3 Constituents of the Universe: Time - Space - Matter/Energy

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1

The Bible is not meant to be a science textbook; we should not look for scientific facts or errors in it. However, in its own way, it tells the truth: in the account of the creation of the world, the elements that make up the universe were ordered in the same way as they are ordered in science today. God created time and space almost simultaneously, followed by matter.

The Composition of the Universe

In recent times we have witnessed great advances in physics regarding the origin and nature of the universe. However, it is precisely in this science that the mystery continues to abound. Given its immensity and our relative smallness, there is much more what we don’t know than what we do know about the universe, and much of what is known are only conjectures, or hypotheses that lack experimental verification.

In our quest to find the Trinity or the transversal tridimensionality in everything that the One and Triune God has created, we along with most physicists have come to the conclusion that the universe is composed of Time – Space – Matter. Some might say that energy is a fourth element, but this is not so: with Einstein’s general theory of relativity, we come to know that matter and energy are transmutable, that is, matter is a form of energy and energy is a form of matter.

In a way we could say that matter or mass is solidified or condensed energy and energy is volatile matter. Out of His trinitarian nature, in the the beginning God created three things: time, space and matter. Therefore, the universe is composed of time, space, and matter/energy. The universe is a continuum of matter that turns into energy and energy that turns into matter in a space-time continuum.

From the way our logical minds work, we are led to think that matter/energy is somehow the content of the universe while space and time are, respectively, the place and the moment when matter changes into energy, and vice versa. That is, the universe is composed of an active matter/energy element, and two passive ones, time and space.

The theory of relativity and quantum physics have come to challenge the logic of our thinking in the sense that none of the three components are passive, all three interact with each other, in a very complex way that makes none of the three elements more important than the other two.

As discussed in the case of tridimensionality of the human family, the existence of one element assumes the existence of the other two; we can also say here that each one of the three elements cannot exist by itself separately from the other two, or all three exist concomitantly or none of the three exist at all.

The Beginning of Universe

For centuries, atheist scientists have based their atheism on the fact that the universe has no beginning and no end, that it has always existed, and have poked fun at the Bible and the Church which have always defended that the world has its beginning and end in God. We know that the universe is composed of time, space and matter; if it were eternal, time would not have been part of this equation, the universe would have been static, or at best cyclic.

Albert Einstein in 1915, with his theory of relativity, established a relation between matter, space, time and gravity, as well as the equivalence and transmutability between energy and matter. As we have already said, he discovered further that the universe is not static, but that it contracts or expands.

In 1927, the Roman Catholic priest Georges Lemaître formulated on theoretical grounds, and confirmed observationally soon after by Edwin Hubble, that the universe is expanding. Therefore, he concluded that there was a day, once upon a time, without a yesterday, that is, that the universe is the result of a cosmic explosion (the Big Bang) that occurred 13.8 billion years ago.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble observed using the world’s largest telescope (100-inch Hooker Telescope) that the galaxies beyond the Milky Way were moving away from us at a speed directly proportional to the distance from the Earth, that is, the further they are from us the faster their speed. His observations proved beyond a doubt not only the theory of the expansion of the universe, but that the expansion is accelerating.

In addition to these observations, in 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic background radiation, known as the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) that is present throughout space. This background radiation is what is observed when we tune into a television channel that is not occupied by a television station. The noise that we hear is an echo of the Big Bang and the pixels that we see resemble a photograph taken 380 thousand years after the Big Bang, when the universe was still very hot and dense.

In the beginning, therefore, there existed a single infinitesimally dense point hotter than the interior of a star, to which physicists call a singularity. With the explosion of this singularity and the ensuing rapid expansion, time, space, and later matter were created. The fact that the universe is not static but is in a state of expansion makes it inconceivable that it had always existed and will continue to exist eternally in expansion; in other words, the universe must have had a beginning. This beginning was the Big Bang.

The graphic representation of the universe in expansion, as shown by the picture above, is triangular in shape, the vertex of the triangle coinciding with the most intense light source: the Big Bang. If we want to have an idea of how the Big Bang took place, we just need to turn on a flash light in the darkness: we will see that the light follows a triangular path, and that this triangle expands until the light fades in the distance.

Similarly what happens in all fields of human knowledge is that everything that begins to exist had a cause. Therefore, if the universe began to exist, its existence was the result of a cause. This cause, however, has to be in itself not caused by another cause, must be immutable, timeless, immaterial and personal, in other word, God.

An Oscillating Universe

Sensing the rug being pulled from under their feet, the atheists not being able to deny the Big Bang, began to argue that in the distant future the universe will reach a point of maximum expansion, and will then begin its reverse movement through which all matter will be reunited again by the force of gravity, to subsequently explode and expand into a simultaneously new and recycled universe. In other words, the universe is in a perpetual consecutive succession of Big Bangs and Big Crunches.

Consequently, the universe would behave like a yo-yo, a large explosion followed by expansion that would slow down and stop when the force of expansion equals the force of gravity. At that point the universe would start to do the opposite of expansion, and would start to shrink vertiginously as the force of gravity surpasses and annuls completely the expanding force until an implosion occurs, and a new singularity is created, this would then be followed by a new Big Bang and so on.

The universe would be oscillating, like an elastic that expands rapidly just short of its maximum point, the expansion then slows down to a stop followed immediately by a contraction that is as rapid as its expansion, until it reaches a Big Crunch, that is, to the infinitely dense point that would give rise to a new Big Bang.

 

Availing this theory, we have the first law of thermodynamics (nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed), the amount of matter is always the same, recycling perpetually so that the universe has no beginning and no end. In philosophy, this idea is represented by the theory of eternal return – that history repeats itself, as some historians like to point out. In religion, we have the theory of reincarnation and the cyclical concept of time, as understood by the Greeks: spring, summer, fall, winter and so on.

However, this is not what is happening since observations made with the Hubble telescope prove differently. The launching of a rocket may give us an idea of what happens. A rocket travels through the atmosphere because it has a force greater than the gravitational force pulling it down to the earth. If it runs out of fuel before it can escape from the gravitational influence of the Earth, it will stop going up and gravity will pull it back down to its starting point. However, if it does not run out of fuel and rises more than 12 km/s, it will never return to earth and will distance itself from us indefinitely.

This is what happens with our universe: the cosmic acceleration of expansion is so large and the density of matter (that is proportional to gravity) is so low that all objects will continue to move away from us forever.

The End of the Universe

In a closed universe, gravity would stop the expansion when it reaches its limit and would be followed by a contraction. But our universe is open and unlimited, so it can expand indefinitely, and all observations indicate that the expansion is accelerating.

The speed of expansion of the galaxies is too large for their gravities to reverse the motion. Even if they were to slow down in the distant future, they would already be too far for gravity to pull them back to the starting point. Therefore, the expansion is irreversible because there is not enough matter in the universe for the force of their gravities to stop the expansion. So, or at a given moment, the universe freezes or expands until it uses up all its energy and dies.

Furthermore, the decrease of mass due to the depletion of energy decreases the force of gravity, making the reversal of the motion impossible. The universe will expand until death which will occur when it has expended all its energy.

According to the first law of thermodynamics, in the transmutation between energy and matter, nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, and everything is transformed, which would be in accord with an eternal and oscillating universe. However, in terms of the second law of thermodynamics, the transformation of matter into energy is not possible without the deterioration or expenditure of the former. In this sense, the known natural processes are quantitatively conservative (1^st law) and qualitatively degenerative (2^nd law).

At first glance, it may seem that the first law gives reason to atheists and to the idea of an oscillating universe. If energy cannot be created or destroyed, this means that energy can be recycled ad aeternum.

Yes and no. It is true that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed or transformed from more useful forms to less useful ones. In each energy transfer or transformation in the real world, a certain amount of energy is converted into forms that cannot be reused. In most cases, this non-renewable energy takes the form of heat.

It is true that heat in ideal conditions can be reused. However, it can never be transformed into the type of mechanical energy with the same performance and efficiency of 100%. Therefore, every time an energy transfer takes place, a certain amount of useful energy (though still in conformity with the 1^st law) will change to the non-renewable category (in conformity with the 2^nd law or the law of entropy). If this were not the case, if only the 1^st law existed, it would be possible to build an engine that would work forever using only the energy that itself produces.

The reason the universe cannot resurge to give rise to another Big Bang, even if it did contract, is that the universe is extremely inefficient (entropy): far from saving, it wastes energy. In fact, the universe is so inefficient that the chance of it resurging after its collapse would be about 0.00000001% of the original Big Bang. Such an insignificant chance of resurging would result in a new collapse almost immediately and the universe would end up becoming a giant black hole for the rest of eternity.

The Analogy of the Sun

Everything in the universe takes place in an analogous way. In our little world, the solar system is composed of a star – the sun – with eight planets orbiting around it, of which ours is the third. We owe life to the star king, but it is no longer young, already showing streaks of white hair. In fact, just like a candle where the flame blazes before it goes out, or like a sick person who seems to get well just before death, within a billion years the sun’s brightness will increase and will occupy two thirds of our sky. The oceans will dry up, the atmosphere will disappear. Long before this, however, our planet will not be able to provide the minimum conditions necessary for life.

The sun was formed about 4,500 million years ago from a great cloud of dust and hydrogen, which by the effect of gravity swirled like a hurricane. This gravitational attraction caused the density to increase and, again like a hurricane, the temperature of the central nucleus also increased until it reached around 10 million degrees Celsius. Under these conditions, nuclear fusion occurred and the star began to emit light.

It has been estimated that the hydrogen in the sun has already been reduced by forty percent. It is also estimated that the Earth emerged 3,500 million years ago and that it still has one billion years left till its end. That being the case, and although it seems that there are still many more years left, putting time in perspective, however, we are already in the last quarter of our planet’s life.

Each star has its fate marked from the moment of its birth: the mass it has on the day of its birth, so it shall have upon its death. As our sun ages it will first become a red giant whose radius is 100 times greater than it is now thus engulfing the inner planets of its solar system including the Earth. It will then turn into a planetary nebula, and when it has lost all its glow into a white dwarf, and eventually when it has cooled significantly it will become an almost invisible black dwarf.

A star that is forty times bigger than the sun will become a black hole in its final phase. Like the stars, the universe will expand until it no longer has the energy to keep the heat going, and without the heat it will die of cold when it has spent all its fuel.

Time

In physics, the concept or the coordinate of time is a measure that determines the duration of something subject to a change. There are, therefore, three types of time:

The psychological time or human time is what each one of us experiences – our historical memory of what happened and is no longer happening, the present that is now occurring and flowing in the direction of a future that is to come.

The cosmic time is associated with the universe that began on the day of the Big Bang, a day without a yesterday and which will end when the world ceases to exist.

The thermodynamics time is associated with the increase in entropy, that is, according to the 2^nd law of thermodynamics matter does not convert to energy without undergoing some wear and tear; if this was not the case, it would be possible to make an engine that produced exactly the same energy it consumes, an eternal engine. But this is not possible, systems that dissipate energy are not irreversible.

Einstein discovered that time is not absolute, but relative: same two clocks that have been synchronized can measure different times if one is moved at a substantial speed while the other is kept still. For this reason, Einstein prefers to speak of space and time as a single entity, space-time. In truth, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant had already understood that space and time were essential for the understanding of human experiences, as everything happens simultaneously in a time and space continuum.

Time decreases in direct proportion to speed: the faster the movement of an object, the less time elapses for it. Increase the speed and everything slows down around the person who is moving: from his watch to his thoughts. The moving person does not realize this, but an outside observer does. Here lies the basis of the famous paradox of the two twins.

In this two twins paradox, one of the twins takes a trip into space travelling at 90% the speed of light; the watch on this twin moves 44% faster than the other twin who remained on Earth. After 5 years, when the twin returns from space, he would be only 5 years older while his twin brother would already be 100. This paradox is a thought experiment that defies conventional thinking, and yet it is pure reality in the theory of relativity.

Space

In the time before the Big Bang, space had a dimension of zero, that is, it was nonexistent. With the big explosion it started gaining dimensions until today and continues in accelerated expansion, continuing to grow.

Space is understood as the areas of the universe that is relatively empty, outside the atmosphere of the celestial bodies. However, today we know that it is not totally empty of matter because it contains particles of hydrogen, although of low density, as well as some electromagnetic radiation. Today we also know that it contains unknown forms of matter and energy, such as dark matter and dark energy.

There is a space that is real because it can be observed and then there is a space that we intuit it exists, but we have no way yet to observe it. Light travels at a speed of 300 thousand kilometers per second; the light of any star takes thousands of years to reach the Earth and that of the galaxies millions of years. There are bodies that are so far away that their light has not yet arrived here since they were formed, that’s why we cannot see them and yet they do exist.

As it happened with the conception of time, the space also defies our conventional mind. We imagine the space to be linear extending in all directions, as a measurable three-dimensional continuum of height, width and depth that surrounds everything. However, this is not so: space in fact curves due to the forces of gravity that the stars exert on it which may be large or small depending on the mass of the star. For example, on earth we weigh eight times more than we do on the moon. Einstein saw that the force of gravity did more than just bend the space: it is a geometric spatiotemporal manifestation.

Energy

At the time of the Big Bang, when space had a dimension of zero, it was infinitely hot. Like the light and the heat emanating from a burning pile diminish as they move away from the source, as it happens with expansion, so the universe is cooling as it moves away from the Big Bang in space and time. During the moments following the Big Bang, matter were not yet present, there were only photons, protons, neutrons and electrons. With the continued expansion of the universe and the subsequent lowering of the temperature, these particles began to combine to form the nucleus of heavy hydrogen atoms which then combined with more neutrons and protons and formed the helium nucleus.

With the sudden drop in temperature, these early particles no longer had enough energy to overcome the electromagnetic attraction between them and began to form atoms, which are the building blocks of matter.

In Greek, energy means activity, force in action. Energy is an abstract concept because it does not refer to a physical object. However, according to the theory of special relativity there is an equivalence between mass and energy so that all bodies, by being made up of matter, contain energy. Let’s look at some forms of energy:

Kinetic energy – It is what bodies possess in motion, depending on their mass and velocity.

Electrical energy – It is produced by the attraction or repulsion between electrically charged bodies.

Nuclear energy – It is produced from the rupture or splitting of atoms. In the case of the nuclear energy used for the production of electricity, it is the breakdown of an atom of a heavy element such as uranium when it is bombarded with neutrons in a process known as nuclear fission. Now, nuclear fusion where two or more atomic nuclei fuse together is only possible inside of stars, our sun is a good example of nuclear fusion where the core temperature reaches to 15 million degrees Celsius.

Potential energy – It is the energy contained in an object due to its position relative to some reference point. A bottle sitting on the shelf, for instance, has potential energy given the position it occupies, as it may fall.

Chemical energy – It is the absorbed, stored and released energy in chemical reactions between atoms and molecules. Plants, for example, use the sunlight to produce chemical energy which they store in organic molecules.

Radiant or luminous energy – Energy that propagates in the void in form of electromagnetic waves: visible light, x-rays, gamma rays, ultraviolet rays, infrared rays; visible light is only one form of radiant energy.

Thermal energy – When a fire is lit and wood burns, thermal energy is produced – the heat flows from bodies with higher temperature to bodies with lower temperature.

Dark energy – This is the last form of energy which was discovered relatively recently in 1999. There is more that we don’t know than we do know about this dark energy because it is not observable with what’s available to us today. Is it a manifestation of gravity or of matter-energy? The dark energy corresponds to 72% of the universe, being composed of 23% of dark matter. Only 4.6% of the universe are atoms, that is, matter, galaxies, stars and planets.

Matter

At the microscopic level, matter is formed by molecules and these in turn by atoms which are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. In addition to this, there is a set of subatomic particles that make up the electrons, protons and neutrons called quarks.

Macroscopically, our solar system, our galaxy and all the galaxies that make up the observable universe are matter. Fundamentally, our universe at the level of matter is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, 75% and 24%, respectively; only 1% of the known matter is composed of all the other elements. All visible celestial objects known, galaxies, stars, planets and clouds of dust constitute 10% of the mass of the universe; the rest is unidentifiable, undetectable mass which astronomers have termed the dark matter.

Matter has two main characteristics: it occupies a place in space and has a mass. Mass is a fundamental physical magnitude that can be defined as the measure of the amount of matter a body has and which determines its inertia and gravitational properties.

As we have already mentioned, there exists a correspondence between matter and energy and vice versa. Matter can be transformed into energy and energy can likewise be transformed into matter; we can look at matter as a form of energy or energy as a form of matter. However, matter is not energy, nor energy is matter. The flame of a candle, for example, is composed of a mixture of fuel in the form of vapor, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and water, hence we can call it a matter. However, the light that is produced by the flame is energy; the heat produced is also energy, not matter. The fire in itself, however, is a state of matter.

As an example of energy transforming into matter and matter into energy, we take the combustion of the sun which transforms mass, that is, matter into energy. In turn, by photosynthesis, this energy absorbed by plants is transformed into mass, because it is responsible for their growth.

Matter exists in nature in three states:

Gas – The molecules that make up a gas almost do not attract each other, reason why they move in the void at great speed, with much separation from each other.

Liquid – Liquid molecules are not as close as solid molecules, but are closer than the gas molecules.

Solid – Because it opposes or puts up resistance to changes in shape and volume. The molecules of a solid object have great cohesion between them, so they adopt well-defined forms, resisting therefore, any change of volume or shape.

Plasma – There is a fourth state of matter which is fundamentally a gas made up of electrons and positively charged ions. In our understanding, plasma is not considered a fourth state of matter because it is not a true state, but rather a process; it refers to the exact moment when matter becomes energy. Therefore, it can be considered both as a form or state of matter, and as a form or state of energy.

Our sun is made of plasma. On Earth, thunderbolts are plasma that occur when the atmospheric gas is heated to high temperatures and is ionized by electric currents. Another form of plasma is the solar wind that interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field, creating the aurora borealis. Finally, a form of plasma closest to us, after the plasma TVs disappeared because of their high energy consumption, are the fluorescent lamps that we contemplate every day.

Conclusion

The future of our precious universe does not depend on visible energy or matter, because these are in the minority in the universe. It depends first on the dark energy and dark matter. These two are in struggle with one another, like good and evil; dark matter exerts a centripetal force on the universe; if this wins, the world will collapse on itself.

The dark energy, on the other hand, exerts a centrifugal force on the universe, so if this last one wins the battle, the universe will disintegrate completely: the stars, the solar systems, the galaxies and finally the very atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons and quarks that make up these. It would be the end of the universe.

Since the dark energy corresponds to 72% of the universe, with only 23% being made up of dark matter, it is expected that the dark energy will win out. Collapsing on itself, in case the dark matter wins, or disintegrating if the winner is the dark energy, either way, the universe is doomed. Our only consolation is that we won’t be here to witness it, by then the whole Humanity will be living with its Creator, God.

Our planet Earth is in the last quarter of its life, it has still a billion years left. The universe has been existing for 14 billion years, it may still have 5 billion years more. These facts should be enough to kill any anxiety about an imminent end. What counts though is the principle that the universe had a beginning in God its Creator and in Him will have its end. He who has created everything from nothing, only He can dissolve everything into nothing again.

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC