The Beginning of Everything: A Timeline

But contrary to popular belief, the Big Bang wasn’t an explosion. 

When we think of an explosion, we imagine things being propelled outward from a single point of origin. But that’s not what happened in the earliest moments of our universe. The Big Bang was the expansion of space itself — an unfurling of the very fabric of the universe. 

And that expansion is still happening today.

Even now, as you read this, every corner of the universe is stretching. The distance between the Sun and the planets, between solar systems and galaxies, and even the space between you and your screen is expanding uniformly in all directions.

Oh, and the rate of expansion is accelerating. But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. So, let’s back up for a moment. 

A timeline of the universe

Since the Big Bang, the universe has gone through a number of pivotal phases — about seven or so, depending on how you figure things. However, for simplicity, these milestones can be distilled and grouped together under just five categories.

Here are the key moments in the development of our universe according to this framework:

1. Inflation: The universe expands faster than the speed of light for a very brief period (about 10 decillionths of a second or 10^-32 seconds). ‍
2. Matter forms: About 1 microsecond after the Big Bang, the universe cools enough for the first particles (photons, neutrons, and electrons) to form. Three minutes later, the first hydrogen and helium nuclei appear. And a whopping 380,000 years later, things finally cool enough for electrons to bond with nuclei, creating the first atoms. This atom formation process A) clears the cosmic fog that was created by all the previously free electrons, making the universe transparent, and B) produces its own light, ​​which is still detectable today in the form of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).‍
3. The birth of stars, galaxies, and planets: For 200 million years after the Big Bang, the universe was just an endless sea of hydrogen and helium atoms (and very trace amounts of heavier elements). Until, at long last, gravity caused these atoms to clump together, forming the first stars. Galaxies followed about 400 million years after, and the first planets emerged about 1 billion years after the Big Bang.‍
4. Expansion accelerates: About 10 billion years after the Big Bang, the expansion of the universe started to speed up. This process is driven by a mysterious force we know nothing about. We call it “dark energy.” We don’t know what it is. But we do know that it's causing everything in the universe to move apart at an ever-increasing rate.‍
5. FQTQ Relaunches: 13.8 billion years after the Big Bang (on August 20, 2024), From Quarks to Quasars made its grand return — relaunching after a nine-year hiatus. It was probably the most notable event in the history of everything. Probably.

Okay. So, maybe that last one isn’t actually a cosmic milestone, and perhaps it shouldn’t be listed as a key phase in the development of our universe.  But today is a big day all the same. 

After a 9-year hiatus — during which I launched Futurism and helped see it through acquisition, got my hang gliding license, and did many other fantastic and wondrous things — I decided to return to From Quarks to Quasars, as this little site has always been my greatest passion. 

The cosmos has obviously evolved a bit in the interim, and so have I, but my fundamental mission remains the same — to explain the science of everything, from quarks to quasars and all that lies in between.

However, if you’re the type of person who’s invested in technical accuracy, fine. Here’s the same graphic again, but this time deemphasizing the significance of this little site relaunching. You’re welcome.

Before the Big Bang

But what about what came before the Big Bang?

Well, time and space didn't exist then. There was (quite literally) no spacetime.

As Stephen Hawking explained it, the space-time continuum is a closed surface without end. Picture it like the surface of the Earth. "One can regard ordinary and real time as beginning at the South Pole, which is a smooth point of space-time where the normal laws of physics hold. There is nothing South of the South Pole, so there was nothing around before the Big Bang," he said.

And so, just like there is nothing South of a southernmost point on planet Earth, time can't exist before the Big Bang. Instead, time and space start and spread outward from this singular point, like much the degrees of latitude on Earth.

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