In today's article we are going to delve into the fascinating world of Cosmic Calendar. This topic/title/person has aroused great interest throughout history and has generated numerous controversies, debates and reflections. Whether due to its relevance in the academic field, its impact on society or its cultural influence, Cosmic Calendar has left a significant mark in different areas. Throughout this article we will explore its origins, evolution, characteristics and its importance today, to better understand its relevance in the contemporary world. So get ready to embark on a fascinating journey around Cosmic Calendar and discover all the aspects that make it so exciting and intriguing!
The Cosmic Calendar is a method to visualize the chronology of the universe, scaling its currently understood age of 13.8 billion years to a single year in order to help intuit it for pedagogical purposes in science education or popular science.
In this visualization, the Big Bang took place at the beginning of January 1 at midnight, and the current moment maps onto the end of December 31 just before midnight. At this scale, there are 437.5 years per cosmic second, 1.575 million years per cosmic hour, and 37.8 million years per cosmic day.
The concept was popularized by Carl Sagan in his 1977 book The Dragons of Eden and on his 1980 television series Cosmos. Sagan goes on to extend the comparison in terms of surface area, explaining that if the Cosmic Calendar were scaled to the size of a football field, then "all of human history would occupy an area the size of hand".
A similar analogy used to visualize the geologic time scale and the history of life on Earth is the Geologic Calendar.
Date | Gya (billion years ago) | Event |
---|---|---|
1 Jan | 13.8 | Big Bang, as seen through cosmic background radiation, which would have been last emitted 14 minutes after midnight |
19 Jan | 13.1 | Oldest known Gamma Ray Burst |
26 Jan | 12.85 | First galaxies form |
16 Mar | 11 | Milky Way Galaxy formed |
13 May | 8.8 | Milky Way Galaxy disk formed |
2 Sep | 4.57 | Formation of the Solar System |
6 Sep | 4.4 | Oldest rocks known on Earth |
Date in year calculated from formula
T(days) = 365 days * ( 1- T_Gya/13.797 )
Date | Gya (billion years ago) | Event |
---|---|---|
14 Sep | 4.1 | First known remains of biotic life (discovered in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia). |
21 Sep | 3.8 | First Life (Prokaryotes) |
30 Sep | 3.4 | Photosynthesis |
29 Oct | 2.4 | Oxygenation of atmosphere |
9 Nov | 2 | Complex cells (Eukaryotes) |
5 Dec | 0.8 | First multicellular life |
7 Dec | 0.67 | Simple animals |
14 Dec | 0.55 | Arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids) |
17 Dec | 0.5 | Fish and Proto-amphibians |
20 Dec | 0.45 | Land plants; Ordovician–Silurian extinction events |
21 Dec | 0.4 | Insects and seeds |
22 Dec | 0.36 | Amphibians; Late Devonian extinction |
23 Dec | 0.3 | Reptiles |
24 Dec | 0.25 | Permian–Triassic extinction event; 57% of all biological families and 83% of all genera die |
25 Dec | 0.23 | Dinosaurs |
26 Dec | 0.2 | Mammals; Triassic–Jurassic extinction event |
27 Dec | 0.15 | Birds (avian dinosaurs) |
28 Dec | 0.13 | Flowers |
30 Dec, 06:24 | 0.065 | Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, non-avian dinosaurs die out |
Date / time | Mya (million years ago) | Event |
---|---|---|
30 Dec | 65 | Primates |
31 Dec, 06:05 | 15 | Apes |
31 Dec, 14:24 | 12.3 | Hominids |
31 Dec, 22:24 | 2.5 | Primitive humans and stone tools |
31 Dec, 23:44 | 0.4 | Domestication of fire |
31 Dec, 23:52 | 0.2 | Anatomically modern humans |
31 Dec, 23:55 | 0.11 | Beginning of most recent Glacial Period |
31 Dec, 23:58 | 0.035 | Sculpture and painting |
31 Dec, 23:59:32 | 0.012 | Agriculture |