I bet you didn’t know! – If planet Earth’s history was compressed in 24 hours!

If we took the whole 4.6 billion years of planet Earth history and compressed it in 24 hours, meaning that the planet was born at midnight and we were at the next midnight just now, this is what we would have:

0:00 – the planet is born, with gases in the solar system getting compressed into one another, by Newton’s law of gravity.

05:00 to 06:00 am – land masses form, we have the continents.

06:00 am – or just about after it, life appears!

And for 16 hours, from 6 am to 22:00 (about 3 billion years!) – all life is confined in water!

22:00 – or just about after it: plants appear.

22:45 – the dinosaurs make it onto the scene.

23:23 – 37 minutes to midnight (our now), Africa is formed.

23:30 – 30 minutes to now, mammals come into existence.

23:40 – all dinosaurs are wiped out (likely by climate change caused by an asteroid hitting the planet).

23:58 – 2 minutes to now, human ancestors walked the planet.

23:59:59 and 999 milliseconds – which means a millisecond ago, Kenya gains Independence.

Yes, a scale where the whole of Earth existence is compressed in 24 hours makes you understand how truly insignificant we are!