inflation era | 10-35 s | Big Bang era in which the infant universe went through a brief period of extremely rapid (exponential) expansion, after which it settled back into the more leisurely rate of expansion of the standard model. The period of rapid expansion began and ended when the universe was still much less than a second old, yet it provides a physical explanation for the flatness and horizon puzzles. The inflationary universe model also suggests that the universe is vastly larger than the portion of it that is visible to us. (See exponential expansion.) | Big Bang era |