On the History and Evolution of the Universe

by Steven Hayes

13.7 billion years ago, an unknown immense source of energy caused the beginning of the universe as we know it. In the next few seconds after this event, now known as the Big Bang, the universe began to rapidly expand and cool down, while producing many of the elements and forces seen in the universe today. As it continued to expand, new stars, planets, galaxies, black holes, supernovae, moons and more began forming. One particular stellar system, the Solar System, appeared around 4.6 billion years ago, leading to the formation of the 8 planets around it, including Earth. In this planet's early history, water was brought to it via a comet or asteroid, helping to seed the building blocks for the first forms of life. These early forms of life, named unicellular organisms, eventually evolved to form multicellular organisms, helping to expand diversity in terms of marine organisms. As hundreds of millions of years passed, 5 major mass extinctions immensely changed the ecosystem, and by the end of the mass extinctions, the rise of mammals was seen. Some of these mammals would eventually evolve into primates, then apes, then early members of the Homo genus, and finally Homo sapiens, also known as humans. This unique species would prove to be extremely advanced, with immense development and growth occurring in just a few hundred thousand years. Alas, all of time now leads to the present day, leaving one question still remaining. What does the future hold for the universe, Solar System, and life on Earth?

81 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2023