Terasecond and longer

A terasecond (symbol: Ts) is 1 trillion seconds, or roughly 31,700 years - this page lists time spans above 1 terasecond.

• Shorter times

Teraseconds

• 379,000 years: the time that elapsed after the Big Bang before the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) was emitted
• 1 million years: one epoch (3.16 × 10¹³ seconds); about the average lifespan of a blue supergiant star
• 2.6 million years: estimated duration of the Paleolithic Period
• 4 million years: estimated average lifetime of biological species
• 4.32 million years—one mahayuga, or 12,000 divine years, in Hindu mythology
• 27 million years: estimated duration of the Silurian Period

Petaseconds

1 thousand teraseconds (or 1 quadrillion seconds) is called a petasecond, and is equal to about 32 million years.

• 45 million years: estimated duration of the Ordovician Period
• 50 million years: estimated duration of the Triassic and the Permian Periods
• 54 million years: estimated duration of the Cambrian Period
• 56.8 million years: estimated duration of the Devonian Period
• 60 million years: estimated duration of the Carboniferous Period
• 62.4 million years: estimated duration of the Tertiary Period
• 65 million years: estimated duration of the Jurassic Period
• 80 million years: estimated duration of the Cretaceous Period
• 185 million years: estimated duration of the Mesozoic Era
• 250 million years: approximate length of one galactic year (i.e. one revolution of our Solar System around the center of the Milky Way galaxy)
• 291 million years: estimated duration of the Paleozoic Era
• 800 million years: duration of the Hadean Eon
• 1 billion years: 1 eon (3.16 × 10¹⁶ seconds)
• 1.3 billion years: estimated duration of the Archaean Eon
• 2 billion years: estimated duration of the Proterozoic Eon
• 4 billion years: estimated duration of the Precambrian Supereon
• 4.32 billion years—one kalpa, or half a day in the lifetime of Brahma, in Hindu mythology^[1]
• 10 billion years: expected main sequence lifetime of a G2 dwarf star (like our Sun): also, the estimated lifespan of a globular cluster before its stars are ejected by gravitational interactions.^[2]

Exaseconds

1 million teraseconds (or 1 quintillion seconds) is called an exasecond, and is equal to 32 billion years, or roughly twice the age of the universe at current estimates (the universe is currently thought to be a bit less than 14 billion years old).

• 34 billion years: estimated lifetime of the universe, assuming the Big Rip scenario is correct.^[3] Experimental evidence currently suggests that it is not.^[4]
• 10¹³ (10 trillion) to 2×10¹³ (20 trillion) years: approximate lifetime of the longest-lived stars, the low-mass red dwarfs.^[5]

Zettaseconds

1 billion teraseconds (or 1 sextillion seconds) is called a zettasecond and is equal to roughly 32 trillion years.

• 10¹⁴ (100 trillion) years: estimated duration of the Stelliferous Era (the time during which the stars shine).
• 3.11 × 10¹⁴ (311 trillion) years—the lifetime of Brahma in Hindu mythology^[6]

Yottaseconds and beyond

1 trillion teraseconds (or 1 septillion seconds) is called a yottasecond and is equal to roughly 32 quadrillion (or 3.2x10¹⁶) years.

• 4.134105 x 10²⁸ years—The time period equivalent to the value of 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0 in the Mesoamerican Long Count, a date discovered on a stela at the Coba Maya site, believed to be the absolute value for the length of one cycle of the universe.^[6][7]
• 8.2 x 10³³ years: the smallest possible value for proton half-life consistent with experiment.^[8]
• 10⁴¹ years: the largest possible value for the proton half-life, assuming that the Big Bang was inflationary and that the same process that made baryons predominate over anti-baryons in the early Universe also makes protons decay.^{, §IVA.€[9]}
• 2×10⁶⁶ years: approximate lifespan of a black hole with the mass of the Sun^[10]
• 1.7×10¹⁰⁶ years: approximate lifespan of a supermassive black hole with a mass of 20 trillion solar masses^[10]

See also

• Orders of magnitude (time)
• Timeline of the Big Bang

References