TIMELAPSE OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE

On a cosmic time scale, human history is as brief as the blink of an eye. By compressing all 13.8 billion years of time into a 10 minute scale, this video shows just how young we truly are, and just how ancient and vast our universe us. Starting with the big bang and culminating in the appearance of homo sapiens, this experience follows the unfolding of time at 22 million years per second, adhering strictly as possible to current scientific understanding.

Narration by Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Carl Sagan, David Attenborough.

Concept, music, editing, sound design, and select VFX by melodysheep. @musicalscience

In addition to custom footage, this video samples a large library of content from many sources, including NASA, Voyage of Time, Cosmic Voyage, Wonders of the Universe, and more.

It can be difficult to fathom how long 13.8 billion years is. The more you watch this video, the more it sinks in just how stunningly old the universe is, and how magnificently tiny we humans are in the grand scheme. I hope seeing this experiment in humility makes you ponder the vast, unwitnessed ages that have passed before we came along, and the brevity of our existence in comparison.

Every event featured in this video is fascinating on its own, so I highly encourage anybody interested to dig deeper. Start with the Wikipedia page on geologic time and go from there to learn more about all the events featured within.

Peace and love,

melodysheep

We're going on a journey.

This video depicts billion years of time unfolding
on a 10 minute scale - from to Big Bang to today.

Every passing second represents
22 million years.

On this scale, humans do not appear
until the last fraction of second.

The universe begins in 5...

The universe begins in 4...

The universe begins in 3...

The universe begins in 2...

The universe begins in 1...

In those first dazzling moments,

space itself exploded in a
burst of radiant energy.

The newborn universe began
to expand, and cool.

For hundreds of millions of year the force of gravity slowly drew matter together into a gigantic web,

the architecture of the cosmos.

Clouds of gas and dust condensed like giant water drops along the cosmic strands

and formed galaxies.

Neighboring galaxies trapped by their mutual gravity,

draw together in a fantastic collision.

In real time it would last a billion years,

the force of gravity strips long tales of gas and stars from the huge new galaxy.

As it evolves the universe passes through distinct eras,

vast ages with beginnings and endings

are marked by unique milestones:

the births and deaths of its wonders.

We're the product of a grand evolutionary sequence.

Cosmic evolution.

About which we are only occasionally aware.

We encounter our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

In it, stars are formed, and some have died.

Here, a red giant star is slowly being consumed.

Its gases swirling to the depths of a black hole.

The immense gravitational pull of these monsters can rip a star apart,

they tear matter from its surface, and drag it into orbit,

this super-heated matter spins around the mouth of the black hole,

and great jets of radiation fire from the core.

Although these jets can be seen across the cosmos,

the core itself remains a mystery.

Not even light can escape,

so their interior is forever hidden from us.

Stars are nuclear furnaces,

they shine until they use up their fuel.

Massive stars end explosively.

These exploding stars send out the elements of life:

the oxygen we breath

the carbon in our muscles,

the iron in our blood.

These are new stars, forming from the elements blown out by supernova explosions.

New stars being born,

from the remains of dead ones.

And it's from this universal process of death, and rebirth

that we emerged.

Because it was in a nebula just like this

5 billion years ago

that our Sun was formed.

Now a cloud of cosmic gas sprinkled with these elements comes together with the grip of gravity.

A star was born, that would come to be known, as the Sun.

Around it, a network of planets formed,

among them, was the Earth.

In their infancy, our Earth and Moon were bombarded constantly by cosmic dust,

asteroids,

and comets.

With violent impacts

and potent ultra-violet radiation from the Sun

the young Earth was a very hostile world.

The land was dominated by volcanoes

hostile and lifeless.

But deep in the oceans, life had begun.

The latest theory is that chemicals, spewing from underwater volcanic vents

solidified and created the conditions needed

for the first cells to form.

For some 3 billion years

simple, microscopic organisms

were the most advanced
form of life on the planet.

Some, called blue-green bacteria

slowly released tiny bubbles of oxygen

and profoundly changed the atmosphere.

Some of this oxygen formed a thin layer of ozone

blocking most of the Suns ultra-violet rays.

In this changed environment

new organisms flourished in the Earths waters.

Colonies of green algae produced more oxygen.

Just before complex life appeared,

the world was in the grip of the biggest
ice age in its entire history.

Then organisms evolved an
astonishing variety of forms.

Timelapse of the Entire Universe