BYA, an abbreviation for "billion years ago", is a unit of time commonly used in disciplines such as geology, astronomy, paleontology, and cosmology to denote events that occurred billions of years in the past. It is primarily used in the context of describing the age of the Earth, Solar System, Universe, and major geological or biological milestones in Earth's history.
The term "BYA" is often used to express time in billions of years before the present (where the "present" is generally considered to be 1950 CE, according to radiocarbon dating conventions).[1] For example:
The formation of the Earth is estimated to have occurred approximately 4.54 BYA.[1]
The Big Bang is estimated to have taken place around 13.8 BYA.[2]
Life is believed to have originated on Earth around 3.5–4.0 BYA.[3]
The abbreviation may also appear in scientific literature as Ga (from the Latin gigaannum, meaning "billion years") or Gya (giga years ago), though these variants are more common in international and SI unit-compliant literature.[1]
Alternative Notation
Abbreviation
Meaning
Notes
BYA
Billion Years Ago
Non-SI, widely used in English-speaking regions
Ga
Gigaannum
SI-compliant, used in formal scientific literature
Gya
Giga years ago
Less common variant, similar to BYA
Context in Scientific Fields
Geology: Used to mark eras and events such as continental formation, mass extinctions, and plate tectonics.[1]
Astronomy: Used to describe the age of celestial bodies or cosmological events.[2]
Paleontology: Applied to the timeline of biological evolution, including the rise of multicellular life or the Cambrian explosion.[3]
1 2 3 4 Dalrymple, Gary Brent (2007). The age of the earth (Nachdr.ed.). Stanford, Calif: Stanford Univ. Pr. ISBN978-0-8047-2331-2.
1 2 Life, Committee on the Origins and Evolution (2005). Astrophysical Context of Life. National Research Council, Board on Life Sciences, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences. Washington: National Academies Press. ISBN978-0-309-09627-0.
1 2 Knoll, Andrew H. (2015). Life on a young planet: the first three billion years of evolution on earth. Princeton Science Library (New Princeton Science Library paperbacked.). Princeton Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-16553-0.
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