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Encyclopedia > Cosmological timeline

This timeline attempts to show the best scientific estimates of the timings of past events and predictions of the approximate timing of hypothetical future events with cosmological significance. Some locally significant events of interest to members of Homo sapiens are also included. See Dating Creation for alternative views based on religious tradition. (Note: in this context, billion means 1,000,000,000).

Contents

The Big Bang

See also timeline of the Big Bang for the first 300,000 years after the Big Bang.


The distant past

  • 300 thousand years after the Big Bang, hydrogen nuclei capture electrons, forming the first atoms
  • 600 million years after the Big Bang: formation of first galaxies, see Galaxy formation and evolution
  • 5 billion years ago (~8.7 billion years after the Big Bang): formation of the Sun
  • 4.5 billion years ago: formation of the Earth -- start of geologic timescale
  • 3.5 billion years ago: first signs of single-celled life on Earth
  • 600 to 500 million years ago: multicellular life evolves

The human era

  • 2.5 to 2 million years ago: appearance of the genus Homo (see human evolution)
  • about 150,000 years ago: appearance of Homo sapiens
  • for the past and present of mankind, see centuries
    • 12 to 10 thousand years ago (the Holocene epoch): Homo sapiens invent agriculture; start of human civilization
    • 1961: men first orbit the Earth in spacecraft
...
  • 40,000 years from now, Voyager 2 will approach another planetary system.

The far future

See also 1019 seconds for times further than 3 billion years into the future.


See also:


  Results from FactBites:
 
Timeline of the Universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2563 words)
It has been suggested that Timeline of the Big Bang be merged into this article or section.
This particular timeline of the Universe describes the events that have occurred and will occur according to prevailing scientific theory (specifically, the Big Bang theory).
As a result, this timeline is a work in progress.
Centuries - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (79 words)
See calendar and list of calendars for other groupings of years.
For earlier time periods see cosmological timeline, geologic timescale, evolutionary timeline, pleistocene, and logarithmic timeline.
This page was last modified 21:38, 26 July 2005.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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