Matthew Brenden Wood - The Universe: The Big Bang, Black Holes, and Blue Whales

13.8 billion years

(0) THE BIG BANG, when space begins to stretch and expand all at once in every direction

13.8 billion years

(10^43 seconds) The universe is almost infinitely hot and dense, but is already expanding and cooling

13.8 billion years

(10^36 seconds) The fundamental forces of nature begin to separate from each other

13.8 billion years

(10^32 seconds) Cosmic inflation causes space to expand faster than light

13.8 billion years

(10^6 seconds) The first elementary particles appear in the universe, including quarks and gluons

13.8 billion years

(1 second) Quarks come together to form protons and neutrons

13.8 billion years

(10 seconds) Most particles and antiparticles annihilate each other, leaving only particles

13.8 billion years

(20 minutes) The first atomic nuclei of hydrogen, helium, and lithium form

13 billion years

(380,000 years) The first light appears in the universe, visible today as cosmic microwave background radiation

12.6 billion years

(100400 million years) The first stars and galaxies form, including the Milky Way

4.57 billion years

(9.2 billion years) The sun and solar system form

4.53 billion years

The moon forms when a Mars-sized object collides with Earth

4.4 billion years

Oceans form on Earth

4.2 billion years

The earliest life could have formed on Earth

4.1 billion years

Late Heavy Bombardment begins, when the inner planets are pummeled by debris leftover from the formation of the solar system

3.9 billion years

Oldest fossil evidence of life

3.8 billion years

Late Heavy Bombardment ends, oceans form

3.5 billion years

The last ancestor of all living things splits into bacteria and archaea

2.7 billion years

The first eukaryotes appear

2.5 billion years

Cyanobacteria first perform photosynthesis, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere

2.1 billion years

The first multicellular life forms

1.9 billion years

Oxygen makes up 15 percent of the atmosphere

1.8 billion years

Supercontinent Columbia forms

1.5 billion years

Supercontinent Columbia breaks up

1.2 billion years

Supercontinent Rhodinia forms

750 million years

Supercontinent Rhodinia breaks up

540 million years

The Cambrian Explosion begins, when life becomes incredibly diverse

440 million years

The first plants and animals arrive on land

445 million years

70 percent of all species go extinct in the Late Devonian Extinction

310 million years

The first reptiles appear

300 million years

Supercontinent Pangaea forms

251 million years

The Permian extinction occurs, when more than 90 percent of all species go extinct

230 million years

The first dinosaurs appear

200 million years

The first mammals appear

201 million years

The Triassic extinction occurs, when more than 75 percent of all species go extinct

180 million years

Supercontinent Pangaea splits into Laurasia and Gondwana

155 million years

The first birds appear

90 million years

India splits from Gondwana

80 million years

Australia splits from Antarctica

68 million years

The Tyrannosaurus Rex appears

66 million years

The Chicxulub asteroid impact kills 75 percent of all species on Earth, including the dinosaurs, but mammals survive

55 million

The first primates appear

6 million years

Last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans

4 million years

Australopithecus, ancient ancestor of humans, appears

1.5 million years

The first evidence of fire used by Homo erectus, an ancestor of modern humans

250,000 years

Denisovans and Neanderthals appear

195,000 years

The first modern humans appear

40,000 years

Denisovans and Neanderthals go extinct

50 years

The first humans walk on the moon

Present

This book is published.

in 100,000 years

Constellations in the sky will be unrecognizable

300,000 years

The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere returns to pre-industrial levels