TIME

First Light

≈ 380,000 years after the Big Bang

Oval all-sky map of the cosmic microwave background in blue, green, yellow, and red patches that mark tiny temperature differences.

Cosmic TimeFirst Light

The oldest light we can see.

First Light is the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light we can detect. It began traveling freely about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Tiny differences in its glow mark where matter was denser, and those regions later grew into galaxies.

380,000 years after the Big Bang, placed on the scale of its era on a line leading toward now.

Era
Cosmic Time
Period
≈ 380,000 years after the Big Bang
Edition
1/1
Status
Not Released
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Background artwork

Cinematic background showing the first light of the universe, as a glowing haze cooling from white to orange. An illustration generated with an AI image tool for TIME. It is an artistic depiction, not a photograph or a record of the moment. Nothing could be seen at that time. The colours are a visual translation.