Don's Home Science Astronomy Universe Timeline

• Universe is 13.8 Billion years +/- 2% old
• The first elements Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium are formed from 240,000 - 300,000 years after the big bang.
• The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is created about 380,000 years after the big bang.
• Early active galaxies, and population III stars started to form 300 - 500 million years after the big bang.
  Population III stars were the first suns to form in our 13.8-billion-year-old universe, and they're identifiable by their unique composition: just hydrogen, helium and lithium, the only elements around immediately after the Big Bang. Heavier elements were forged in the cores of these stars and their successors.
• Heavier elements were created sometime after 500 million years by massive stars and supernovas.

• Primordial Era: 0-100,000 years
  Toward the end of this age, the recombination of electrons with nuclei made the universe transparent for the first time.
• Stelliferous Era: 1 million - 100 Billion, includes the current era
  Matter is arranged in the form of stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters, and most energy is produced in stars.
• Degenerate Era: 1 Quadrillion - 10³⁹ Years
  Era of brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. White dwarfs will assimilate As this era continues, the authors hypothesize that protons will begin to decay. If proton decay takes place, the sole survivors will be black holes.
• Black Hole Era: 10⁴⁰ - 10¹⁰⁰ years
• Dark Era: 10¹⁰¹ years - Essentially, the universe will eventually turn into a void of nothingness.

Books:
The Inflationary Universe", 1997, Alan Guth

Links:
Nova: The universe Revealed"

TimeLines at: HistoryOfTheUniverse.com/tl1.html Timeline of creation