Timeline of the Universe
Timeline of the Universe
[A large header is above the main drawing:] Timeline of the Universe
[The drawing shows a diagram of the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang (left) to the present right with lines indicating possible futures continuing right of the main drawing. The drawing is that of a black horn of plenty, very thin to the left and then it becomes broader, mainly in steps but also slightly between each step. n a few places the diameter decreases a bit. Along the "tube" are segments divided with thin white lines, with about equal distance between them. The first 20 the tube is black, but then stars form, shown as many white dots, and finally in the last 3-4 segments galaxies are shown. At the top and bottom of the opening to the right there are four dashed lines which behaves the same way. Two points inward, two continue the trend from before they begin, two goes out fast again, and then falls back to slow increase, and two goes almost straight up and down. At the far left there is a line going in to a small dot. On the line before the dot are two questions mark. A line points to the dot which has a starburst around it. It represents the Big Bang. After this firs labeled point on the drawing there are mange other labeled sections with a line going from the label to a segment on the drawing. There are 9 above, 9 below and one at each end. The one at the right end pointing to the four dashed future lines at the top. From left to right in the order they are labeled on the timeline, the labels are:] ?? Big Bang [The Universe comes in as a circle with action lines around it. It stays the same size for a while.] Planck Epoch Medium Bang [The Universe starts inflating very slowly] Inflation [The Universe briefly inflates very rapidly, and returns to its normal rate of expansion.] Quark Epoch Lepton Epoch Photon Epoch Cool Bug Epoch [The Universe starts inflating and deflating rapidly, forming a series of bumps in the universe diagram like the grip on a hand tool.] Molded grip [Stars appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating slightly faster than before.] Stars form Stagflation [The Universe starts deflating slowly.] Settling Rebound [The Universe starts inflating slowly again.] Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again [The Universe starts inflating at the same rate as the Inflation section.] Emergency Stop triggered [The Universe abruptly stops inflating, and stays level.] [Galaxies appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating at a medium pace.] Galaxies form Earth forms Present day [We see the edge of the Universe, with a rounded shape. Various dotted line predictions are on the edges.] Future Cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown

This comic is about the size of the visible universe , presented as a timeline in a way typical of representations of the timeline of epochs in cosmology .
Some events it describes, including the Big Bang and Inflation are real, but others are jokes, including the Medium Bang and Settling .  The size history of the visible universe is also embellished for the sake of jokes; the actual size history of the universe has one period referred to as Inflation, which occurred shortly after the Big Bang, followed by comparatively gentle but accelerating expansion.  This is artistically depicted in this image from NASA . Part of the humor in this comic comes from the fact that the varied rate of change in expansion is not yet fully understood, with explanations of events leading to this change including theories such as "dark matter" and "dark energy" (this might therefore be construed as "dark humour"). At the end of the drawing four possible continuations of the timeline are suggested, with director J. J. Abrams listed as the deciding factor between them, stating that all future cosmological development has been handed over to him. Abrams directed the Star Trek movie entitled Star Trek , which established additional alternate timelines for Star Trek, so it may be implied that multiple timelines could result from direction by Abrams in the future. Notably, each Star Trek series has included multiple interacting timelines. For information about each of the events shown in this comic's Timeline of the Universe , see detailed explanations in the section Events on the Timeline of the Universe below.
The title text is a variation of one of Randall's standard jokes that his drawings are Not actual size ; in the case of this comic there is technically one spot near the left where the drawing depicts the actual relative size of the universe at the time the drawing represents. Where his drawing begins, at the time when the universe began, per definition, our visible universe had no measurable size. Very soon (within a tiny fraction of an attosecond) after the universe as we know it began, the inflation period blew it up very very fast and then it continued to expand until present day. So at some "time" after the big bang, our visible universe would have had a size (i.e. diameter) that would be the same as any thickness of Randall's universe "line". Since the universe as depicted in the comic goes from infinitesimal size at the moment of the Big Bang to the full size of the universe today, at some point near the left there will be a point where Randall's representation would have the same size as the universe at the correct "time period". Of course a problem with this is that there was only a very very short time period after inflation where the diameter of the observable universe is on the same scale as this comic, and that point is neither indicated nor likely to be accurate in relation to the duration of time elapsed. According to an answer given here regarding the size of the visible universe after inflation, there is reason to believe that the size was still less than 1 mm in diameter when the stage of expansion known as Inflation ended, which is less than the thickness of the line shown at the Big Bang (depending on the screen size the comic is viewed upon); So the point along the timeline where the size of our visible universe matched the line width appears after the Inflation period is thought to have ended. Since Randall includes the Medium Bang before Inflation on his drawing he has already inserted a mistake there, but as the next three epochs after Inflation are real epochs, it is likely somewhere in this part of the drawing that the visible universe would have had the same diameter as the thickness of the drawing at a relevant time epoch on the drawing. This will thus not be that far to the left but around the Quark epoch.
The events presented in the timeline are:
[A large header is above the main drawing:] Timeline of the Universe
[The drawing shows a diagram of the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang (left) to the present right with lines indicating possible futures continuing right of the main drawing. The drawing is that of a black horn of plenty, very thin to the left and then it becomes broader, mainly in steps but also slightly between each step. n a few places the diameter decreases a bit. Along the "tube" are segments divided with thin white lines, with about equal distance between them. The first 20 the tube is black, but then stars form, shown as many white dots, and finally in the last 3-4 segments galaxies are shown. At the top and bottom of the opening to the right there are four dashed lines which behaves the same way. Two points inward, two continue the trend from before they begin, two goes out fast again, and then falls back to slow increase, and two goes almost straight up and down. At the far left there is a line going in to a small dot. On the line before the dot are two questions mark. A line points to the dot which has a starburst around it. It represents the Big Bang. After this firs labeled point on the drawing there are mange other labeled sections with a line going from the label to a segment on the drawing. There are 9 above, 9 below and one at each end. The one at the right end pointing to the four dashed future lines at the top. From left to right in the order they are labeled on the timeline, the labels are:] ?? Big Bang [The Universe comes in as a circle with action lines around it. It stays the same size for a while.] Planck Epoch Medium Bang [The Universe starts inflating very slowly] Inflation [The Universe briefly inflates very rapidly, and returns to its normal rate of expansion.] Quark Epoch Lepton Epoch Photon Epoch Cool Bug Epoch [The Universe starts inflating and deflating rapidly, forming a series of bumps in the universe diagram like the grip on a hand tool.] Molded grip [Stars appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating slightly faster than before.] Stars form Stagflation [The Universe starts deflating slowly.] Settling Rebound [The Universe starts inflating slowly again.] Someone tripped and accidentally hit the "Inflation" switch again [The Universe starts inflating at the same rate as the Inflation section.] Emergency Stop triggered [The Universe abruptly stops inflating, and stays level.] [Galaxies appear in the timeline. The Universe starts inflating at a medium pace.] Galaxies form Earth forms Present day [We see the edge of the Universe, with a rounded shape. Various dotted line predictions are on the edges.] Future Cosmological development handed over to J.J. Abrams, outcome unknown
