Right from the smallest bug, a drop of water, a mote of dust or an idea that cannot be seen but only felt, to the largest animals (blue whales, elephants and rhinoceros), the biggest stars, trees, homes, schools, toys and the tiniest virus — all are part and parcel of the universe.

Do you know what the universe is after all?

It has been worked out by astronomers (those who study planets, stars, galaxies and creation of the universe), that universe came into being some 13.7 billion years ago (one billion is 1 followed by nine zeros. That is very far back in time. Try to write it for yourself!)

In the Holy Quran, it has been implied (that is, not stated in great detail but enough) that the universe came into being in a cataclysm, a sudden flash (Kun Fayakun). So you see that is (the creation of universe) only one of the countless scientific phenomena stated in the Holy Quran that have been substantiated by modern science.

The event of the creation of the universe is called the Big Bang. To understand the Big Bang, we should first try to understand what pressure is, and then what is heat.

You know that when you feel cold, as you surely do in winter, you rub your hands for warmth. Try doing it right now.

Because of the rubbing action and the pressure thus applied, heat is generated. The heat is enough for you to feel the difference.

A long time before the Big Bang actually took place, all the galaxies, including stars, planets and gases, converged (gathered) in one place. It took a billion years or so for them to pack together, thus causing a build-up of a great deal of pressure and heat. So much pressure and so much heat that you guess and keep guessing! Millions of degrees? No, that is not enough.

Billions? Even that is not enough. Perhaps trillions (1 followed by twelve zeros!), many trillion degrees at that! That much of heat. Pressure too became unbearable. Many trillion pounds per square inch — for while heat is measured in degrees, pressure is expressed in pounds, as pounds per square inch. We cannot even imagine such unearthly dimensions, but we have to believe it, because the Big Bang could not have come about in lesser extremity.

Eventually came the Big Bang. The matter suddenly blew apart and was scattered in all directions — at furious speeds which rivalled the speed of light (which is 300,000 kilometre per second). Still it was dark, darker than the darkest night as there was no light of any kind. The expansion had begun. In less than one hundred seconds, the universe expanded by billions of kilometres, far bigger than our solar system.

It was still dark; absolutely pitch dark, since no stars had come into being yet. That would yet take hundreds of thousands of years for the first stars to appear, and then galaxies would take a few million years to show up. The earliest galaxies are called proto-galaxies.

Suddenly, the universe lighted up! Stars of many sizes and varieties came into existence with the passage of time. And millions of clouds of gases, called nebulae (singular: nebula) began to glow. Some grouped together. Billions of years later, the residents of a blue-green planet (our Mother Earth, if you have not guessed what I am talking about) orbiting an average-sized star (our dear shinning Sun) would call such star groups as galaxies.

More about galaxies would be discussed later on in the next article, till then, let’s see what more you can find out about the Big Bang.

The writer is a professional astronomer and a former head of PIA Planetaria. He can be reached at

astronomerpreone@hotmail.com