Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death
Encyclopedia
This is the timeline of the Universe from Big Bang
to Heat Death
scenario. The different Eras of the Universe
are shown.
Usually the logarithmic scale
is used for such timelines but it compresses the most interesting Stelliferous Era too much as this example shows. Therefore a double-logarithmic scale s (s*100 in the graphics) is used instead. The minimum of it is unfortunately only 1, not 0 as needed, and the negative outputs for inputs smaller than 10 are useless. Therefore the time from 0.1 to 10 years is collapsed to a single point 0, but that doesn't matter in this case because nothing special happens in the history of the universe during that time.
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
to Heat Death
Heat death of the universe
The heat death of the universe is a suggested ultimate fate of the universe, in which the universe has diminished to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain motion or life. Heat death does not imply any particular absolute temperature; it only requires that...
scenario. The different Eras of the Universe
The Five Ages of the Universe
The Five Ages Of The Universe is a popular science book written by Professor Fred Adams and Gregory Laughlin first published in 1999.- Book contents :...
are shown.
Usually the logarithmic scale
Logarithmic timeline
A logarithmic timeline is a timeline laid out according to a logarithmic scale. This necessarily implies a zero point and an infinity point, neither of which can be displayed. The most natural zero point is the Big Bang, looking forward, but the most common is the ever-changing present, looking...
is used for such timelines but it compresses the most interesting Stelliferous Era too much as this example shows. Therefore a double-logarithmic scale s (s*100 in the graphics) is used instead. The minimum of it is unfortunately only 1, not 0 as needed, and the negative outputs for inputs smaller than 10 are useless. Therefore the time from 0.1 to 10 years is collapsed to a single point 0, but that doesn't matter in this case because nothing special happens in the history of the universe during that time.
-
Comparison of log10 and log10log10 scales year | log10 year | combination of log10log10 year and
-log10(-log10 year)1010000 10000 4 101000 1000 3 10100 100 2 1010 10 1 102 2 0.30 101 1 0 100 0 undefined but here forced to 0 10−1 -1 0 10−2 -2 -0.30 10−10 -10 -1 10−100 -100 -2
The seconds in the timescale have been converted to years by
using the Julian year.
See also
- Timeline of the Big BangTimeline of the Big BangThis timeline of the Big Bang describes the history of the universe according to the prevailing scientific theory of how the universe came into being, using the cosmological time parameter of comoving coordinates...
- Graphical timeline of the Big BangGraphical timeline of the Big BangThis timeline of the Big Bang shows the sequence of events as predicted by the Big Bang theory, from the beginning of time to the end of the Dark Ages....
- Heat death of the universeHeat death of the universeThe heat death of the universe is a suggested ultimate fate of the universe, in which the universe has diminished to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain motion or life. Heat death does not imply any particular absolute temperature; it only requires that...
- List of other end scenarios than Heat Death
- Timeline from Big Bang to the near cosmological futureGraphical timeline of our universeThis more than twenty billion years timeline of our universe shows the best estimates of the occurrence of events since its beginning, up until anticipated events in the near future. Zero of the scale is the present day. A large step on the scale is one billion years, a small step one hundred...
- Graphical timeline of the Stelliferous Era
- Tiny Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death. This timeline uses the log scale for comparison with the double-logarithmic scale in this article.
- Timeline of the Big Bang