{"id":2980,"date":"2025-06-18T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2025-07-08T11:02:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:02:44","slug":"bang-goes-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/bang-goes-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"Bang! Goes the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Bang! Goes the Universe<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n \n June 18, 2025<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Almost 14 billion years ago, the universe gave birth to itself. In the manner of a glassblower shaping a molten orb, a tiny, exceptionally hot speck of dense material ballooned outward into vastness.<\/p>\n

The event \u2014 known as the Big Bang \u2014 was an astounding burst of transformation. In less than a second, the universe likely doubled in size many times over. As it then began to cool, subatomic particles formed, followed minutes later by the lightest elements such as helium, hydrogen and lithium.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, within just three minutes, the universe completed the first stage of its development. But it would take at least 100 million years \u2014 after the first stars ignited \u2014 for heavier elements to begin forming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to truly grasp how quickly the universe expanded and cooled during those first moments,\u201d says Kris Pardo<\/a>, assistant professor of physics and astronomy<\/a>. \u201cThree minutes feels normal to us \u2014 but on that scale, it\u2019s almost impossible to comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Known Unknowns<\/h2>\n

Of course, the Big Bang remains a theory \u2014 \u201cour current best guess\u201d as to how the universe was formed, says Pardo. Key elements, such as \u201cinflation\u201d (a rapid expansion of the universe\u2019s size), still need confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think inflation likely occurred,\u201d he says, \u201cmainly because it helps explain why our universe is geometrically flat, along with a few other cosmological puzzles. However, we haven\u2019t yet found direct evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key may lie in the cosmic microwave background, or CMB \u2014 a faint, lingering radiation that stretches to the edges of the universe. Dating back to just after the Big Bang, it serves as an invaluable cosmic clue.<\/p>\n

Vera Gluscevic<\/a>, associate professor of physics and astronomy, focuses much of her research on testing theories related to CMB. In April, she and Adam He<\/a>, a doctoral student in physics, completed an analysis of data<\/a> collected by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, located in Chile\u2019s remote Atacama Desert. The images captured our clearest view yet of CMB \u2014 a snapshot of the universe when it was just 380,000 years old. Gluscevic and He were part of a team of 65 researchers from around the world who collaborated on this project.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cInIt was a triumphant final round of images produced by the ACT, which was decommissioned in 2022. Gluscevic is now a research partner with the Simons Observatory Collaboration<\/a>, also located in the Atacama Desert. It\u2019s home to the next generation of CMB telescopes, some of which are already in use at the observatory, with more on the way. These telescopes will enable scientists to study CMB with even more precision and will also produce the highest resolution images of the universe in its infancy ever captured.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom this, we will learn not only about the origins of cosmic structures,\u00a0conditions in the early universe,\u00a0and dynamics of the whole universe across its\u00a0history, but we will also answer some of the biggest questions about the fundamental quantum constituents of our physical reality, including neutrinos, dark matter and more,\u201d says Gluscevic.<\/p>\n

Pardo\u2019s research focuses on dark matter, a mysterious, invisible substance found throughout the universe. Though it doesn\u2019t interact with light, dark matter exerts a gravitational pull that has shaped the very structure of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

For the first 400,000 years after the Big Bang, strong radiation and electromagnetic forces prevented normal matter from coming together to form structures. But dark matter\u2019s relative imperviousness to these conditions allowed it to collapse into deep gravitational wells. As the universe cooled, ordinary matter fell into these pockets, eventually forming galaxies. Glittering night-sky spectacles, such as the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way, owe their existence to this hidden cosmic scaffolding.<\/p>\n

Pardo and Gluscevic co-lead the USC CosmoLab<\/a>, a research hub for cosmologists and astrophysicists, based at USC Dornsife. The lab collaborates with scientists at institutions including Carnegie Observatories, the California Institute of Technology and NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It\u2019s also training the next generation of scientists who will advance our understanding of the universe\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosmoLab has been important for us to both collaborate with nearby institutions, as well as bring that research to the many undergraduate and graduate students who work within the lab,\u201d says Pardo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n After Life: What Happens After We Die?\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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USC Dornsife scholars explore diverse cultural and religious views on the end of life and the mystery of what may follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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Origin Stories<\/h2>\n

\"Boom!\"Scientific theories explaining how the universe began echo, in some ways, one of our oldest proclivities: Humans have been telling stories about how and why our world exists since the dawn of consciousness.<\/p>\n

These \u201ccosmogonic\u201d myths and religious teachings vary widely across the globe, says Tok Thompson<\/a>, professor (teaching) of anthropology<\/a> and coauthor, with Gregory Schrempp, of \u00a0The Truth of Myth<\/em>. \u201cThere are some common themes, but no universals. Instead, we find a dazzling diversity of thought on how life began,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n

Some origin stories center on a divine creator \u2014 for example, Christianity teaches that God created the universe in six days. Others, such as that of ancient Greek mythology, in which the gods emerged spontaneously from chaos, don\u2019t feature an omniscient mastermind at all.<\/p>\n

Beliefs about human genesis vary just as widely, says Thompson: \u201cIn some traditions, we came \u2018down\u2019 from the heavens, while others \u2014 notably the widespread Native American Emergence Myth \u2014 maintain that we came up to this world from an underworld below.\u201d<\/p>\n

Science may explain how<\/em> the universe came into existence, but it doesn\u2019t address the question of why<\/em>, Thompson observes. \u201cIn the end, myths are a search for meaning; science is a quest for objective truth,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And while origin stories often parallel science in aiming to explain how we came to be, they also serve a distinct spiritual and psychological purpose, offering insights and meaning that go beyond what empirical evidence alone can provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience, at its root, stems from intrinsic curiosity \u2014 the desire to find out what\u2019s actually true,\u201d says Zlatan Damnjanovic<\/a>, an associate professor of philosophy<\/a> who teaches the course \u201cScience, Religion and the Making of the Modern Mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReligion is not about obtaining factual knowledge, but about answers to questions that are unknowable, such as what comes after death,\u201d he says. \u201cReligion provides a framework of meaning for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if science were to produce definitive proof of the Big Bang, it\u2019s unclear how much that would shift religious belief. \u201cThese things are abstract mathematical theories and formulae. Will they put an end to the questions? Probably not,\u201d says Damnjanovic.<\/p>\n

After all, science knows little about what came before<\/em> the Big Bang. The theory itself picks up a fraction of a second into the start of inflation. It\u2019s a bit like studying the sudden rise of a souffle without knowing what brought all the ingredients together.<\/p>\n

What \u2014 or who \u2014 launched it all into action, and why, remain questions for theologians, philosophers and mythologists to interpret, at least for now.<\/p>\n

End Times<\/h2>\n

\"Zap!\"Scientists are also working to solve another cosmic puzzle: how the universe might end.<\/p>\n

A central focus is dark energy \u2014 the mysterious, driving force behind the universe\u2019s accelerating expansion. Researchers had long believed this growth would continue indefinitely.<\/p>\n

An alternative idea is emerging, although a formal scientific theory has not yet been developed. Dark energy may now be waning<\/a>. If true, the universe\u2019s expansion could slow, then halt \u2014 and ultimately reverse. This cosmic contraction could culminate in an apocalyptic event that astronomers and physicists have evocatively dubbed the \u201cBig Crunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Kitt Peak, Arizona, which measures the effects of dark energy and the universe\u2019s expansion history, recently released data that supports this idea. Pardo notes, however, that confirmation will require similar findings from independent research teams.<\/p>\n

The end of the universe isn\u2019t just a scientific question \u2014 it\u2019s long been a concern of religious and mythic traditions. Most don\u2019t view it as an event of perpetual annihilation. In spiritual teachings around the world, from Christianity to Hinduism to Zoroastrianism, a more hopeful theme emerges from doomsday stories \u2014 that of rebirth.<\/p>\n

In ancient Norse mythology, for example, an apocalyptic event known as Ragnar\u00f6k destroys the Earth, sun, moon \u2014 and even the gods. From this devastation, a new world rises, populated by just two human survivors.<\/p>\n

If such an event were to come to pass, we can safely assume those two humans would once again set out to explain how it all began \u2014 and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n USC Dornsife Magazine\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Spring \/ Summer 2025<\/h2>\n

The Life Issue<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2990,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBang! Goes the Universe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/bang-goes-the-universe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bang! 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