Hi and welcome to my blog!
I was asked today what does the illustration on the banner of the blog mean.
The short answer – it’s a brief history of our universe.
The “Timeline of the Universe Image” by NASA/WAMP Science Team shows pivotal events in universe’s history, from the Big Bang (the glaring light at the left) to nowadays (the spacecraft at the right). The thimble-like shape illustrates the expansion of universe for over 13 billion years. The closed side depicts the universe’s mind-boggling growth at its very beginning. The area dotted with specs of light in the middle illustrates the formation of stars, galaxies, and so on, during a period when the universe went through its “middle age”. After a long stretch of slowing expansion, the “thimble” started to open-up – the universe has reached the modern-era of accelerated expansion. Coincidentally or not, the time span of the latest epoch coincides more or less with the age of our Earth.
You can see the image with explanations at: http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/060915/ . NASA also offers a 3D rotating image of WAMP spacecraft at: http://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/resources/wmapsc.html.
