How were the first particles formed?

How were the first particles formed?

As the universe continued to expand and cool, things began to happen more slowly. It took 380,000 years for electrons to be trapped in orbits around nuclei, forming the first atoms. These were mainly helium and hydrogen, which are still by far the most abundant elements in the universe.

What is particles made out of?

We learn in school that matter is made of atoms and that atoms are made of smaller ingredients: protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made of quarks, but electrons aren’t. As far as we can tell, quarks and electrons are fundamental particles, not built out of anything smaller.

What was the first particle created in universe?

The first entities thought to emerge were quarks, a fundamental particle, and gluons, which carry the strong force that glues quarks together. As the universe cooled further, these particles formed subatomic particles called hadrons, some of which we know as protons and neutrons.

Do all particles move at the same speed?

The actual average speed of the particles depends on their mass as well as the temperature – heavier particles move more slowly than lighter ones at the same temperature. The oxygen and nitrogen molecules in air at normal room temperature are moving rapidly at between 300 to 400 metres per second.

How do particles look like?

Particles are often represented as dots. This figure could represent the movement of atoms in a gas, people in crowds or stars in the night sky.

Can you create something out of nothing?

Something can be created from nothing But such a perfect vacuum may not exist. So particle-antiparticle pairs can be created from “nothing”, that is from no particles to two particles, but energy must be provided, so these particles can be viewed as having been created from the energy.

What came before particles?

Before the Big Bang, there were no laws of physics, no time and certainly no particles. At the very beginning, there was an immense amount of energy in the form of radiation. The fundamental particles were born out of this energy. The quarks and leptons were amongst the first particles to appear.

Can particles travel through a vacuum?

Thanks to a quirk of quantum theory, subatomic particles can emit light as they travel through a seemingly empty vacuum. In some cases, an electron or other charged subatomic particle passing through a medium travels more quickly than light moving through the same medium.