History of the Earth

By Haozhe
  • 13,800 BCE

    Big Bang

    13.8 Billion years ago
    The universe formed from a point with great density and heat
  • Period: 4600 BCE to 4000 BCE

    Hadean Eon

    about 4.6 billion to about 4.0 billion years ago.
    The Hadean Eon is characterized by Earth’s initial formation and by the stabilization of its core and crust and the development of its atmosphere and oceans.
  • 4541 BCE

    Formation of the Solar system

    Originally, there was a big cloud of gases and dust where the solar system is. However, after a nearby star exploded in a supernova, the cloud was destabilized and started spinning faster, collasping into a spinning, flat, disk with the help of gravity and angular momentum. Eventually, in the centre where most of the mass was concentrated, the sun forms from a protostar.
  • 4540 BCE

    Planetary Accretion

    4.54 billion years ago
    some clouds of dust from the dusk cloud that made the solar system form into rock, and start forming into planets. Earth formed by a series of collisions that took place less than 100 million years after the solar system coalesced. While most of the mass was concentrated to form the sun, smaller concentrations of mass rotating around the center formed the planets, including Earth. However, heavier elements formed closer to the sun, so the inner planets became terrestrial
  • 4500 BCE

    End of heavy bombardment

    After more than 10 impacts with other bodies, which added bulk to Earth, Theia, a rocky planetoid the size of Mars, sideswiped Earth, marking the end of major collisions. The huge amount of energy from the impact melted most of Earth.
    However, small collisions still happened, where bodies the size of pluto deposited metal and even water onto the Earth.
  • 4500 BCE

    Formation of the Moon

    Theia's vaporized debris condensed into Earth's moon with the help of gravity. The asteroid melted from the impact, smashing together with material from the Earth to form the moon. Since the asteroid was thrown out of orbit, it started to orbit around Earth, pulled by Earth's gravity and it's inertia.
  • 4400 BCE

    Planetary Cooling

    4.4billion years ago
    All of the collisions caused Earth to heat up. The force of the moon-forming impact left Earth melted. Thus, Earth resembled Venus for a time, with a hazy, steamy atmosphere. But as the planet cooled, lava became rock and liquid water started to condense, forming Earth's first ocean. The oldest minerals found on Earth, called zircons, date back to this time and are 4.4 billion years old.