Cosmic Timeline (IMAGE)

California Institute of Technology

Cosmic Timeline

Caption

This timeline shows the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang. The new observations, labeled "Hubble 2012," explored the deepest reaches of the cosmos that has ever been studied with Hubble, going back about 13.4 billion years -- around when the first galaxies were being formed. Previously, the universe was in the so-called Dark Ages, before there were any stars to light up the cosmos. During reionization, ultraviolet light from the newly formed stars and galaxies ionized the neutral hydrogen that permeated the universe. The dashed line labeled Hubble 2009 represents the last set of observations of HUDF.

Credit

NASA/ESA

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