History of the Universe on a Football Field (IMAGE)
Caption
If the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present were laid out on a football field, Earth and our solar system would not appear until our own 33-yard line. Life appeared just inside the 28-yard line and dinosaurs went extinct halfway between the 1-yard line and the goal. All of human history, since hominids first climbed out of trees, takes place within an inch of the goal line. On this timeline, the 83 supermassive black holes discovered by Princeton astrophysicist Michael Strauss and his international team of colleagues would appear back on the universe's 6-yard line, very shortly after the Big Bang itself.
Credit
Image by Kyle McKernan, Princeton University Office of Communications
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