A History and Future of the Universe

Data is beautiful.  There is elegance in the artful manipulation of data to communicate information.  I love to see new ways to communicate science to the layman and give an understanding of the collective human knowledge.  So I had to post this timeline of the universe infographic, containing events from the beginning of the universe all the way up to the death of the Sun.  This is obviously just the tip of the scientific iceberg so to speak, but some of the highlights chosen cross several disciplines of science and are truly significant events in history. Enjoy the truly beautiful...

Extreme Events: When Black Holes Collide

New science has come forward from a team of astronomers who, earlier this year, discovered a pair of black holes in a close orbit, heading toward a cataclysmic merger.  The new results suggest that this incredibly powerful collision will occur much sooner than previously thought, as little as 100,000 years from now (A blip on the radar of astronomical timescales). By precisely calculating the individual and relative masses of the black holes, the team was able to predict how the merger would take place, giving a time line for the collision. The astronomers, from Columbia University, saw bright flashes of light...