If you examine a planet like Earth over the course of a year, you’ll notice a great many changes. Day to day, the most significant changes will come from cloud cover and weather patterns, as the motion of storms, fronts, and water throughout Earth’s atmosphere are all variable. On longer timescales, the changing of the seasons will lead to the greening and browning of continents, the advance and retreat of glaciers, ice sheets, and polar caps. And these changes will be punctuated by singular events: geomagnetic storms, blackouts, and severe weather events at various times. All of these changes affect our planet’s appearance, dependent on when we take our particular snapshot.
What was it like when the first stars began to shine?
For perhaps as long as the first 100 million years after the start of the hot Big Bang, the Universe was devoid of stars.…