The Cosmic Calendar is a scale in which the 13.8 billion year lifetime of the universe is mapped onto a single year. At this scale the Big Bang took place on January 1 at midnight, and the current time is mapped to December 31 at midnight.[1] At this scale, there are 434 years per second, 1.57 million years per hour, and 37.7 million years per day. The concept was popularized by Carl Sagan in his book The Dragons of Eden and on his television series Cosmos as a way to conceptualize the vast amounts of time in the history of the universe.
The Cosmic Year [edit]
The 13.8 billion year lifetime of the universe mapped onto a single year. This image helps to put cosmology, evolution, and written history in context. In addition to dates of important events, dates for availability for different types of evidence are shown.
Big Bang [edit]
Evolution of life on Earth [edit]
Human evolution [edit]
History begins [edit]
| Date / time |
kya |
Event |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:47 |
5.5 |
First writing (marks end of prehistory and beginning of history), beginning of the Bronze Age |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:48 |
5.0 |
First dynasty of Egypt, Early Dynastic period in Sumer, Astronomy |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:49 |
4.5 |
Alphabet, Akkadian Empire, Wheel |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:51 |
4.0 |
Code of Hammurabi, Middle Kingdom of Egypt |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:52 |
3.5 |
Mycenaean Greece; Olmec civilization; Iron Age in Near East, India, and Europe; founding of Carthage |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:53 |
3.0 |
Kingdom of Israel, ancient Olympic games |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:54 |
2.5 |
Buddha, Confucius, Qin Dynasty, Classical Greece, Ashokan Empire, Vedas completed, Euclidean geometry, Archimedean physics, Roman Republic |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:55 |
2.0 |
Ptolemaic astronomy, Roman Empire, Christ, invention of numeral 0 |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:56 |
1.5 |
Muhammad, Maya civilization, Song Dynasty, rise of Byzantine Empire |
| 31 Dec, 23:59:58 |
1.0 |
Mongol Empire, Crusades, Christopher Columbus voyages to the Americas, Renaissance in Europe |
The current second [edit]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
