Objects of Solar System-Formation of Earth

Introduction:

We live on the planet’s rugged, rocky surface, breathing the air surrounding it, drinking the water that falls from the sky, and eating the food that grows in the soil. However, Earth did not always exist within this vast universe and was not always a welcoming haven for life.

Formation of Earth

Our planet- Earth, is formed from a cloud of dust and gas. It has evolved into our home, with abundant rocky landscapes, a life-supporting atmosphere, and mysterious oceans.

Earth and the rest of our solar system were utterly unrecognizable billions of years ago, existing only as a massive cloud of dust and gas. Eventually, a mysterious event—one that even the world’s most eminent scientists have yet to explain—created a disturbance in that dust cloud, triggering a chain of events that led to the formation of life as we know it. Scientists believe that a distant star collapsed, causing a supernova explosion that disrupted the dust cloud and caused it to pull together.

This resulted in a spinning disc of gas and dust called a solar nebula.

The gravity at the cloud’s core became so intense over time that hydrogen atoms began to move more quickly and violently. The hydrogen protons started fusing, releasing massive amounts of energy and forming helium. This resulted in the formation of the star that is the center of our solar system, the Sun, approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

Formation of Planets

The Sun’s formation consumed more than 99% of the matter in the nebula. The remaining material began to form different masses. The cloud was still spinning, and clumps of matter collided. Some of those matter clusters eventually grew large enough to sustain their gravitational pull, forming the planets and dwarf planets that comprise our solar system today.

Earth is one of our solar system’s four inner terrestrial planets. Like the other inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), it is small and rocky. Rocky material was the only substance that could exist so close to the Sun and withstand its heat early in the solar system’s history.

Earth’s Early Stages

Earth was unrecognizable in its early stages from its modern form. It was boiling at first, so much so that the planet was almost certainly made of molten magma. Then, the earth began to cool over a few hundred million years, forming oceans of liquid water. Heavy elements began to sink past the oceans and magma toward the planet’s core. As a result, Earth differentiated into layers, with the outermost layer consisting of a solid covering of relatively lighter material, while the denser, molten material sunk to the center.

Scientists believe that Earth evolved in three distinct stages like the other inner planets. As previously described, the first stage is known as accretion, or the formation of a world from existing particles in the solar system as they collide to form larger and larger bodies. Scientists believe the next stage involved a protoplanet colliding with a very young planet Earth. This is thought to have happened more than 4.5 billion years ago, possibly leading to the formation of Earth’s moon. Finally, the world was bombarded with asteroids during the final stage of development.

Earth’s early atmosphere was most likely made up of hydrogen and helium. As these were the leading gases in the dusty, gassy disk around the Sun from which the planets formed, Earth’s original atmosphere was most likely just hydrogen and helium. The Earth and its Atmosphere were exceptionally hot. Hydrogen and helium molecules move extremely quickly, exceptionally when warm. They moved so fast that they eventually escaped Earth’s gravity and drifted into space.

Earth’s “second atmosphere” was created by the planet itself. Because the Earth’s crust was still developing, there were several volcanoes than there are today. The volcanoes emitted steam (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and ammonia (NH₃).

The oceans absorb a considerable part of the CO₂. Eventually, a simple form of bacteria evolved that could live on the Sun’s energy and the carbon dioxide in the water, producing oxygen as a waste product. As a result, oxygen started accumulating in the Atmosphere, while carbon dioxide levels continued to fall. In the meantime, sunlight broke apart ammonia molecules in the Atmosphere, forming nitrogen and hydrogen. Because hydrogen is the lightest element, it rose to the top of the Atmosphere and drifted off into space.

Influences from Asteroids

Other events were taking place on our young planet at the same time. Asteroids are thought to have continuously bombarded Earth during its early formation, possibly carrying an essential water source with them. Scientists believe that the asteroids that collided with Earth, the moon, and other inner planets contained a significant amount of water in their minerals, which was required to form life. Asteroids apparently shattered when they collided with the Earth’s surface at high speeds, leaving behind rock fragments. Some believe that nearly 30% of the water initially contained in the asteroids would have remained in the fragmented rock sections on Earth after impact.

Photosynthesizing bacteria evolved a few hundred million years after this process—roughly 2.2 billion to 2.7 billion years ago. They released oxygen into the Atmosphere by the process of photosynthesis. They were able to change the composition of the Atmosphere into what we have today in a few hundred million years. As a result, our modern Atmosphere comprises 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, among other gases, and can support the many lives that live within it.