"The following observations, in addition to the red shift, confirm the picture of a universe expanding from a hot big bang: the cosmic background radiation, the relative abundance of hydrogen to helium in the universe (about 3/1) and the lack of heavy elements in far distant galaxies. The cosmic background radiation is like the embers of a burnt-out fire, the embers of the hot "Big Bang" spread evenly throughout the universe. The small irregularities in the cosmic background radiation indicate the fluctuations that grew into stars and then galaxies. The relative abundance of hydrogen to helium is consistent with models of element formation that took place at an early, high temperature stage of the universe. For far distant galaxies (10 billion years light distance, say), they are also at an early stage of development (remember, going in distance is also going back in time) and therefore heavy elements have not yet formed by the collapse of red giant stars."