Three minutes to form the universe
A scientific timeline exploring the first three minutes of the universe, from its initial conditions of extreme temperature and density to the formation of the first light nuclei.
The journey shows, step by step, how the expansion and cooling of the universe gave rise to different physical stages: cosmic inflation, the emergence of elementary particles, quarks and gluons, leptons, neutrinos, matter and antimatter, the formation of protons and neutrons, deuterium, helium and traces of lithium.
Each entry combines accessible explanations, scientific context, images, videos and links for further exploration, turning an almost unimaginable timescale into a clear, visual and rigorous sequence. It demonstrates how TimeDivers can represent not only human history, but also extreme scientific processes, with events, periods, multimedia resources and detailed descriptions organized in a clear, easy-to-navigate timeline.
T = 0: the limit of the hot Big Bang model-13.800.000.000
First second: from the physical limit to the first particles-13.800.000.000 – -13.800.000.000 + 1 second
T + 1 s: neutrinos near decoupling-13.800.000.000 + 1 second
Weak-interaction freeze-out-13.800.000.000 + 1 second – -13.800.000.000 + 3 seconds
T + 2 s: declining neutron-to-proton ratio-13.800.000.000 + 2 seconds
Electron–positron annihilation-13.800.000.000 + 3 seconds – -13.800.000.000 + 10 seconds
Photons hotter than neutrinos-13.800.000.000 + 5 seconds
T + 10 s: the deuterium bottleneck remains closed-13.800.000.000 + 10 seconds
Ordinary matter is not yet atomic-13.800.000.000 + 12 seconds
The clock of free neutrons-13.800.000.000 + 15 seconds – -13.800.000.000 + 30 seconds
T + 20 s: continuing expansion and cooling-13.800.000.000 + 20 seconds
T + 30 s: protons as the baryonic majority-13.800.000.000 + 30 seconds
T + 40 s: conditions before efficient nucleosynthesis-13.800.000.000 + 40 seconds
T + 50 s: reactions possible, accumulation difficult-13.800.000.000 + 50 seconds
T + 1 min: the deuterium barrier begins to give way-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute
T + 1 min 20 s: deuterium begins to survive-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute, 20 seconds
Rapid nucleosynthesis: deuterium toward helium-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute, 20 seconds – -13.800.000.000 + 3 minutes
T + 1 min 30 s: pathways to tritium and helium-3-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute, 30 seconds
T + 1 min 40 s: helium-4, the major early product-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute, 40 seconds
The mass-5 gap-13.800.000.000 + 1 minute, 50 seconds
Traces of lithium and beryllium-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes
T + 2 min 10 s: helium under construction-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 10 seconds
Residual deuterium: a probe of baryon density-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 20 seconds
The nuclear window begins to close-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 30 seconds
Radiation, nuclei, and free electrons-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 40 seconds
Agreement between nuclear physics and cosmology-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 50 seconds
What does not yet exist-13.800.000.000 + 2 minutes, 55 seconds
T + 3 min: a provisional physical snapshot-13.800.000.000 + 3 minutes
