Tag: universe
A bit before midnight
by Patrick on Jul.09, 2009, under Astronomy
Our intelligent species appeared on Earth about 35,000 years ago. Even though it may look far away on our own life scale, it is in fact very near on the scale of the Universe.
We just need to realize that the Universe is about 15 to 20 billion years old. Imagine that we compress its history on a regular year as we know it. Then suppose that our actual era matches with December 31 while the birth of our Universe, the famous Big Bang, would have occurred on the preceding January 1. In this calendar, the Sun and the Earth exist since the beginning of October. The first primates appear in Tanzania at about 22:00 on December 31. Our whole prehistory happens completely within these 2 hours separating us from the New Year.
At 23:10 we begin to make some tools made of stone but it is only at 23:54 that we learn how to use fire. The modern man appears at 23:58 and 50 seconds. The first agricultural labors are made 16 seconds to midnight. Pyramids appear 7 seconds later.
Columbus discovers America less than a second to midnight and Gagarine’s flight (first man to travel in space) occurs only 5 hundredth of a second before opening the champagne bottle. Astronautics history happens in a single generation. Within these 0.05 seconds, we conquered the Moon. Our technological capacities evolving at an incredibly fast rate, we can think that between the first and second second of the following year, we will become the “bosses” of the solar system.
And we will probably adventure in the interstellar space looking for new worlds where to establish ourselves. Thus deploying our species further into the Galaxy with our strong intelligence and great technological abilities.
