Earth’s Evolution

For thousands of years, our ancestors

believed that the earth is flat.
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Then as the days went by, they realized they
were not right at all.
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They also thought that all the stars, including
the sun, orbiting our earth. As humans'
thinking
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ability grew, their misconceptions about the
earth and space kept being cleared . But at
the same
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time, there was the biggest question raised
as to how these all formed. Scientists and
scholars
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proposed countless theories at various
periods including the strangest one, the god
creation.
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But these theories were not accepted by all
until one special theory broke all mysteries,
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‘The big bang’.
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When the big bang theory was introduced by
Georges Lemaitre in the 1920s, the whole
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science world was delighted that everything
had been answered. Subsequently, like the
expansion
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of the universe proposed by Hubble, the
unexpected capture of the cosmic microwave
background further
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strengthened the big bang theory. Research
says the age of our universe is 14 billion
years,
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it means the greatest bang happened 14
billion years ago. Although there are many
questions as
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to who or what triggered the big bang, this
theory has been welcomed by most people.
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Well, somehow the universe was formed but
did our earth and other planets form on the
same day as
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 the big bang? Absolutely not...
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Our beautiful earth has gradually evolved
over millions of years and has reached its
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present state. Its 4.5 billion-year history has
been marked by extreme environmental
conditions
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and tremendous catastrophes. Although no
one witnessed the moments of the earth's
formation,
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we have obtained some answers by studying
the planets within and outside the solar
system.
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Let’s see
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how it happened
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In the first moments after the big bang, the
universe was extremely hot and dense.
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As the universe cooled, conditions became
just right for the formation of matter.
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 A few millions of seconds later, quarks
aggregated to produce protons and neutrons.
Within minutes,
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these protons and neutrons combined to form
the nucleus. As the universe continued to
expand and
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cool, things began to happen more slowly. It
took 380000 years for electrons to be
trapped in orbits
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around the nucleus, forming the first atoms.
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Everything that exists now started from just
two elements: hydrogen, helium, and a very
small
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amount of lithium. The first stars formed out
of the hydrogen atoms that existed.
Hydrogens
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together formed the vast gas clouds, from
within which the first generation of stars
emerged.
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Due to the tremendous amount of pressure at
their core, new heavy elements such as
oxygen, silicon,
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iron, and others formed. When the first
generation of stars died, they scattered those
elements to
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space, which seeded the next generation of
stars. This scattering process is called
supernova.
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As we know already, every matter in t
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his universe has gravity. Because of this
gravity, matter pulled together and galaxies
began to form
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everywhere in the vast space.
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Some 5 billion years ago, in a perfectly
ordinary place in the Milky Way Galaxy,
something happened.
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It might have been a supernova explosion
that pushed a lot of its heavy elements
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into nearby clouds of hydrogen, gas, and dust.
From that kickstart, gas and dust clouds
started
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swirling with heavy elements. And this was
the beginning of our solar system. Through
years
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of swirling and gravity, a hot, young, glowing
star was formed in the center of the clouds.
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The sun was born...
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Nearly 99% of the matter in that dust cloud
was used to form the sun and the remaining
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1% of the hot disk was still orbiting the sun.
Young-sun began to fuse hydrogen to helium
in
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its core.
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After some million years, the hot disk slowly
cooled. During this time, components of the
disk
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began to freeze out into small grains. Slowly,
these grains settled together and transformed
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into pebbles, then boulders.
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Due to gravity, boulders collided with each
other and grew larger. From these collisions,
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tremendous amount of energy and heat were
produced while nearly 400 collisions
happened per minute.
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By the time they reached a size of hundreds
of kilometers, the intensity of the collisions
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was enough to melt much of the materials
involved. Dense elements like iron sank to
the center and
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lighter elements stayed on the surface. The
rocks, iron, and other metals sorted
themselves
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into layers.
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Thus, through a series of collisions, the earth
was reaching its present state. At the same
time,
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Jupiter, the largest and highest gravitational
planet in our solar system, was also forming,
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pulling all the meteorites towards itself.
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Over time, collisions on earth stopped
completely and the situation became a bit
calmer.
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Earth’s crust cooled down and became a
habitable landscape while the core
temperature remained
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too high because of extreme pressure. The
pressure of the inner core is 3.6 million
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times higher than the surface atmosphere,
with a temperature of 5200 degrees Celsius.
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Earth is divided into four main layers: inner
core, outer core, mantle, and crust.
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 Due to the presence of large amounts of
liquid iron and nickel in the earth’s core,
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magnetic field naturally occurred. This
magnetic field protects our planet from
cosmic radiation
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and Sun’s solar wind. The solar wind is the
stream of charged particles emits from the
upper
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atmosphere of the sun. Collisions and friction
of the mantle plate gave rise to mountains
and
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volcanoes which began to spew gases such
as methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.
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Water and the atmosphere started
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to cover earth surface when natural elements
hydrogen and helium combined with volcanic
gases.
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The earth’s gravity dragging the atmosphere
towards the earth and prevents it from
escaping.
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The perfect earth has been formed.
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So far, we have seen a core acceleration
model of planet formation. There is also
another
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model called the Disk Instabilities model that
describes the formation of gas giant planets.
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We are not living on a gas planet; thus, we
don’t need to care about this model.
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The perfect distance from the sun,
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gravity, magnetic field, gases in the
atmosphere, and some luck combine to make
our earth
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the only known planet that sustains life in the
entire solar system, or maybe entire universe.
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Thus, our stunning earth has evolved little by
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little over billions of years. However, it is now
facing troubles with artificial global warming.
If
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we can find ways to control it, our planet will
be a cradle that sustains life for millions of
years.
English (United States)