Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 6/26/2008

Question
The Big Bang was developed through energy and matter. How exactly did these to elements come to be? And are scientists trying to gradually find an explanation about this issue? I ask this because the concept of that matter has been on my mind ever since I got interested with the topic.

Answer
Hi,
Please refer to this wikipedia article on the bang.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang

The big bang initially was too hot for matter to remain as matter as we know it.
About microsecond after the bang, individual protons could form and remain stable. 1 second later,  electrons could remain stable.
But the universe was still dominated by high energy photons, and to some extent by neutrinos.
A few minutes into the expansion, the temperture had dropped to about 1 billion kelvin, and density to that of air.
At that moment, the first Deuterium and helium was formed by big-bang nucleosynthesis.
However most protons remained as hydrogen nucleii and only after 379,000 years could they begin to form vast clouds of hydrogen gas.
That was the moment known as the matter-energy decoupling event.
The present day CMB or cosmic background radiation is a remnant echo of that event.

The ratios of these bang created elements have closely agreed with theoretical values, by independent observation.

Other elements higher up on the Periodic table were all cooked in stellar interiors in an ongoing process that started about 1 billion years after the bang.

Yes! Scientists are studying these issues from the 1800 onwards.
The CMB itself was accidentally discovered by Panzias & wilson in 1964!
The CMB Anisotropies (fluctuations) were first discovered by the NASA COBE satellite only in 1989!

It is always an ongoing process with science, as you know.

Hope that suffices.
Please do rate the answer if you find it helpful.
regards
Jayen