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14,000 BCE
The Big Bang
gave rise to the building blocks of matter. The quarks and electrons of which we are all made. Quarks aggregated producing protons and neutrons which combined into nuclei, ultimately forming the first atoms which were mainly hydrogen and helium. Stars such as red giants fused hydrogen and helium nuclei to form elements from carbon to calcium. Supernova explosions formed and ejected heavier elements such as iron. -
4500 BCE
The formation of sun
a nearby star exploded and sent a shock wave through the dust cloud, increasing its rate of spin. As a result, most of the mass became concentrated in the middle, forming the sun. Smaller concentrations of mass rotating around the center formed the planets, including Earth. -
Period: 4500 BCE to 4600 BCE
Earth formation
Earth was molten and lacked an atmosphere and oceans. It cooled and formed a solid crust. As the planet continued to cool, volcanoes released gases, which eventually formed an atmosphere. The early atmosphere contained ammonia, methane, water vapor, and carbon dioxide but only a trace of oxygen. As the atmosphere became denser, clouds formed and rain fell. Water from rain, and perhaps from comets and asteroids that struck Earth as well, eventually formed the oceans. -
Period: 4500 BCE to
Moon Formation
In the early solar system, there was a lot of space debris. Asteroids flew around, sometimes striking the planets. An asteroid the size of Mars smashed into Earth. The huge amount of energy from the impact melted most of Earth, the asteroid melted too. Material from both Earth and the asteroid was thrown out into orbit. Over time, this material smashed together to form our Moon. The collision happened about 70 million years after Earth formed. -
Period: 3800 BCE to 4500 BCE
Planetary Cooling
A planetary body has to cool off. The warmth contained inside a body controls what sort of surface activity, atmospheric activity, and interior activity which the body has. As planetary bodies cool slowly, heat diminishes, and the activities diminish to nothing. -
Period: 1000 BCE to 1500 BCE
Earth's core formation
There have been many estimates for when the earth's inner core was formed, people believe the core of earth formed when the Solar System was very young. But scientists have used new data which indicates that the Earth's inner core was formed 1-1.5 billion years ago as it 'froze' from the surrounding molten iron outer core. The Earth formed from a cloud of dust and gas, and material began to come together to form kilometer-sized planets known as “planetesimals” -
Period: to
The end of the heavy bombardment
Failed planets and smaller asteroids slammed into larger worlds, scarring their surface. Near the end of the violence, during a period known as the Late Heavy Bombardment, impacts in the solar system may have increased. -
Planetary Accretion
Formation of the Earth and the other terrestrial planets of our Solar System (Mercury, Venus, and Mars) commenced 4.567 billion years ago and occurred on a time scale of about 100 million years. These planets grew by the process of accretion, which involved numerous collisions with smaller (Moon- to Mars-size) bodies.
