the atoms and molecules created in the progenitive explosion and persisting in even the emptiest regions of space

"created" and 'persisting" modify atoms and molecules. created is a past participle and "persisting" is a present particple. they are parallel as they both act as adjectives.
past participle can be considered parallel to present participles (both act as adjectives). participles are not parallel to verbs.

persists is a verb form and cant be parallel to 'created' which is a past participle (acting as an adjective). (same for the other choices). so A is preferred to B.

there is a question on these lines in og-11 about "giant fungus spawned..originating"

can someone explains.. why C is wrong...

if it were: atoms and molecules created and persisted

"created" is a past participle - a verb in form but acts as an adjective

"persisted' is a verb denoting action.

an adjective cannot be parallel to a verb. so C is not correct.

("created" would be a verb if it said: atoms and molecules created a third particle called abc). it could then be parallel to persisted.