Chronology of the universe

Rare card · No. 34742

The chronology of the universe describes the history and future of the universe according to the current understanding of physical cosmology. In this model, the earliest stage that is supported by observational evidence is known as inflation, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago. During this epoch, space underwent a period of extremely rapid expansion in a tiny fraction of a second. Once inflation ended, the energy that was responsible for it was converted into particles and radiation, heating up the universe into a very hot and dense state, initiating the Big Bang. At some early stage, baryogenesis produced a small excess of matter over antimatter. Most matter and antimatter particles annihilated each other in pairs, leaving behind a small excess of matter and a large amount of radiation. As the universe cooled further, many other heavy particles annihilated each other or decayed, eventually leaving behind a plasma that was dominated by protons, neutrons, electrons, photons, and neutrinos...

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