An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The epoch in the history of the Universe, lasting from the → Big Bang until about 400,000 years later, when the temperature had dropped to 10⁹ K and the rate of electron-positron → pair annihilation exceeded the rate of their production, leaving radiation the dominant constituent of the Universe. The radiation era was followed by the → matter era.

See also: → radiation; → era.