The formation of Earth
Big bang and solar system formation
It all started 14 billion years ago the universe was super small. Previously, the universe was a singularity. Which is a point that is infinitely small and infinitely dense. 13.7 billion years ago It had exploded and this was called the big bang. Several things happened.
Also, for 380,000 years electrons and protons never met. They never met because the heat of the universe stopped them from interacting. This was the first time an electron and a proton crashed. This formed the first element: hydrogen (which has 1 electron and 1 proton). After a few billion years that element formed gas clouds.
One such gas cloud (called the solar nebula) that formed through various processes was just lying around. It was lying around like this until, several billion years later, when a supernova (explosion of a star) happened. Throwing lots of matter in the gas cloud. This increased its mass and hence gravity. The gravity was so strong that it was stronger than the push of gas. It caused all the material of the gas cloud (ice, dust, rock and hydrogen) to crash. This created heat. This heat made a protostar. This protostar rotated causing hydrogen to go into the core. This made nuclear fusion. It also made bipolar winds through the poles which expelled gas and dust away. This nuclear fusion made the protostar an actual star (a main sequence star). Also, there was some debris when the gas cloud was forming a protostar. This debris orbited the star forming a protoplanetary disk. This protoplanetary disk was also made of rock, ice and dust and just like the star they crashed into each other but this time because they were in the same orbit. They became bigger to become planetesimals, protoplanets and of course planets.
Start of earth
Now, let’s talk specifically about what happened on planet earth. Firstly, because of the collisions, earth was very hot. In fact, most of its rock had melted into magma or in other words: lava! It took a couple hundred million years to cool down allowing the release of carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane. While this was happening, they were still a lot of objects in earth’s orbit, which crashed into earth. Some also contained water. Lastly, a mars-sized object called Theia from the Oort cloud (beyond Neptune, Pluto and other dwarf planets) crashed into earth too. As, it came from so far, it contained water. All these factors contributed to earth’s ocean 3.7 billion years ago.
Rise of life
The ocean then gave birth to the 2nd living beings (after bacteria) to live on earth, algae and phytoplankton approximately 3 billion years ago. They not only grew because of the water but also because of the carbon dioxide released when the earth cooled. Most of you know that plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen but what you might not know is that 80% of the earth’s oxygen is from these 2 plants! Even though it can give a lot of oxygen, animals still took a very long time to come into existence. Most likely because algae can never become animals and it takes a lot of time to make a living being from scratch and animals are very complex in DNA. The amount of time for creating animals is precisely 1.2 billion years or just 0.53 billion years ago (which is still 530 million years). Even before the algae, land was forming but still life couldn’t happen. They formed because of underwater volcanos (because lava that comes out of volcanos is molten rock and the lava dried up creating land). This land slowly grouped together creating the super continent Pangea. Which later broke up creating the continents we know today.
Then major animal life started with aquatic animals (around 20 million years after a couple basic animals). These aquatic animals started to adapt to living on land 420 million years ago. After they had finished evolving, they had become amphibians.
How dinosaurs died
Which become reptiles and later dinosaurs. The first dinosaur came into existence 230 million years ago (170 million years after aquatic animals) Mammals came a few million years later. Now, let’s skip a total of 164 million years, which is the time dinosaurs went extinct. Many, people think that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid. This is partially true but not completely. The asteroid also came along with volcanos which become quite problematic 400,000 years ago. The volcanos actually did not erupt just threw carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide gases. Until, 300,000 years before the asteroid hit, when they erupted very violently all over in India. Just 50,000 years before the asteroid hit, carbon dioxide heated up the planet in some places and Sulphur dioxide cooling places the planet in other places. Sometimes, hypercanes which were 10s of kms wide – 3 times more than the most powerful hurricane witnessed by humanity. They would even rip holes into the ozone layer sending UV rays all over. Lastly, the hypercanes also contained deadly chemicals sending it all around the planet. It was finally over but it wasn’t. All the dinosaurs had died on one side of the globe while some stayed alive on the other side. The 12 km asteroid that struck earth impacted on the opposite side. This permanently killed all the dinosaurs. In the end, they still lived for 3 periods of time: Triassic period, Jurassic Period and Cretaceous Period.
Trivia facts:
Theia not only contributed to Earth's oceans but also played a crucial role in forming a ring from the debris of its collision with Earth. This ring eventually merged into the Moon, which stabilized Earth's axis, aiding the development of life.
Bacteria are one of the most successful living beings. They came 3.5 billion years ago
The volcanos that were killing the dinosaurs actually started 800,000 years ago.
India was not only a part of Africa and an island, but when it collided with Asia, it caused a massive bulge that eventually formed the Himalayas. This collision is ongoing, with Mount Everest growing by 2 cm each year. By 2124, its height will increase to 8850.8 meters, up from 8848.8 meters in 2024.
At around the same time, atoms were formed, and photons (light particles) finally could go freely.
The first star came 150 million years after the big bang. This might appear as a long time but it’s actually short because the sun had formed 9200 million years after the formation of the first star.
Credits:
https://youtu.be/qwpOHcSpZbg
https://youtu.be/pjoQdz0nxf4
https://youtu.be/mAJHYZbdh70
It all started 14 billion years ago the universe was super small. Previously, the universe was a singularity. Which is a point that is infinitely small and infinitely dense. 13.7 billion years ago It had exploded and this was called the big bang. Several things happened.
- The 4 forces of the universe formed.
- This created protons and electrons along with positrons and anti-protons (anti-matter). They collided to create mini-explosions everywhere. Eventually, after millions of protons and electrons of matter and anti-matter, matter was too much and stayed. This all happened in 1 second.
Also, for 380,000 years electrons and protons never met. They never met because the heat of the universe stopped them from interacting. This was the first time an electron and a proton crashed. This formed the first element: hydrogen (which has 1 electron and 1 proton). After a few billion years that element formed gas clouds.
One such gas cloud (called the solar nebula) that formed through various processes was just lying around. It was lying around like this until, several billion years later, when a supernova (explosion of a star) happened. Throwing lots of matter in the gas cloud. This increased its mass and hence gravity. The gravity was so strong that it was stronger than the push of gas. It caused all the material of the gas cloud (ice, dust, rock and hydrogen) to crash. This created heat. This heat made a protostar. This protostar rotated causing hydrogen to go into the core. This made nuclear fusion. It also made bipolar winds through the poles which expelled gas and dust away. This nuclear fusion made the protostar an actual star (a main sequence star). Also, there was some debris when the gas cloud was forming a protostar. This debris orbited the star forming a protoplanetary disk. This protoplanetary disk was also made of rock, ice and dust and just like the star they crashed into each other but this time because they were in the same orbit. They became bigger to become planetesimals, protoplanets and of course planets.
Start of earth
Now, let’s talk specifically about what happened on planet earth. Firstly, because of the collisions, earth was very hot. In fact, most of its rock had melted into magma or in other words: lava! It took a couple hundred million years to cool down allowing the release of carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane. While this was happening, they were still a lot of objects in earth’s orbit, which crashed into earth. Some also contained water. Lastly, a mars-sized object called Theia from the Oort cloud (beyond Neptune, Pluto and other dwarf planets) crashed into earth too. As, it came from so far, it contained water. All these factors contributed to earth’s ocean 3.7 billion years ago.
Rise of life
The ocean then gave birth to the 2nd living beings (after bacteria) to live on earth, algae and phytoplankton approximately 3 billion years ago. They not only grew because of the water but also because of the carbon dioxide released when the earth cooled. Most of you know that plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen but what you might not know is that 80% of the earth’s oxygen is from these 2 plants! Even though it can give a lot of oxygen, animals still took a very long time to come into existence. Most likely because algae can never become animals and it takes a lot of time to make a living being from scratch and animals are very complex in DNA. The amount of time for creating animals is precisely 1.2 billion years or just 0.53 billion years ago (which is still 530 million years). Even before the algae, land was forming but still life couldn’t happen. They formed because of underwater volcanos (because lava that comes out of volcanos is molten rock and the lava dried up creating land). This land slowly grouped together creating the super continent Pangea. Which later broke up creating the continents we know today.
Then major animal life started with aquatic animals (around 20 million years after a couple basic animals). These aquatic animals started to adapt to living on land 420 million years ago. After they had finished evolving, they had become amphibians.
How dinosaurs died
Which become reptiles and later dinosaurs. The first dinosaur came into existence 230 million years ago (170 million years after aquatic animals) Mammals came a few million years later. Now, let’s skip a total of 164 million years, which is the time dinosaurs went extinct. Many, people think that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid. This is partially true but not completely. The asteroid also came along with volcanos which become quite problematic 400,000 years ago. The volcanos actually did not erupt just threw carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide gases. Until, 300,000 years before the asteroid hit, when they erupted very violently all over in India. Just 50,000 years before the asteroid hit, carbon dioxide heated up the planet in some places and Sulphur dioxide cooling places the planet in other places. Sometimes, hypercanes which were 10s of kms wide – 3 times more than the most powerful hurricane witnessed by humanity. They would even rip holes into the ozone layer sending UV rays all over. Lastly, the hypercanes also contained deadly chemicals sending it all around the planet. It was finally over but it wasn’t. All the dinosaurs had died on one side of the globe while some stayed alive on the other side. The 12 km asteroid that struck earth impacted on the opposite side. This permanently killed all the dinosaurs. In the end, they still lived for 3 periods of time: Triassic period, Jurassic Period and Cretaceous Period.
Trivia facts:
Theia not only contributed to Earth's oceans but also played a crucial role in forming a ring from the debris of its collision with Earth. This ring eventually merged into the Moon, which stabilized Earth's axis, aiding the development of life.
Bacteria are one of the most successful living beings. They came 3.5 billion years ago
The volcanos that were killing the dinosaurs actually started 800,000 years ago.
India was not only a part of Africa and an island, but when it collided with Asia, it caused a massive bulge that eventually formed the Himalayas. This collision is ongoing, with Mount Everest growing by 2 cm each year. By 2124, its height will increase to 8850.8 meters, up from 8848.8 meters in 2024.
At around the same time, atoms were formed, and photons (light particles) finally could go freely.
The first star came 150 million years after the big bang. This might appear as a long time but it’s actually short because the sun had formed 9200 million years after the formation of the first star.
Credits:
https://youtu.be/qwpOHcSpZbg
https://youtu.be/pjoQdz0nxf4
https://youtu.be/mAJHYZbdh70
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