The Birth of Atoms: Unveiling the Primordial Era
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Big Think
The formation of the first atoms in the universe was a gradual process that took hundreds of thousands of years after the Big Bang. Initially, there were no stable atoms due to the high energy levels and abundance of photons. However, as the universe expanded and cooled, the number of high-energy photons decreased, allowing neutral atoms to form. The dominant process for neutralization was a rare two-photon transition, where an electron drops to a lower energy state by emitting two lower-energy photons. This transition led to the formation of neutral atoms, paving the way for the cosmic structures and phenomena we observe today.