http://worldatlas.i2p/space/the-echo-of-the-big-bang.html
A Diagram Showing the Big Bang, NASA For the first 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was far different than the one we inhabit. Temperatures in the early universe were far too hot for atoms to form, and instead, particles moved freely through space. Temperatures were simply too hot for protons, neutrons, and electrons to come together and form atoms.