billion years after the big bang.

Lister: ListAfterList Wiki Contributors
Source: Wikipedia -timeline of the big bang

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