When the earth was created. History of planet earth

It is so nice to know that the planet Earth turned out to be the most suitable for various forms of life. There are ideal temperature conditions, enough air, oxygen and safe light. It's hard to believe that this never happened. Or almost nothing but a molten cosmic mass of indeterminate shape, floating in zero gravity. But first things first.

Explosion on a global scale

Early theories of the origin of the universe

Scientists have put forward various hypotheses to explain the birth of the Earth. In the 18th century, the French claimed that the cause was a cosmic catastrophe resulting from the collision of the Sun with a comet. The British assured that an asteroid flying past the star cut off part of it, from which a number of celestial bodies subsequently appeared.

German minds have moved on. The prototype of the formation of the planets of the solar system, they considered a cold dust cloud of incredible size. Later it was decided that the dust was red-hot. One thing is clear: the formation of the Earth is inextricably linked with the formation of all the planets and stars that make up the solar system.

Today, astronomers and physicists are unanimous in their opinion that the Universe was formed after. Billions of years ago, a giant fireball exploded into pieces in outer space. This caused a gigantic ejection of matter, the particles of which possessed colossal energy. It was the power of the latter that prevented the elements from creating atoms, forcing them to repel each other. This was facilitated by the high temperature (about a billion degrees). But after a million years, space has cooled down to about 4000º. From that moment, the attraction and formation of atoms of light gaseous substances (hydrogen and helium) began.

How did the planets appear?

It would seem that scientific and technological progress is able to provide answers to many questions concerning the world around us. But scientists still have many mysteries and inaccuracies. After all, sometimes even the most logical and harmonious theory remains only at the level of assumptions, because there are simply no facts that expose it, and sometimes it is extremely difficult to obtain evidence. How the planets appeared is one such open question, although there are quite a few theories and assumptions about this. Let's deal with what hypotheses exist about the origin of the planets.

Main scientific theory

To date, there are many different scientific hypotheses proving where the planets came from, however, in modern natural science they adhere to the theory of a gas and dust cloud.

It consists in the fact that the solar system with all the planets, satellites, stars and other celestial bodies appeared as a result of the compression of a gas and dust cloud. In the center of it formed the largest star - the Sun. And all the other bodies came from the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. In simple terms, the planets appeared as follows. There was some matter in space, which consisted only of gas and dust dissolved in it. After a strong impact of atmospheric pressure, the gas began to shrink, and the dust began to turn into large and heavy objects, which later became planets.

Kuiper belt and Oort cloud

We have previously mentioned the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. Scientists say that it was these two objects that became the building material from which the planets appeared.

The Kuiper belt is a zone in the solar system that starts from the orbit of Neptune. It is believed that this is the asteroid belt, but this is not entirely true. It is larger and more massive than it several times. In addition, the Kuiper belt differs from the asteroid belt in that it is made up of volatile substances such as ammonia and water. To date, it is believed that it was in this belt that three dwarf planets arose - Pluto, Huamea, Makemake, as well as their satellites.

The second object that contributed to the formation of planets, the Oort cloud, has not yet been found, and its existence has been confirmed only hypothetically. It is an inner and outer cloud consisting of isotopes of carbon and nitrogen with solid bodies moving in it. It is believed that this is a kind of spherical region of the solar system, which is the source of comets, which are also the building material for the emergence of other planets. If we imagine how the planets appeared externally, then we can imagine how dust and other solid bodies were compressed, as a result of which they acquired the spherical shape in which we know them today.

Alternative scientific hypotheses

• So, the first of these researchers was Georges-Louis Buffon. In 1745, he suggested that all the planets appeared as a result of the ejection of matter after the collision of the Sun with a passing comet. The comet broke up into many parts, which, under the influence of the centrifugal and centripetal forces of the energy of the Sun, formed the planets of the solar system.
• A little later, in 1755, a researcher named Kant suggested that all the planets were formed due to the fact that dust particles under the influence of gravity formed planets.
• In 1706, the French astronomer Pierre Laplace put forward his alternative theory of the appearance of planets. He believed that initially a huge hot nebula, consisting of gas, formed in space. It slowly rotated in outer space, but the centrifugal force increasing as a result of the movement was the basis for the emergence of the planets. The planets appeared at certain points, which were located in the rings left along the way. In total, Laplace said, 10 rings separated, which disintegrated into 9 planets and an asteroid belt.
• And in the 20th century, Fred Hoyle put forward his assumption about how the planets appeared. He believed that the Sun had a twin star. Fred claimed that this star exploded, as a result of which the planets were formed.
• But not only science is trying to understand where the planets came from, religion is also trying to explain this interesting question. So, there is the theory of creationism. She says that all space objects, including the planets of the solar system, were created by the creator, God.

And this is not all the hypotheses that exist today. If you want to see firsthand how the planets came to be, videos can be found on the Internet, as well as in some electronic astronomy manuals.

We all live on planet Earth, I think each of us is interested in how our planet was formed. Scientists have hypotheses on this issue.

How did the planet Earth come about?

The earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It is believed that this is the only planet in the universe that is inhabited by living beings. Astronomers claim that the Earth appeared from cosmic dust and gas that remained after the formation of the Sun. They also claim that the Earth was originally a molten mass without any life. But then water began to accumulate, and the surface began to harden. Asteroids, comets and the energy of the Sun have shaped the relief and climate of the Earth that we know today.

If you are seriously interested in the question of how the planet Earth appeared, the video, which is quite easy to find, will clearly tell you about this issue.

Now you know how the planets of the solar system appeared. Astronomers have not yet come to a consensus on this issue, but I want to believe that the development of science and technology in the near future will allow us to collect evidence and say exactly how the planets appeared.

That's a very difficult question. And it is hardly possible to give an exhaustive answer to it. At least for the time being. The Earth itself keeps its past, and there is no one to tell about this past - it was so long ago.

Scientists are slowly "questioning" the Earth through the study of radioactive rocks and get some answers. But after all, the known past of the Earth is not final, but goes into an even more distant past - what was before its solidification? Scientists compare the planets in their current state with each other and try to judge the evolution of the Earth from them. Knowledge of the world is a long and not so easy process.
There are many hypotheses about the origin of the Earth and other planets, we will consider some of them separately on our website.
Modern hypotheses about the origin of the solar system must take into account not only the mechanical characteristics of the solar system, but also take into account numerous physical data on the structure of the planets and the sun.
In the field of cosmogony, a stubborn ideological struggle has constantly been and is being waged, since here the worldview of scientists is sharply affected. Creationists, for example, believe the earth is no more than 10,000 years old, while evolutionists measure the age of the earth in billions of years.

Thus, there is still no hypothesis that answers all questions about the origin of the Earth and other planets of the solar system. But scientists are increasingly agreeing that the Sun and the planets were formed simultaneously (or almost simultaneously) from a single material environment, from a single gas and dust cloud.
There are the following hypotheses about the origin of the planets of the solar system (including the Earth): the hypothesis of Laplace, Kant, Schmidt, Buffon, Hoyle, etc.

Basic modern scientific theory

The emergence of the solar system began with the gravitational compression of a gas and dust cloud, in the center of which the most massive body, the Sun, was formed. The material of the protoplanetary disk gathered into small planetesimals, which collided with each other and formed planets. Part of the planetesimals was ejected from the inner regions into the Kuiper Belt and into the Oort cloud.
Kuiper Belt- the region of the solar system from the orbit of Neptune to a distance of about 55 a. e. from the Sun. Although the Kuiper Belt is similar to the asteroid belt, it is about 20 times wider and more massive than the latter. Like the asteroid belt, it is made up mostly of small bodies, that is, material left over from the formation of the solar system. Unlike asteroid belt objects, which are primarily composed of rocks and metals, Kuiper belt objects are primarily composed of volatile substances (called ices) such as methane, ammonia, and water. There are at least three dwarf planets in this region of near space: Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. It is believed that some satellites of the planets of the solar system (Neptune's satellite - Triton and Saturn's satellite - Phoebe) also arose in this area.
Oort cloud- a hypothetical spherical region of the solar system, which serves as a source of long-period comets. Instrumentally, the existence of the Oort cloud has not been confirmed, but many indirect facts point to its existence.
The Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago from the solar nebula. Volcanic degassing created the earth's primary atmosphere was created by volcanic activity, but it had almost no oxygen, would have been toxic, and not habitable. Most of the Earth was molten due to active volcanism and frequent collisions with other space objects. One of these major impacts is believed to have tilted the earth's axis and formed the moon. Over time, such cosmic bombardments ceased, allowing the planet to cool and form a solid crust. The water delivered to the planet by comets and asteroids condensed into clouds and oceans. The earth finally became hospitable for life, and its earliest forms enriched the atmosphere with oxygen. For at least the first billion years, life on Earth was small and microscopic. Well, the process of evolution went on.
As we said earlier, there is no consensus on this matter. Therefore, hypotheses about the origin of the Earth and other planets of the solar system continue to arise, while there are old ones.

J. Buffon's hypothesis

Not all scientists agreed with the evolutionary scenario for the origin of the planets. Back in the 18th century, the French naturalist Georges Buffon expressed a hypothesis supported and developed by the American physicists Chamberlain and Multon. The hypothesis is as follows: once another star flew in the vicinity of the Sun. Its attraction caused a huge tidal wave on the Sun, stretching out in space for hundreds of millions of kilometers. Having broken away, this wave began to spin around the Sun and break up into clots, each of which formed its own planet.

F. Hoyle's hypothesis

Another hypothesis was proposed by the English astrophysicist Fred Hoyle in the 20th century: the Sun had a twin star that exploded. Most of the fragments were carried away into outer space, the smaller part remained in the orbit of the Sun and formed planets.

Creation theory

Creationism- a theological and ideological concept, according to which the main forms of the organic world (life), humanity, planet Earth, and the world as a whole are considered as directly created by the Creator, or God. The term "creationism" has become popular since about the end of the 19th century, meaning concepts that recognize the truth of the creation story set forth in the Old Testament. It should be noted that there are several directions in the theory of creationism itself, but, for example, the Templeton Prize-winning geneticist, evolutionist and former Dominican Catholic priest Francisco Ayala believes that there are no significant contradictions between Christianity and evolutionary theory, and evolutionary theory, on the contrary, helps to explain both the perfection of the world created by God and the cause of evil in the world.

Protodeacon A. Kuraev in the book “Orthodoxy and Evolution” he writes: “Those are naive who vaguely think that God becomes unnecessary if we stretch out the process of creation. Just as naive are those who believe that the creation of the world over a period of more than six days diminishes the greatness of the Creator. It is only important for us to remember that nothing interfered, did not limit creative action. Everything happened according to the will of the Creator. And whether this will was to create the world instantly, or in six days, or in six thousand years, or in a myriad of centuries, we do not know.

In one galaxy, there are about 100 billion stars, and in total there are 100 billion galaxies in our Universe. If you were to travel from Earth to the very edge of the Universe, it would take you more than 15 billion years, provided that you move at the speed of light - 300,000 km per second. But where did the cosmic matter come from? How did the universe originate? The history of the Earth has about 4.6 billion years. During this time, many millions of species of plants and animals arose and died out on it; the highest mountain ranges grew and turned to dust; huge continents either split into pieces and scattered in different directions, then collided with each other, forming new giant land masses. How do we know all this? The fact is that, despite all the catastrophes and cataclysms that the history of our planet is so rich in, surprisingly much of its turbulent past is imprinted in the rocks that still exist, in the fossils that are found in them, as well as in the organisms of living beings. living on Earth today. Of course, this chronicle is incomplete. We come across only fragments of it, voids gap between them, whole chapters fall out of the narrative, which are extremely important for understanding what really happened. And yet, even in such a truncated form, the history of our Earth will not yield in fascination to any detective novel.

Astronomers believe that our world arose as a result of the Big Bang. Exploding, a giant fireball scattered matter and energy across space, which subsequently condensed, forming billions of stars, and those, in turn, merged into numerous galaxies.

The Big Bang Theory.

The theory, which is followed by most modern scientists, states that the Universe was formed as a result of the so-called Big Bang. An incredibly hot fireball, the temperature of which reached billions of degrees, at some point exploded and scattered flows of energy and particles of matter in all directions, giving them tremendous acceleration.
Any substance consists of tiny particles - atoms. Atoms are the smallest material particles that can take part in chemical reactions. However, they, in turn, consist of even smaller, elementary particles. In the world there are many varieties of atoms, which are called chemical elements. Each chemical element includes atoms of a certain size and weight and is different from other chemical elements. Therefore, in the course of chemical reactions, each chemical element behaves only in its own way. Everything in the universe, from the largest galaxies to the smallest living organisms, is made up of chemical elements.

After the Big Bang.

Because the fireball shattered into pieces by the Big Bang was so hot, the tiny particles of matter had too much energy at first to combine to form atoms. However, after about a million years, the temperature of the Universe dropped to 4000 "C, and various atoms began to form from elementary particles. First, the lightest chemical elements arose - helium and hydrogen. Gradually, the Universe cooled more and more and heavier elements were formed. The process of formation of new atoms and elements continues to this day in the depths of stars such as our Sun, for example.Their temperature is unusually high.
The universe was cooling down. The newly formed atoms gathered into gigantic clouds of dust and gas. Dust particles collided with each other, merged into a single whole. Gravitational forces pulled small objects towards larger ones. As a result, galaxies, stars, and planets formed over time in the Universe.

The earth has a molten core rich in iron and nickel. The Earth's crust is composed of lighter elements and seems to float on the surface of partially molten rocks that form the Earth's mantle.

Expanding Universe.

The Big Bang turned out to be so powerful that all the matter of the Universe scattered through outer space with great speed. Moreover, the universe continues to expand to this day. We can say this with confidence because distant galaxies are still moving away from us, and the distances between them are constantly increasing. This means that once the galaxies were much closer to each other than they are today.

No one knows exactly how the solar system formed. The underlying theory is that the Sun and planets formed from a swirling cloud of cosmic gas and dust. The denser parts of this cloud, with the help of gravitational forces, attracted an increasing amount of matter from the outside. As a result, the Sun and all its planets arose from it.

Microwaves from the past.

Based on the assumption that the universe was formed in a "hot" Big Bang, that is, it emerged from a giant fireball, scientists tried to calculate to what extent it should have cooled by now. They came to the conclusion that the temperature of intergalactic space should be about -270°C. Scientists also determine the temperature of the Universe by the intensity of microwave (thermal) radiation coming from the depths of space. The measurements carried out confirmed that it really is approximately -270 "C.

What is the age of the universe?

To find out the distance to a particular galaxy, astronomers determine its size, brightness and color of the light it emits. If the Big Bang theory is correct, then it means that all the galaxies that exist today were originally squeezed into one super-dense and hot fireball. You just need to divide the distance from one galaxy to another by the speed with which they are moving away from each other to establish how long ago they were a single whole. This will be the age of the universe. Of course, this method does not allow obtaining accurate data, but still it gives reason to believe that the age of the Universe is from 12 to 20 billion years.

A lava flow flows from the crater of the Kilauea volcano, located on the island of Hawaii. When lava comes to the surface of the Earth, it solidifies, forming new rocks.

The formation of the solar system.

Galaxies formed, in all likelihood, about 1 to 2 billion years after the Big Bang, and the solar system arose about 8 billion years later. After all, matter was not evenly distributed over space. The denser regions, due to gravitational forces, attracted more and more dust and gas. The size of these areas rapidly increased. They turned into giant swirling clouds of dust and gas - the so-called nebulae.
One such nebula - namely the solar nebula - condensed to form our Sun. From other parts of the cloud, clots of matter arose that became planets, including the Earth. They were kept in their circumsolar orbits by the powerful gravitational field of the Sun. As gravitational forces pulled the particles of solar matter closer and closer together, the Sun became smaller and denser. At the same time, tremendous pressure arose in the solar core. It was converted into colossal thermal energy, and this, in turn, accelerated the course of thermonuclear reactions inside the Sun. As a result, new atoms were formed and even more heat was released.

The emergence of conditions for life.

Approximately the same processes, although on a much smaller scale, took place on Earth. The Earth's core was rapidly shrinking. Due to nuclear reactions and the decay of radioactive elements in the bowels of the Earth, so much heat was released that the rocks that formed it melted. Lighter substances rich in silicon, a glass-like mineral, separated in the earth's core from denser iron and nickel to form the first earth's crust. After about a billion years, when the Earth cooled significantly, the earth's crust hardened and turned into a solid outer shell of our planet, consisting of solid rocks.
As it cooled, the Earth ejected many different gases from its core. This usually happened during volcanic eruptions. Light gases, such as hydrogen or helium, mostly escaped into outer space. However, the Earth's gravity was strong enough to keep heavier gases near its surface. They formed the basis of the earth's atmosphere. Part of the water vapor from the atmosphere condensed, and oceans appeared on Earth. Now our planet was fully prepared to become the cradle of life.

Birth and death of rocks.

Terrestrial land is formed by solid rocks, often covered with a layer of soil and vegetation. But where do these rocks come from? New rocks are formed from a substance that is born deep in the bowels of the Earth. In the lower layers of the earth's crust, the temperature is much higher than on the surface, and their constituent rocks are under enormous pressure. Under the influence of heat and pressure, rocks bend and soften, or even melt. As soon as a weak point forms in the earth's crust, molten rocks - they are called magma - break through to the surface of the Earth. Magma flows out of the vents of volcanoes in the form of lava and spreads over a large area. As it hardens, lava turns into solid rock.

Explosions and fire fountains.

In some cases, the birth of rocks is accompanied by grandiose cataclysms, in others it passes quietly and imperceptibly. There are many varieties of magma, and various types of rocks are formed from them. For example, basaltic magma is very fluid, easily comes to the surface, spreads in wide streams and quickly solidifies. Sometimes it bursts out of the mouth of a volcano in a bright "fiery fountain" - this happens when the earth's crust cannot withstand its pressure.
Other types of magma are much thicker: their density, or consistency, is more like molasses. The gases contained in such magma with great difficulty make their way to the surface through its dense mass. Remember how easily air bubbles break out of boiling water and how much more slowly it happens when you heat something thicker, such as jelly. As denser magma rises closer to the surface, the pressure on it decreases. The gases dissolved in it tend to expand, but cannot. When the magma finally bursts out, the gases expand so rapidly that a grandiose explosion occurs. Lava, rock fragments and ash scatter in all directions like projectiles fired from a cannon. A similar eruption happened in 1902 on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. The catastrophic eruption of the Moptap-Pele volcano completely destroyed the port of Sep-Pierre. About 30,000 people died.

Crystal formation.

Rocks formed from cooling lava are called volcanic or igneous rocks. As the lava cools, the minerals contained in the molten rocks gradually turn into solid crystals. If the lava cools quickly, the crystals do not have time to grow and remain very small. A similar thing happens when basalt is formed. Sometimes the lava cools so quickly that it turns into a smooth glassy rock containing no crystals at all, such as obsidian (volcanic glass). This usually happens during an underwater eruption or when small particles of lava are ejected from the vent of a volcano high into the cold air.

Erosion and weathering of rocks in the Cedar Breaks Canyons, Utah, USA. These canyons were formed as a result of the erosive action of the river, which made its channel through the layers of sedimentary rocks, "squeezed out" upward by the movements of the earth's crust. The exposed mountain slopes were gradually weathered, and rock fragments formed screes on them. In the midst of these screes, protrusions of still solid rocks stick out, which form the edges of the canyons.

Evidence of the past.

The size of the crystals contained in volcanic rocks allows us to judge how quickly the lava cooled and at what distance from the Earth's surface it lay. Here is a piece of granite as it appears under polarized light under a microscope. Different crystals have different colors in this image.

Gneiss is a metamorphic rock formed from sedimentary rock under the influence of heat and pressure. The pattern of multi-colored stripes that you see on this piece of gneiss allows you to determine the direction in which the earth's crust, moving, pressed against the rock layers. So we get an idea of ​​the events that took place 3.5 billion years ago.
From the folds and faults (ruptures) in the rocks, we can judge in which direction the colossal stresses in the earth's crust acted in bygone geological epochs. These folds arose as a result of mountain-forming movements of the earth's crust that began 26 million years ago. In these places, monstrous forces squeezed layers of sedimentary rocks - and folds formed.
Magma does not always reach the Earth's surface. It can linger in the lower layers of the earth's crust and then cools much more slowly, forming delicious large crystals. This is how granite is made. The size of the crystals in some pebbles allows us to establish how this rock was formed many millions of years ago.

Hooduz, Alberta, Canada. Rains and sandstorms destroy soft rocks faster than hard ones, and as a result, remnants (protrusions) with bizarre outlines appear.

Sedimentary "sandwiches".

Not all rocks are volcanic like granite or basalt. Many of them consist of many layers and look like a huge stack of sandwiches. They were once formed from other rocks destroyed by wind, rains and rivers, the fragments of which were washed away into lakes or seas, and they settled on the bottom under the water column. Gradually, such precipitation accumulates a huge amount. They pile up on top of each other, forming layers hundreds and even thousands of meters thick. The water of a lake or sea presses on these deposits with tremendous force. The water inside them is squeezed out, and they are compressed into a dense mass. At the same time, mineral substances, previously dissolved in the squeezed out water, seem to cement this entire mass, and as a result, a new rock is formed from it, which is called sedimentary.
Both volcanic and sedimentary rocks can be pushed up under the influence of the movements of the earth's crust, forming new mountain systems. Colossal forces are involved in the formation of mountains. Under their influence, rocks either heat up very much or monstrously shrink. At the same time, they are transformed - transformed: one mineral can turn into another, the crystals are flattened and take on a different arrangement. As a result, in place of one rock, another appears. Rocks formed during the transformation of other rocks under the influence of the above-mentioned forces are called metamorphic.

Nothing lasts forever, not even mountains.

At first glance, nothing can be stronger and more durable than a huge mountain. Alas, this is just an illusion. Based on the geologic time scale, which counts for millions and even hundreds of millions of years, mountains turn out to be just as transient as everything else, including you and me.
Any rock, as soon as it begins to be exposed to the atmosphere, will instantly collapse. If you look at a fresh piece of rock or a split pebble, you will see that the newly formed surface of the rock is often a completely different color than the old one that has been in the air for a long time. This is due to the effect of atmospheric oxygen and, in many cases, rainwater. Because of them, various chemical reactions occur on the surface of the rock, gradually changing its properties.
Over time, these reactions release the minerals that hold the rock together, and it begins to crumble. Tiny cracks form in the rock, into which water penetrates. Freezing, this water expands and breaks the rock from the inside. When the ice melts, such a rock will simply fall apart into pieces. Very soon, the fallen off pieces of rock will be washed away by the rains. This process is called erosion.

Muir Glacier in Alaska. The destructive effect of the glacier and the stones that have frozen into it from below and from the sides gradually causes erosion of the walls and bottom of the valley along which it moves. As a result, long strips of rock fragments are formed on the ice - the so-called moraines. At the confluence of two neighboring glaciers, their moraines are also connected.

Water destroyer.

Pieces of broken rock end up in rivers. The current drags them along the river bed and wears them down the rock that forms the channel itself, until the surviving fragments finally find a quiet haven at the bottom of the lake or sea. Frozen water (ice) has even greater destructive power. Glaciers and ice sheets drag behind them many large and small fragments of rocks frozen into their ice sides and belly. These fragments make deep furrows in the rocks along which glaciers move. The glacier can carry rock fragments that have fallen on top of it for many hundreds of kilometers.

Sculptures created by the wind

Wind also destroys rocks. Especially often this happens in deserts, where the wind carries millions of tiny grains of sand. The grains of sand are mostly composed of quartz, an extremely durable mineral. A whirlwind of grains of sand hits the rocks, knocking out more and more grains of sand from them.
Often the wind piles sand into large sandy hills, or dunes. Each gust of wind coats the dunes with a new layer of grains of sand. The location of the slopes and the steepness of these sandy hills make it possible to judge the direction and strength of the wind that created them.

Glaciers carve deep U-shaped valleys on their way. In Nantfrancon, Wales, the glaciers disappeared in prehistoric times, leaving behind a wide valley that is clearly large for the small river that flows through it today. The small lake in the foreground is blocked off by a strip of particularly strong rock.

Excited the minds of scientists for many millennia. There were and are many versions - from purely theological to modern, formed on the basis of data from deep space research.

But since no one happened to be present during the formation of our planet, it remains to rely only on indirect "evidence". Also, the most powerful telescopes are of great help in removing the veil from this mystery.

solar system

The history of the Earth is inextricably linked with the appearance and around which it revolves. And so you have to start from afar. According to scientists, after the Big Bang, it took one or two billion years for galaxies to become approximately what they are now. The solar system, on the other hand, arose, presumably, eight billion years later.

Most scientists agree that it, like all similar space objects, arose from a cloud of dust and gas, since matter in the Universe is distributed unevenly: somewhere there was more of it, and in another place - less. In the first case, this leads to the formation of nebulae from dust and gas. At some stage, perhaps due to external influence, such a cloud contracted and began to rotate. The reason for what happened, probably lies in a supernova explosion somewhere in the vicinity of our future cradle. However, if all are formed in approximately the same way, then this hypothesis looks doubtful. Most likely, having reached a certain mass, the cloud began to attract more particles to itself and contract, and acquired a rotational moment due to the uneven distribution of matter in space. Over time, this swirling clot became more and more dense in the middle. Thus, under the influence of enormous pressure and rising temperatures, our Sun arose.

Hypotheses of different years

As mentioned above, people have always wondered how the planet Earth was formed. The first scientific justification appeared only in the seventeenth century AD. At that time, many discoveries were made, including physical laws. According to one of these hypotheses, the Earth was formed as a result of the collision of a comet with the Sun as a residual substance from the explosion. According to another, our system arose from a cold cloud of cosmic dust.

The particles of the latter collided with each other and connected until the Sun and planets were formed. But French scientists suggested that the specified cloud was red-hot. As it cooled, it rotated and contracted, forming rings. From the latter, the planets were formed. And the sun appeared in the center. The Englishman James Jeans suggested that another star once flew past our star. She pulled out with her attraction the substance from the Sun, from which the planets subsequently formed.

How the Earth Was Formed

According to modern scientists, the solar system arose from cold particles of dust and gas. The substance was compressed and disintegrated into several parts. From the largest piece, the Sun was formed. This piece rotated and warmed up. It became like a disk. From dense particles on the periphery of this gas-dust cloud, planets were formed, including our Earth. Meanwhile, in the center of the nascent star, under the influence of high temperatures and enormous pressure,

There is a hypothesis that arose during the search for exoplanets (similar to Earth) that the more heavy elements a star has, the less likely it is that life will arise near it. This is due to the fact that their large content leads to the appearance of gas giants around the star - objects like Jupiter. And such giants inevitably move towards the star and push small planets out of their orbits.

Date of Birth

The Earth was formed about four and a half billion years ago. The pieces rotating around the red-hot disk became heavier and heavier. It is assumed that initially their particles were attracted due to electric forces. And at some stage, when the mass of this “coma” reached a certain level, it began to attract everything in the area with the help of gravity.

As in the case of the Sun, the clot began to shrink and heat up. The substance is completely melted. Over time, a heavier center formed, consisting mainly of metals. When the Earth was formed, it began to slowly cool, and the crust formed from lighter substances.

clash

And then the Moon appeared, but not the way the Earth was formed, again, according to the assumption of scientists and according to the minerals found on our satellite. The Earth, having already cooled down, collided with a slightly smaller other planet. As a result, both objects completely melted and turned into one. And the substance thrown out by the explosion began to rotate around the Earth. It was from this that the moon was born. It is claimed that the minerals found on the satellite differ from those of the earth in their structure: as if the substance was melted and solidified again. But the same thing happened to our planet. And why didn't this terrible collision lead to the complete destruction of two objects with the formation of small fragments? There are many mysteries.

path to life

Then the Earth began to cool again. Again, a metal core formed, and then a thin surface layer. And between them - a relatively mobile substance - the mantle. Thanks to strong volcanic activity, the atmosphere of the planet was formed.

Initially, of course, it was absolutely unsuitable for human breathing. And life would be impossible without the appearance of liquid water. It is assumed that the latter was brought to our planet by billions of meteorites from the outskirts of the solar system. Apparently, some time after the formation of the Earth, there was a powerful bombardment, the cause of which could be the gravitational influence of Jupiter. Water was trapped inside minerals, and volcanoes turned it into steam, and it fell out to form oceans. Then came oxygen. According to many scientists, this happened due to the vital activity of ancient organisms that could appear in those harsh conditions. But that's a completely different story. And humanity every year is getting closer and closer to getting an answer to the question of how the planet Earth was formed.