To put the Earth’s history in context, our planet and our solar system formed about 4 and a half billion years ago, in a Universe that had its beginning at least 13 billion years ago.
In this beginning there was a tremendous expansion of all matter and energy in the Universe, in an event that astronomers call the Big Bang. From this event the first elementary particles such as quarks formed; after several hundred million years atoms, and elements such as hydrogen and helium formed, eventually, after a 100 million years, these elements condensed and formed the first stars.
Perhaps a billion years after the Big Bang galaxies began to form, including our own Milky Way Galaxy.
To be continued...
Links for more information on the Big Bang from the University of Michigan and NASA.
Big Bang timeline (illustration, above) from here.
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