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Solar History Timeline
Our understanding of the sun and its many details is part of a much longer history of events that had to unfold. These pages will take you on a journey from the birth of the cosmos, to the most recent discoveries about our nearest star.
The Origin of the Cosmos, Earth, Sun and Humans
13.7
billion years - Formation of hydrogen and
helium in Big Bang
4.9 billion years - Oldest meteorite forms
4.58 billion years - Most consistent age
for formation of sun
4.54 billion years - Age of Earth
4.4 billion years - Sun begins life only
70% current brightness
3.5 billion years - Earth day is 15 hours long
3.0 billion years - Oldest record of Earth's magnetic field
3.0 billion years - Sun grows in brightness
to 80% of current level.
2.0 billion years - Solar luminosity is now
85% of current level.
900 million
years - Length of day is now 18 hours long.
750 million years - Large ice packs cover earth nearly to
equator
543 million years - Cambrian Explosion of complex organisms.
500 million years - Solar luminosity only
6% less than today.
320 million years - First ancestors to mammals appear
300 million years - Solar luminosity only
3% less than today.
250 million years - Permian Mass extinction
100 million years -Earth's magnetic field 3x stronger than
today
65 million years - Cretaceous Dinosaur Extinction
60 million years - Primitive primates appear
55 million years - Major global warming episode
27 million
years - Primitive apes emerge
6 million years - Great Apes and Hominids 'split' genetically
2 million years - Tool-making humanoid ancestors emerge
750,000 years - End of last magnetic reversal
500,000 years - First evidence of fire usage
400,000 years - First use of paint by human ancestors
150,000 years - Neanderthal's appear
130,000 years - Beginning of Eemian Interglacial age
100,000 years - Modern humans appear
50,000 years - Major change in human behavior, art, tools
45,000 years - Largest animals disappear from human habitats
28,000 years - Neanderthal's disappear
25,000 years - Elaborate burial customs appear
20,000 years - Start of last Ice Age
17,000 years - Oldest star map created on cave wall.
12,000 years - Ice Age ends. Earth grows warmer.
10,000 years - Humans colonize North America.
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Image
Credits: Proto solar nebula: Spitzer Space Telescope
(http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/041209telecon/ssc2004-22a.shtml)
Stonehenge and Stars: Knowth.com
(http://www.knowth.com/wallpaper.htm) Solar Flare diagram : Space
Sciences Lab, UC Berkeley.
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