by Nelson Lynch
Cosmic Egg
Nelson Lynch
Copyright 2011
ISBN 978-1-4657-6021-0
Cover: Microsoft Clip Art
Jerome slowly turned pages in his astronomy textbook looking at star charts. He half listened as his friend Bill in the back row asked a question on red giants and chances of a supernova.
The instructor answered with something about solar masses and iron in the star’s inner core. His eyes shifted to Jerome turning pages. “What do you think happens to red giants of ten solar masses or more?”
Jerome kept turning pages.
“I mean you, Jerome. What will happen to that red giant and how fast will it happen?”
Jerome closed the book keeping his finger between the pages of star charts. He waited five seconds racking his brain for the correct answer and hoping the instructor would go to another student. “It has to do with the Schwarzschild Limit. Any star over a certain number of solar masses will go supernova. If the star is under the required solar masses, the star will go nova and become a white dwarf for a few billion years and eventually turn into a brown dwarf when its nuclear fires go out.”
The instructor shook his head slowly as he glanced at the wall clock. “You’re half right, but half right isn’t good enough.” He smiled at a young woman in the front row. “Miss James, will you straighten Jerome out on what will happen to a red giant over ten solar masses.”
She turned in her seat, shook her long blonde hair and looked down her nose at Jerome. “The star will use its nuclear hydrogen fuel quickly. When that is depleted, the star will start using helium as its primary fuel. When the –.”
The instructor waved his hand. “You don’t have to go through the complete sequence. Just tell him what the end product will be.”
Miss Janet James fluffed her hair and swung back toward the instructor. “The super red giant over ten solar masses will go supernova and in a very short time collapse in on itself and become a black hole. The black hole will contain –”
The instructor waved his hand and cut her off. “You’re correct, but we don’t need a dissertation right now on black holes. The period is nearly over. What about the other statement from Jerome?”
The blonde hesitated a second. “Oh. It has nothing to do with the Schwarzschild Limit, which is not the correct term. It is the Schwarzschild Radius.” She turned and smiled at Jerome. “That’s a completely different process.”
“I knew that.” Jerome closed his textbook and waited for the bell.
“In our next class we are going over chapter ten. It is about the Big Bang theory.” He paused until the bell quit ringing. “Do some outside reading on at least one other theory on creation of the universe. Be prepared. Dismissed.”
Jerome waited until he and Bill were sitting in the snack area. “Why did you ask such a dumb question on red giants? Everybody knew the answer.”
Bill sipped on his coffee. “You didn’t. But, it was my turn to ask a question and I wanted to ask something that I knew the answer to. How come you didn’t know the answer?”
Jerome opened his text to chapter ten. “I knew the answer. He just caught me off guard. I was looking ahead at chapter ten and thinking about Janet.” He paused looking around the large food center. “There she is over there sitting in a booth against the wall.” He grinned at Bill. “She’s one clean cut woman. Do you think she would go out and have a beer some night? Let’s go over and join her.”
Bill glanced at the booth. “Have you lost your mind again? She’s an ‘A’ student with a future in astronomy. You and I are ‘D-minus’ students who are having trouble with first year calculus. Her close friends call her JJ. You’re still calling her Janet.” Bill stopped and nodded his head toward the booth. “Look, Mr. Irving, our instructor, is joining her. I wouldn’t go over there now for a hundred dollar bill.”
Jerome stared at the booth for thirty seconds and finally nodded. “I guess so. We had better study up on the big bang theory and one other theory.”
Bill opened his book to chapter ten. “We had better ace this chapter or old Irving may flunk us out.”
They spent the next five minutes slowly scanning the thirty pages of chapter ten. Every thirty or forty seconds Jerome would glance across the snack area at the booth.
Bill pushed his textbook toward the centre of the table. He watched the occupants of the booth for a minute until Jerome leaned back in his chair. “Do you think they are talking about black holes, supernovas and spiral galaxies?” He watched Janet lean across the table smiling and nodding her head. “I bet he just asked her out to dinner tonight and she accepted. What do you think?”
Jerome watched the booth for ten seconds. “I don’t think so. Janet is too ethical to date an instructor, especially one teaching a class she’s taking.”
Bill shook his head. “You are dumb. You’re about to fail astronomy 301 and have already failed girls 001. I have another class soon. Why don’t you go to the library and get some material on creation theories other than the big bang.” He closed his book and stood. “Actually I never heard of another theory about the creation of the universe. Have you?”
Jerome nodded his head. “Yes I’ve heard of them. But they’re not things I study in spare time. There’s tons of information about them on the internet. We can browse all night. I’ll see you tonight at our room. I’ll find something on universes by the time you get there. Something that will impress JJ.”
Bill shook his head and walked away.
Bill dropped his textbook on his desk, turned on his computer and grinned at Jerome. “Well, what have you found out about the big bang and other creation theories? Anything that will get our grade from a ‘D’ to a ‘C?’ By the way, Janet was still sitting with Irving when I left for my next class.”
“I can’t worry about her. If she’s hanging around with Irving, she’s out of my class completely. If I were to talk to her, Irving would give both of us an ‘F+’.” He pointed at his computer screen. “I’ve been browsing and reading all afternoon on the big bang theory. It was enough to make my head hurt. I had to take two aspirin.” He watched Bill get a soft drink from the fridge. “Do you know what the big bang is about?”
Bill sat down, typed in big bang in the Google search box and waited a second. He stared at the screen and then back to Jerome. “An awful lot of junk here.” He sipped his drink. “Don’t scientist say everything started way back then in one terrific explosion.”
Jerome gave his mouse a double click. “Here’s a site that says the universe is fourteen point seven billion years old. Everything started right then and there. Even time started at that point. This guy says there was no time before that.”
Bill wrinkled his forehead for a second. “You mean there was no such thing as the day before the big bang or even ten minutes before.” He scratched his head. “There had to be something like a countdown to a rocket launch. It would be five, four, three, two, one, Bang.”
Jerome opened his notebook to a page with a few notes. “I found this other site which said some stars are sixteen billion years old. Some how or other that puts them older than the universe. No where is that discrepancy explained.”
Bill waved his hand to stop Jerome. “Stop, stick to the big bang. We don’t want to clutter up our minds with items Irving is not going to ask us about.”
Jerome nodded. “In the beginning.” He looked across the desk at Bill. “Write this down. You’ll need notes. In the beginning there was this Cosmic Egg. It was extremely small but all the future atoms of the whole universe were in that egg.”
“Wait a minute.” Bill typed Cosmic Egg in the Google slot and waited a second. “My computer says Cosmic Egg is a funk band and a singing duo from Australia. I don’t think Irving will like that.”
“Janet will love to hear you talk like that. I think she’s a farm girl.” He doubled clicked and typed again. “I searched cosmic egg using Yahoo. Here’s a site saying the SunBird lays a cosmic egg during solar eclipses.” He glanced at Jerome. “Obviously that’s the wrong cosmic egg.” He paused a few seconds scanning the other results. “How long did that egg sit there before it exploded?”
Jerome got up, went to the fridge, got a soft drink and sat down before trying to answer. “No time. Remember time and the universe started at the split second of creation. There was no time before creation, so it wasn’t there for any length of time.”
Bill scanned the second twenty sites pertaining to cosmic egg. “What I want to see is the cosmic rooster and the cosmic hen that laid this egg. Where did they get to?
Jerome clicked again. “I don’t know. But whatever you do, don’t ask Mr. Irving. He
