The dominance of dark energy stops the creation of new structures. This is the reason for the absence of structures larger than galaxy superclusters.

Dark energy takes over: the expansion of the universe, which has always slowed down (due to gravity), is now beginning to accelerate. The universe is 57% of its current size. 4.5 billion years later, three teams of world-class supernova hunters led by Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in California, Brian Schmidt and Robert Kirschner in Australia, and the High-z Supernova Project led by Adam Riess of Harvard University, discover that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

The expansion of the Universe begins to accelerate

Strong star formation begins even in small galaxies

First clusters of galaxies

Epoch of maximum star formation; the Universe is 4 billion years old

First evidence for the presence of PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) molecules in the early universe (they are the basis of organic molecules and DNA, and are among the most stable carbon compounds)

Complex elements and molecules are formed. And with these, the planets.

Only a handful of chemical elements and compounds exist in the Universe, probably on the order of a dozen. Plate tectonics and the presence of water on terrestrial planets (probably on the order of billions or trillions in galaxies like the Milky Way) will expand the number of minerals and compounds to several hundred (from 420 to 1,500 depending on the abundance of water and plate tectonics). Then, the advent of oxygen (released by life forms like plants) will further expand the number of compounds and minerals to around 4,500. And life expands this diversity further beyond 5,000.

Large galaxies are formed; the background temperature of the universe is around 15K

The pressure can no longer hold the weight of gravity and atomic matter begins to precipitate into accumulations of dark matter: the first stars are born.

Stars and galaxies are formed.

End of the cosmic fog: the Universe becomes transparent; the temperature drops below 2000C; the gas is no longer ionized; the atoms become neutral; the era of radiation ends and the era of matter begins.

The speed of sound decreases significantly, and some vortices begin to spin supersonically. This creates shock waves and irregular regions where the material that will form galaxies can accumulate. In turbulent environments, the rotation speed of a vortex is proportional to the cube root of its diameter (Nikolai Kolmogorov, 1941).

Atoms are formed; the background temperature of the universe is around 3000K

The inflationary episode ends: in just 10^-32s the universe has expanded by a factor of 10^60; the temperature has quickly (and euphemismically) reached 10^27K (a thousand trillion trillion degrees), enough to create all 10^50 tons of matter in the visible universe.

The inflationary episode inflates our bubble; today, after 13 billion years, our bubble has reached a size of approximately 10^10 000 000 000 km, while the observable universe is “only” 10^23 km wide; there could be 10^500 different types of stable low-energy bubbles like ours (i.e., with different laws of physics / physical parameters).

An inflationary episode begins: scalar fields prevail over gravity

Big Bang: an explosion of approximately 10^72 joules (give or take a joule). The date is estimated to be within +/- 110 million years. Before the Big Bang, the universe was completely empty, cold, and dark, but there was at least one speck of space with a vacuum, within which space began to expand dramatically, driven by the anti-gravity of vacuum energy. This was called “Guth’s Inflation.” The vacuum was an intuition of Alan Guth. Certain types of particles, under certain conditions, can spontaneously aggregate into a state he calls vacuum, which is part of the very fabric of space-time and contains energy, vacuum energy. The observable universe today is only the region of space in causal contact with us. For all we know, at the time of the Big Bang, the entire observable universe, within that speck of space, could have been enormous, even infinite. Before the Big Bang, the cosmic horizon contained regions of space vastly larger than today’s observable universe, but destined to escape beyond the horizon due to the astonishing expansion. The further back in time one goes, the vaster the space contained within the cosmic horizon. Nothing can transform into microscopic De Sitter space (discovered by Alexander Vilenking in the early 1980s), which Guth’s inflation then vastly expands. Nothing, filled with vacuum energy, is potentially capable of creating a universe as vast and complex as ours, and perhaps even a multiverse. Nothing creates the universe. The secret is a perfect cancellation between the positive contribution of vacuum energy and the negative contribution of gravitational energy. Despite appearances, in the universe all conserved physical quantities, including energy, add up to zero. Perhaps nothing is the explanation for everything.