Cosmic Timeline Infographic

Science Illustration / Infographic • Scientific American • 2025
Infographic explaining (title) Early Cosmic History: the dark ages (when the early universe was shrouded in darkness), cosmic dawn (when the first stars and galaxies began to form), and reionization (when UV radiation from the first stars ionized the surrounding hydrogen, making the universe transparent — and therefore the light of cosmic structures visible to us and our equipment, millions of years later). Insets include: the full cosmic history from the big bang to today, the first 380,000 years when the first particles began to form, the epoch of reionization, and the era ~300 million years after the big bang which the JWST will focus on. Graphic by Jen Christiansen, illustrations by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.

Infographic

Illustration of cosmic history, focusing on the dark ages (when the early universe was shrouded in darkness), cosmic dawn (when the first stars and galaxies began to form), and reionization (when UV radiation from the first stars ionized the surrounding hydrogen, making the universe transparent — and therefore the light of cosmic structures visible to us and our instruments, millions of years later). Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.

Main illustration

FOR
Scientific American, 2025
Thanks to Jen Christiansen

WORK
Illustration

TOOLS
C4D, CSP, Procreate

INFO
Illustrations for an infographic about early cosmic history: the dark ages (when the early univese was shrouded in darkness), comic dawn (when the first stars and galaxies began to form), and reionization (when UV radiation from the first stars ionized the surrounding hydrogen, making the universe transparent — and therefore the light of comic structures visible to us and our instruments, millions of years later).

For a Scientific American article by Rebecca Boyle: Astronomers’ Epic Quest to Witness the Cosmic Dawn. Graphics by Jen Christiansen.

Sketches for an infographic about the cosmic history, showing early particles, the overall cosmic history, and an inset focusing on the dark ages through reionization period. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.

Early sketches

Screenshot of an article on Scientific American, titled Astronomers' Epic Quest to Witness the Cosmic Dawn. Subhed: A new generation of telescopes could peer back to the earliest epochs of the universe. By Rebecca Boyle, edited by Clara Moskowitz. Conceptual illustration of a cosmic dawn by Olena Shmahalo.

© Olena Shmahalo