01 · 0 → 10⁻⁴³ seconds

The Planck Epoch

Everything we will ever see is packed smaller than a proton, at about 10³² K. The four forces may have been one. Our physics breaks down here: describing it needs a quantum theory of gravity we don't yet have.

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02 · 10⁻³⁶ → 10⁻³² seconds

Inflation

Space itself expands by a factor of at least 10²⁶ in a blink far shorter than a blink. Tiny quantum jitters are stretched to cosmic size, freezing in the seeds of every future galaxy.

03 · 10⁻¹² → 10⁻⁶ seconds

Quark–Gluon Plasma

Too hot for protons to exist. Quarks, carrying their red, green, and blue 'color charge', swarm freely with gluons in a searing soup. At about a microsecond it cools enough for them to lock into protons and neutrons.

04 · 1 second → 20 minutes

The First Three Minutes

Protons and neutrons collide and fuse into the first atomic nuclei. When the window closes, the universe is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium by mass, with a trace of lithium, the same mix we measure today.

05 · 380,000 years

Recombination

At about 3,000 K, electrons finally settle onto nuclei to form neutral atoms, and the fog lifts: light travels freely for the first time. That light still reaches us, stretched into microwaves: the cosmic microwave background.

06 · 380,000 → 100 million years

The Dark Ages

No stars, no light, only a cooling glow sliding out of the visible. In the dark, gravity quietly pulls dark matter and hydrogen into a vast web of filaments.

07 · ~100–200 million years

The First Stars

In the densest knots of the web, enormous blue stars ignite, hundreds of times the Sun's mass. Their ultraviolet light tears hydrogen apart again (reionization), and their deaths forge the first heavy elements.

08 · ~500 million years onward

Galaxies Assemble

Stars gather into galaxies and galaxies into clusters, strung along the cosmic web like dew on a spider's silk. They collide, merge, and grow into spirals and giant ellipticals.

09 · 9.2 billion years

Our Solar System

A cloud of gas, enriched by generations of dead stars, collapses. The Sun ignites at its heart, and planets condense out of the dusty disk around it, sweeping their orbits clear.