The Wavelength Average

There is matter and space in the universe. Both contain energy. The energy in space is electromagnetic radiation, which consists of a wide range of wavelengths, from gamma rays to radio waves, and includes light, infrared, ultraviolet and, X rays. The energy in matter can be subdivided into the energy within matter, which we refer to as the Mass-Energy Equivalence and is the basis of Einstein's famous formula E=MC squared, and the energy of matter in motion, which we refer to as kinetic energy.

Since energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changed in form, the total energy balance of the universe must remain constant. But the balance of these three forms of energy, electromagnetic radiation, the internal energy within matter and, the energy of matter in motion, is constantly changing and the change is going in only one direction.

Electromagnetic radiation, other than that left over from the Big Bang, is a function of matter. This means that it is produced by matter, and requires matter to define it's wavelength. But the direction in which the universe is going is energy undergoing a one-way transfer from being associated with matter to being associated with space. Electromagnetic radiation in the universe is always increasing at the expense of matter.

Radiation is made from matter, but not the other way around. Nuclear fusion is taking place in stars as smaller atoms are crunched together by the gravity and pressure into larger ones. The new larger atom has less internal energy than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form it. The extra energy is released as radiation and this is why stars shine. 

Another way of expressing it is in terms of the geometry of spheres. Energy is equivalent to surface area. This is why spheres are the default gravitational form of matter in the universe. A sphere has the lowest surface area per volume, and thus the lowest energy. A larger sphere has less surface area than two smaller spheres that equal it's volume. That is why stars release the excess energy as radiation.

Even when matter falls into a black hole the energy in it is ultimately released as radiation because the black hole eventually decays.

Matter actually can be produced from electromagnetic radiation, at least at the quantum level. It is called "pair production". But it produces one particle of matter, and the other of antimatter. This is what the "pair" is. The two particles soon mutually annihilate back into radiation, so for all practical purposes matter cannot be produced by radiation.

The rapid, or R, type nuclear fusion that fuses lighter atoms into elements heavier than iron only happens when a large star explodes in a supernova. The ordinary fusion process only goes as far as iron and this is the only way that elements heavier than iron are produced, which is why elements up to iron are exponentially more common than those heavier than iron. But this isn't really creating matter out of energy because the matter already existed and it is a reusing of the energy within the same star.

So as time goes on the total mass of matter in the universe is decreasing and the energy in electromagnetic radiation is increasing. Thus, over the very long term, we could say that the existence of matter is just a temporary state in the universe.

There are the two types of energy associated with matter. The first is the internal energy, the Mass-Energy Equivalence. The second is the motion of matter, heat is the movement of atoms and molecules within the matter and kinetic energy is the movement of the entire mass. The two are not really separate things. If atoms in a mass are in motion, relative to each other, we call it heat. If the atoms of the mass are all in motion together we call it kinetic energy.

Both of these are being continuously reduced in favor of the energy going to electromagnetic radiation. The movement of atoms, kinetic energy, is being reduced because smaller atoms are being crunched together by fusion in stars. The total mass is being reduced because the new atom has less mass than the smaller ones that were crunched together to form it. The leftover energy is released as radiation, and this is why stars shine.

But information cannot just be lost. Matter is information and, if it's existence is just a temporary period in the history of the universe, the information in matter must somehow remain. That is where the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation come in.

The original radiation released in the Big Bang, which we can still detect, must have been extremely short wavelength gamma rays. Remember that radiation today is produced by matter and requires matter to define it's wavelength. With no matter just after the Big Bang there would be nothing to define wavelength. I believe that the orbital distance of the electron from the proton in a hydrogen atom is, or is related to, the wavelength of the original gamma rays from the Big Bang.

As matter collected by gravity, which led to nuclear fusion if there was enough mass, it produced more, and defined the wavelengths of, electromagnetic radiation. It was actually re-radiating the original radiation, but with longer wavelengths. Since the average atom in the universe is continuously getting larger and heavier, due to fusion in stars, the average wavelength of electromagnetic radiation in the universe must be getting longer.

If we could figure the average wavelength of all electromagnetic radiation in the universe it would actually act as a clock from the beginning of the universe in the Big Bang. Atoms do get broken apart, such as by Cosmic Ray Spallation, but that is a minor factor relative to nuclear fusion continuously crunching lighter atoms into heavier ones, and this must be reflected in the average wavelength of radiation in the universe.

So if the matter of the universe should ultimately be converted into electromagnetic radiation, it's information will not be lost because information cannot just be lost. It will still be there in the wide variety of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation.