Cosmic Timeline

From the Big Bang to the present day, explore the magnificent story of how our universe evolved over 13.8 billion years.

Big Bang

13.8 billion years ago

Particle Era

1 second after Big Bang

Dark Ages

380,000 years later

Galaxy Formation

500M-1B years

Modern Universe

Present

The Scale of Cosmic Time

If the entire 13.8 billion year history of the universe was compressed into a single Earth year, humans would only appear in the last minute of December 31st.

Big Bang13.8 billion years ago10 billion years12.8 billion years ago70 billion years68 billion years ago100 billion years38 billion years agoPresentToday

Explore All Cosmic Eras

13.8 billion years ago

The Birth of the Universe

Everything began with an unimaginably violent explosion. In ...

10^-32 seconds after the Big Bang

Rapid Expansion

In an extremely short time, the universe experienced exponen...

1 second after the Big Bang

Formation of Elementary Particles

The universe cooled to a sufficient temperature for quarks t...

3-20 minutes after the Big Bang

Birth of the First Elements

The universe had cooled enough for protons and neutrons to c...

380,000 years to 100 million years after the Big Bang

The Eve of Cosmic Dawn

After atoms formed, the universe became transparent but had ...

100-500 million years after the Big Bang

First Generation Stars Illuminate the Universe

The first generation of stars (known as Population III) bega...

500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang

Emergence of Large-Scale Cosmic Structures

Gravity caused gas clouds to contract further, forming galax...

Present

Continuing Expansion of the Universe

Over the past 10 billion years, the universe has continued t...

Trillions of years from now

The Ultimate Fate of the Universe

Based on our current understanding of dark energy, the unive...

10^-43 seconds to 10^-32 seconds

The Birth of the Universe

Everything began with an unimaginably violent explosion. In an extremely short time, an infinitely dense singularity began to expand, creating time, space, matter, and energy.

Key Facts

  • The initial temperature of the universe was as high as 10^32 Kelvin
  • Nuclear synthesis was completed within the first second of the universe
  • Elementary particles formed in the first three minutes after the Big Bang
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10^-43 seconds to 10^-32 seconds

Big Bang

13.8 billion years ago

Everything began with an unimaginably violent explosion. In an extremely short time, an infinitely dense singularity beg...

"The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
— Sir Arthur Eddington