10.26.2011

Perspective: The Lifetime Of The Universe Mapped Onto A Single Calendar Year

A reader commenting on yesterday's post depicting the history of the world cast into a 24-hour clock brought up another wonderful time-scale concept.

The Cosmic Calendar casts the 13.7 billion year lifetime of the universe into a single calendar year, and was popularized by Carl Sagan on his television series Cosmos, and in his book The Dragons of Eden.

A few mind-blowing bits of perspective:
  • The Milky Way does not form until May.
  • Our Solar System arrives in August.
  • First life appears on Earth in September.
  • Dinosaurs are extinct on December 30.
  • Modern humans evolve on December 31 at approximately 11:54pm.
  • Recorded history begins in the final 15 seconds of the year.
  • Columbus arrives in America in the last second of the year.


(Image via Wikipedia)

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