The Early UniverseDiscuss the first three minutes after the Big Bang and describe the processes responsible for the creation of atomic matter. At t = 0, there was neither space nor time. The dominant theory today describing the origin of the universe and where it all began is the Big Bang theory. Scientists believe our universe, almost 14 billion years old, could at one point fit in the palm of your hand. At first there was nothing. No space or time, but then the light came. A small point of light appeared and inside that small ball of fire was space – it was the beginning of time. Time could now pass and space could expand. The idea that everything in the Universe, all matter, all energy and all galaxies was once contained in a region smaller than the current size of a single atom came from the American astronomer Edwin Hubble in the 1920s. He observed that other galaxies were moving away from ours, and the farther away they got, the faster they seemed to be moving. The Universe was therefore expanding and the Big Bang theory was born. Vesto Slipher was the first to discover the expansion of the universe due to the redshift of galaxies. The redshift of galaxies is an application of the Doppler effect. The spectrum of a galaxy shows spectral lines due to light absorbed by specific chemical elements in the galaxy. If the wavelength increases and shifts towards the red end of the spectrum, this would imply that the galaxies are moving further away. If the shift was towards the blue end of the spectrum, this would suggest that they are moving closer to each other and therefore closer to Earth. Although Slipher observed that a few galaxies showed a blue shift, the majority of galaxies showed a red shift. Edwin Hubble was then able to use Slip...... middle of paper ......BIG BANG TIMELINE. [online] Patrickgrant.com. Available at: http://patrickgrant.com/BBTL.htmHaystack, (2014). Astrochemistry. [online] Available at: http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/pcr/Astrochemistry/3%20-%20MATTER/nuclear%20synthesis.pdfMastin, L. (2014). Big Bang Timeline - The Big Bang and the Big Crunch - The Physics of the Universe. [online] Physicsoftheuniverse.com. Available at: http://www.physicsoftheuniverse.com/topics_bigbang_timeline.htmlMcGrayne, S. (2014). atom (matter). [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/41549/atomNave, R. (2014). Abundance of deuterium. [online] Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu. Available at: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/deuabund.htmlVan Flandern, TC (2002). The Top 30 Problems Related to the Big Bang. Metasearch Bulletin 11, 6-13.