CHAPTER 1

Solar system and life formation

4.5 BILLION YEARS AGO - Jupiter and its many moons assume the orbits that we
- The milky way, homes to billions of stars rising and see today.
setting over billions of worlds including our own.
- Asteroid bennu, a lump of rock and organic material. 1 BILLION YEARS AGO
The early building blocks of the solar system, earth, and - One theory suggests, a collision shatters the protoplanet.
all the living things. - Some of the debris loosely coalesces into a new smaller
- Bennu was a time capsule. body: Bennu.
- 4.5 billion years ago, the raw ingredients of bennu and - However, Bennu will not stay in place.
our solar system originated in a stelar nursery of vast - Dull, non-reflective, it slowly migrates toward the sun.
clouds, hydrogen, helium, and dust. (Sun doesn’t yet - Solar heating turns its warm side into a glowing low-
exist) intensity thruster.
- A shock wave from a nearby hot star burning up its fuel
and destroying itself in a colossal explosion called MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO
supernova. - Bennu’s orbit gradually tightens until it interacts with
- The explosion stabilized our clouds causing it to Saturn’s gravity, altering its trajectory and hurling it into
collapse that got hotter and hotter and hotter, until the inner solar system.
hydrogen fused into helium. - Close encounters with Earth and Venus follow.

100 THOUSAND YEARS AGO - Their gravitational tugs may have repeatedly stretched
- Gravity and angular momentum flatten the cloud into a and reformed Bennu, turning it inside-out and pulling off
swirling disk. loose material.
- In the center, where molecules crushed together tiniest, - As a result, it has no satellites of its own, until now.
a protostar revs up to incredible pressures and - Today, NASA is sending a spacecraft called Osiris Rex
temperatures. to explore Bennu and retrieve a sample.
- Deep within the disk, clumps of dust not much larger - Why? Bennu has survived its long journey and settled
than a grain of wheat are flash-heated into droplets of into a near-earth orbit, bringing its secrets within our
molten rocks called chondrules. reach.
- Chondrules are destined to become the building blocks
of the solar system.
- Coaxed by gravity and turbulence, the chondrules clump
and grow into first asteroids, mountains, and planets.
- The asteroids are rubble piles of rock, metal, ice, and
organics.
- This large asteroid is the parent body of Bennu, a
protoplanet whose size we can only guess.
- Closer to the protostar a planet begins to form. And
then, dawn in the solar system the protostar undergoes
fusion and ignites, revealing our sun, but the solar system
is far from finished.
- Jupiter most-likely forms near its outer edge.

500 MILLION YEARS AGO

- After the sun ignites, some believe that it slowly moves
inward, its massive gravity ripples the asteroid belt,
disrupting countless asteroids and comets, flinging them
toward the sun.
- They rain down on the inner planets, hammering and
remelting large portions of their crust.
- These impacts also deliver organics in water, key
ingredients for life.
- Back in the asteroid belt, Bennu’s parent body is lucky,
it survives this period of heavy bombardment.
- The solar system cools and calms.
 CHAPTER 1
Solar system and life formation
- Early Earth was constantly bombarded by large
asteroids and comets.
- Soon, Earth experienced an even more violent collision.
- Theia, a planet the size of Mars, slammed right into our
young world.
- This epic collision threw chunks of matter all around
Earth’s orbit, and the gravity bound together into the
Moon.
3.8 BILLION YEARS AGO
- On this hot early Earth, there were no oceans.
- All water existed as gas.
- But 3.8 billion years ago, our planet cooled enough for
water to condensate and become liquid.
- The very first primitive ocean covered this young Earth
and turned it into a water world.
- H2O is an essential ingredient for creating living things.
- So, with all that water, life appeared on Earth about 3.7
billion years ago.
4.5 BILLION YEARS AGO - These early forms of life were microscopic organisms.
- The milky way, homes to billions of stars rising and - But it was nearly a billion years after that, some of these
setting over billions of worlds including our own. organisms changed the course of the world.
- Asteroid bennu, a lump of rock and organic material. 3.3 BILLION YEARS AGO
The early building blocks of the solar system, earth, and - Earth didn’t stay as a water world very long.
all the living things. - Soon the very first continents emerged from the ancient
- Bennu was a time capsule. ocean.
- 4.5 billion years ago, the raw ingredients of bennu and - Scientists call them cratons.
our solar system originated in a stelar nursery of vast - As more and more land rose from the ocean, the very
clouds, hydrogen, helium, and dust. (Sun doesn’t yet first supercontinent appeared on the planet.
exist) - Vaalbara wasn’t exactly a supercontinent. It was small.
- Our solar system began to emerge out of a dense cloud Scientists think it was smaller than the continent of
of interstellar gas and dust called solar nebula. Australia.
- A shock wave from a nearby hot star burning up its fuel
and destroying itself in a colossal explosion probably
initiated the collapse of the solar nebula. 2.4 BILLION YEARS AGO
- This cloud collapsed into a swirling disk of matter that - Around 2.4 billion years ago, cyanobacteria evolved to
got hotter and hotter and hotter, until hydrogen fused into become our planet’s first photo synthesizers.
helium. - Finally, we had some oxygen producers to make Earth’s
- Our Sun was born, and Earth was on its way too. atmosphere much more hospitable.
- After the birth of our star, all the matter on the farthest - With all this new oxygen, Earth’s atmosphere had much
ends of the spinning disk began to clump together. lower levels of carbon dioxide. And that made the planet
- These clumps would be the seedlings for the planets and icy cold.
moons in our solar system. - Much of our young world froze over as Earth saw its
- As they accumulated more matter, they grew bigger and first ice age.
more spherical. 1.1 BILLION YEARS AGO
- The clumps in the cooler regions of the solar system
- Now, as Earth’s atmosphere was changing, the
were mostly made of ice, liquids, and gases.
continents were moving, too.
- Closer to the sun, all the rocky material formed the inner
- They broke up and reassembled into the next
planets like Mars and Earth.
supercontinent called Rodinia.
- Young Earth was incredibly active, volcanically.
- Rodinia was a real supercontinent. It may have been the
- It spewed out gases like hydrogen sulfide, methane, and
largest supercontinent to ever cover the planet.
carbon dioxide.
- Life finally became more complex. But then something
- These gases made up the very first atmosphere on our
happened.
planet.
- Rodinia broke apart and a new supercontinent
assembled. It’s called Pannotia.
 CHAPTER 1
Solar system and life formation
- Then, between about 540 and 485 million years ago, - And about one million years later, they’d develop the
there was an explosion of new life. first known tools, which they use to break things.
- This time was called the Cambrian Explosion. 800 THOUSAND YEARS AGO
- And the animals that evolved during this period had - These early humans discovered how to control fire and
hard body parts like shells or spines. could now cook food and provide themselves with heat.
- The most famous of all were the alien-looking trilobites. - Their brains continue to evolve, now more rapidly than
440 MILLION YEARS AGO ever.
- The climate suddenly shifted, and the temperature of the - These humans learned to interact with each other and
ocean changed dramatically. the surrounding world in whole new ways.
- Earth saw its first mass extinction event. - Then between 40 to 15 thousand years ago, all other
- This was the Ordovician-Silurian extinction. human species besides Homo sapiens went extinct.
- And most of the life that had been spreading around the 10 THOUSAND YEARS AGO
planet vanished. - Earth saw its earliest farmers.
- Many of these lifeforms laid the foundation for the - These previously nomadic humans stopped wandering
ecosystem that we have on Earth today. the planet and finally put down their roots.
- Somewhere between 420 to 350 million years ago, the 250 YEARS AGO
first trees arose from Earth’s soil. - The Industrial Revolution took place.
- And the first animals made their wat to land too. - We went through major technological, socioeconomic,
250 MILLION YEARS AGO and cultural transformations.
- The planet was covered by our last, vast supercontinent, - Rural, farm-based societies became more industrialized,
Pangea. urban ones.
- Sadly, it was also during this period that Earth witnessed - Our human population continued to grow.
the greatest mass extinction event in our history. 1804
- The Great Dying. - We reached one billion.
- Huge amount of greenhouse gases and accelerated 1927
global warming wiped out about 90% of all species on
- We’d hit two billion.
Earth.
- But this mass extinction helped pave the way for the
1960’s
- The global population has risen faster and faster to
next wave of animals to evolve.
where it is now.
- 240 to 230 million years ago, the first dinosaurs
- At over 8 billion people.
appeared.
- For the next 150 million years ago, they’d rule the land. NOW
- If humans existed, we’d have witnessed the gigantic - And now, there’s a new threat to human existence and
Sauropod Argentinosaurus, the largest animal ever. many other forms of life here on Earth.
- Or we might have been chased by one of Earth’s - Climate change
greatest apex predators, the T-rex. - Temperatures and sea levels are rising worldwide, and
- And we’d also witness Pangea breaking up and forming biodiversity is declining.
the continents we know today. - We could be on the verge of another mass extinction
66 MILLION YEARS AGO event if things don’t change.
- An asteroid slammed into our planet, right where
Mexico sits now.
- And it caused so much debris into the atmosphere that it
blocked out the Sun.
- This led to devastating climate changes that caused the
dinosaurs to die out.
- In the next wave of emerging animals, mammals
became more common.
6 MILLION YEARS AGO
- The earliest known humans started walking this world.
- This species was called Sahelanthropus.
- Though they likely still walked on all fours.
4 MILLION YEARS AGO
- Early humans began to walk upright.