Carl Sagan's Cosmic Calendar, Remastered: 13.7 Billion Years Of The Universe Cast Into A Single Calendar Year

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.

I've previously posted about The Cosmic Calendar. It's a wonderful tool for truly appreciating the vastness of time -- something with which we humans have difficulty.

In a new rendition of The Cosmic Calendar, remastered in HD by Milky Way Musings, Sagan presents the history of the universe and the emergence of life on Earth in a mere 11 minutes.

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)