Document name: History of the universe timeline

Document date: 2015

Copyright information: BBC/The Open University
OpenLearn Study Unit: In the night sky: Orion
OpenLearn url: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/course/view.php?id=1270

History of the universe timeline

Monica Grady

www.open.edu/openlearn Page 1 of 1
 STARGAZING LIVE THE UNIVERSE THROUGH TIME 20 BILLION
YEARS

You can download the

13.7 BILLION Stargazing LIVE Star Guide
YEARS and find out more about
10 BILLION free Stargazing LIVE events
at bbc.co.uk/stargazing
9 BILLION YEARS
Sun expands
YEARS to Red Giant
A FEW BILLION
YEARS
A FEW HUNDRED MILLION
300,000

LIFE ON EA H BEGINS
A FEW YEARS
YEARS

MINUTES

DAY
INFLATION

BIG FIRST
FIRST GALAXIES EXPANSION OF THE Universe

RT
nuclei
High eventually

BANG UNIVERSE BEGINS

FORM
energy
particle First AND STARS FORM cold
and dark
reactions atoms
form TO ACCELERATE

NT
PR E S E
End of life
The Universe has Formation of the on Earth
expanded and Solar System,
including Earth
cooled ever since

TIME
UNOBSERVABLE UNIVERSE (PAST)
THE BEGINNING FRACTION OF
The Universe begins 13.7 A SECOND
billion years ago with an event
Rapid expansion occurs
known as the Big Bang.
during a billionth of a
Both time and space are
billionth of a billionth of a
created in this event.
billionth of a second – the
visible Universe is the size
of a grapefruit.
SIZE
POTENTIALLY OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE (PAST) TODAY FUTURE
1 SECOND 100 – 1000 300,000 YEARS A FEW HUNDRED MILLION YEARS A FEW BILLION YEARS 9 BILLION YEARS 10 BILLION YEARS 13.7 BILLION YEARS 20 BILLION YEARS 10100 YEARS
The Large Hadron SECONDS We can detect radiation Matter clumps together under its own gravity forming the first protogalaxies and Initially, the expansion of the Universe decelerated – but a The Sun, along with its eight The first life appears on This is where we are today. Using our own In a few billion years the Sun’s outer layers Stars no longer form; matter is trapped in
Collider at CERN is from the early formation within them, the first stars. few billion years after the Big Bang, the expansion began to planets, and all the Earth in the form of simple ingenuity, humanity is probing the depths of the will expand as it turns into a Red Giant star. black holes or dead stars. Protons decay
Nuclei of hydrogen,
recreating the of the Universe back as Stars are nuclear furnaces in which heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen, silicon accelerate. The acceleration is caused by a mysterious asteroids, comets and cells. Impacting comets and Universe and trying to unravel its mysteries, Life on Earth will become impossible. and black holes evaporate, leaving the
helium, lithium and
conditions that far as this point. Before and iron are formed. Massive stars exploding as supernovae create even heavier force known as ‘dark energy’, the nature of which is Kuiper Belt objects, such as asteroids might have from our tiny, home planet, Earth. The visible Expansion of the Universe will continue to Universe to its ultimate fate as cold, dead,
other light elements
prevailed a fraction this, the Universe is elements. Such explosions send material into space ready to be incorporated into completely unknown. Pluto, form from the debris contributed organic Universe contains billions of galaxies, each accelerate. empty space, containing only radiation, which
form.
of a second after the opaque: it’s as if a veil future generations of stars and planets. left behind by earlier molecules to Earth. Life comprising billions of stars. Within our own itself too will eventually disperse.
Big Bang. has been pulled over it. generations of stars. spreads across the globe. Galaxy, hundreds of exoplanets have been
discovered orbiting other stars.

Stargazing LIVE is a BBC and Open University co-production. Credit: Photography sourced from NASA.