[ExI] Carl Sagan Cosmic Calendar

[BillK]

The Universe in One Year was inspired by the late astronomer, Carl
Sagan (1934-1996). Sagan was the first person to explain the history
of the universe in one year-as a "Cosmic Calendar"-in his television
series, Cosmos.

<http://visav.phys.uvic.ca/~babul/AstroCourses/P303/BB-slide.htm>

Our Milky Way galaxy doesn’t form until May, and our solar system only
comes into being on the 9th of September. Life on Earth appears around
September 25, and life doesn’t reach land until December 21. In the
next week at this scale, we see amphibians, trees, reptiles,
dinosaurs, mammals, birds, and flowers. It’s not until the very last
day of the year, at 10:30PM, that the first humans appear. And in the
final minute, all human history whizzes by, from cave paintings and
the invention of agriculture, to the moon landing.

On the time scale of the universe, humans are just the blink of an eye.

BillK