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Article: Searching for secrets behind 'big bang' A satellite to be launched this week may help scientists better.(USA)(Science)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- June 23, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Somewhere between 12 billion and 15 billion years ago, scientists say, the universe was little more than a searing-hot bowl of primordial soup, filled with atomic particles floating freely through space.
Later, as the plasma soup cooled, molecules of the simple elements like hydrogen and helium - the building blocks of all matter in the cosmos - coalesced, eventually forming stars, planets, and galaxies. But the exact recipe brewed by the "big bang" tens of billions of years ago remains a mystery.
Tomorrow, NASA is scheduled to launch a satellite that could give scientists their most detailed look at this elusive recipe. For at least the next three ...