Time in Perspective

Source article: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

* the article was created in 2013

Sorry, this time perspective experience isn't available on small screen devices. Use your laptop/desktop computer instead. If you want to experience time perspective from your current device, please, read the source article by Tim Urban here: https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/08/putting-time-in-perspective.html

The end of the Universe

Between 1 and 100 Trillion Years (1 - 100T): star formation ceases across the universe.

The last stars exhaust the remainder of their fuel (110 - 120T)

Matter now consists only of Black Holes (10^1076 Years)

The universe reaches its final energy state - "Heat Death". This means energy levels in the universe are so low that nothing can happen anymore, anywhere. (10^10120 Years)

Note: these arrows on the timeline represent incredibly big amount of time, so the scale is distorted here

Past

Future

1B/y

8 Billion years from now

Our galaxy collides with Andromeda galaxy (4 Billion years from now)

The sun is going to reach a luminosity level that will evaporate all the water on the Earth (1 Billion years from now)

Sun expands to 250 times its size turning into the Red Giant and envelops the Earth (7.6-7.8 Billion years from now)

1Ga

Big Bang = 13.8Ga

Milky Way forms (13.2Ga)

300Ma

Hadean Eon

4.6Ga

The "Late Heavy Bombardment" - basically, the Earth got hazed by asteroids for 300 million years.

The Earth (blue timeline) forms from excess debris circling around the Sun (4.54Ga)

According to the Giant Impact Hypothesis, the Moon formed when a small planet smashed into the Earth. The debris from the Earth's crust eventually coalesced into what is now the Moon.

The Sun (yellow timeline) forms from a giant cloud of floating gas (4.6Ga)

300Ma

3.6Ga (Ga means "giga-annum" - billion years ago)

Last time every current being on Earth today shared a common ancestor (3.5Ga)

The first life, simple cells - called prokaryotes (3.6Ga)

Photosynthesis begins; oxygen first enters the atmosphere as a waste product of the process (3.4Ga)

First multi-cellural life (1Ga)

First complex cells with a nucleus - called eukaryotes. Scientists believe this may have been a miraculous evolutionary freak event - a Great Filter candidate (2Ga)

50Ma

600Ma

First Anamals

First Fish (500Ma)

First Land Plants (475Ma)

First Insects (400Ma)

First Reptiles (300Ma)

The Supercontinent Pangaea forms (300Ma) and eventually breaks apart (200Ma). Quoted as saying, "I had a good run."

The reign of dinosaurs (231Ma - 66Ma)

10Ma

200Ma

First Mammals

First Birds (155Ma)

The asteroid that caused mass extinction (66Ma)

Cats evolve, are immediately standoffish (34Ma)

First Primates (55Ma)

500k/y

6Ma (Ma means "mega-annum" - million years ago)

Hominini tribe splits. One side would lead to the Pan genus (which turned into the modern chimpanzee). The other side led to the Homo genus, which eventually became humans. This is the last time chimps and humans had a living common ancestor.

Origin of the Homo genus.

Stone Age (4Ma - 3,5k BC)

10k/y

200k BC

Oldest Homo Sapience fossil (195k BC)

Humans realize it's embarrassing to be naked and start wearing clothes (170k BC)

Humans control fire (125k BC) (some argue this happened as early as 800k BC)

Last Ice Age glacial period (110k - 10k BC)

2k/y

60k BC

Humans migrate out of Africa for the first time

Humans widely considered to have complex language by this point (50k BC)

Last Ice Age glacial period ends (13k - 10k BC)

Oldest known cave paintings (40k BC)

Neanderthals call it a day (40k BC)

First humans migrate over the Bering land bridge into the Americas (the debate over when this first happened ranges from 40k to 15k BC)

Cro-Magnon colonization of Europe (43k - 45k BC)

Humans first cultivate wheat (9k BC)

500y

3,500 BC

Earliest evidence of writing; Oldest vheeled vehicle found.

Great Pyramid of Giza (2500 BC)

Buddha lived around this time (exact date disputed)

Ancient Egyptian Civilization (3150 - 30 BC)

Bronze Age
(3200 - 1200 BC)

The lives of:
Socrates (~470 - 399 BC)
Plato (~428 - 348 BC)
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)
Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)

The lives of:
Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC)
Cleopatra (69 - 31 BC)
Jesus Christ (7-2 BC - 30-33 AD)

Roman Empire
(27 BC - 470 AD)

Middle Ages (400 - 1500)

100y

Year 1

Early Middle Ages (400 - 1000 AD)

High Middle Ages (1000 - 1300)

Late Middle Ages (1300 - 1500)

Birth of Christianity

Birth of Islam (610)

The Black Plague (1346 - 1353)

The life of Ginghis Khan (1162 - 1227)

The Renaissance

The lives of:
Da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
Raphael (1483 - 1520)
Michelangelo (1475 - 1564)

50y

1492

Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World, landing in the Bahamas

Jamestown marks the first British settlement (1609) and The Mayflower arrives in Plymouth (1620)

The lives of:
Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Galileo (1564 - 1642)
Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)

Shakespeare

Newton

Galileo

French and Indian War (1754 - 1763)

American Revolution (1775 - 1783)

Bach

Beethoven

The lives of:
Bach (1685 - 1750)
Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

Mozart

10y

1776

1800s

1900s

Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (they died the same day, July 4, 1826 - America's 50th anniversary)

George Washington presidency (1789 - 1797)

French Revolution (1789 - 1799)

American Civil War (1861 - 1865)

10y

1865

First Telephone Call (1876)

Lincoln Shot (1865)

Basketball invented by James Naismith (1891)

First Car (1886)

First Commercial Flight (1914)

Titanic Sinks (1912)

US women gain right to vote (1920)

World War I
(1914 - 1918)

1923

Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic (1927)

Black Tuesday sets off the Great Depression (1929)

World War II
(1939 - 1945)

TVs begin to become widely used in homes (late 40s)

JFK assasination (1963)

Watergate
(1972)

First man on moon (1969)

Baby boomers born (1946 - 1964)

US Civil Rights Movement (1955 - 1968)

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

College

Real World

Challenger Explosion
(1986)

Chernobyl Disaster
(1986)

Internet becomes a thing

Mobile phones become a thing

Cold War ends
‍(1989)

OJ Simpson trial
(Jan - Oct 1995)

1983

Bush Presidency

Obama Presidency

The 21st Century actually starts on 1/1/2001. All centuries start on the year 1 because there was no Year 0 in the First Century.

9/11

The first iPhone hits stores, launching the smartphone era.
(June 2007)

Iraq War (US troop presense)
(Mar 2003 - Dec 2011)

Government overthrow in Tunisia marks the beginning of the Arab Spring.
(Dec 2010)

Osama Bin Laden killed.
(May 2011)

1mo

1day

1hr

Now*

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