The story of Earth has been told and retold many times.
But our planet's formation remains a strange, scientific mystery.
The most widely accepted theory, however, is that Earth formed around 4.6 billion years
ago from an enormous cloud of dust and gas surrounding the young Sun.
Over millions of years, it grew larger, thanks to countless collisions between dust particles,
asteroids, and other growing planets, including one giant impact that blasted enough rock,
gas, and dust into space to form our moon.
So what did our young Earth look like after these titanic events?
Let me take you back to the first days, the earliest moments of its formation, as we explore
our planet, starting at 4.6 billion years ago.
At its beginning, Earth was just one of possibly a hundred or so new planets orbiting the young
Sun, unrecognisable from its modern form.
It would have been extremely hot, to the point that the planet was likely covered in oceans
of molten magma.
At first, Earth would have looked like a hellscape, a scorched, toxic, boiling ball of cooling
lava.
An impossible place for life to exist.
This intense period of Earth's history is the beginning of a time called the Hadean
Eon, which ranges from 4.6 billion to 4 billion years ago.
The name “Hadean” is perfectly suited for this hellish Earth because it is a reference
to Hades, the Greek god of the underworld.
During this hellish time, as our newborn planet was cooling, it would have been rocked by
global seismic activity, radioactive materials, and collisions with other objects in the early
solar system.
A constant barrage of meteors would have left the surface of the Earth a crater-ridden,
volcanic and turbulent land.
But it was a major collision that occurred possibly 100 million years or so after the
formation of the solar system that changed our young planet forever.
The violent event that created Earth's only companion, the moon.
Scientists think that around 4.5 billion years ago, a protoplanet around the size of Mars,
named Theia, drifted into the path of Earth.
It hit our young planet with a glancing blow.
Blasting trillions of tons of debris, a mixture of hot molten rock and gas, out into space.
The ejected material began orbiting our planet.
The clumps of gas, dust, and rock collided and stuck together.
And possibly, within just a few thousand years or less, it coalesced into a spherical shape.
Out of pure destruction, the moon was born.
The young moon was so hot that it would have looked like a partly molten world hanging
above the Earth.
It would have formed much closer than it is today, possibly as much as seventeen times
closer, making it look enormous as it dominated the early sky.
Any closer and gravity would have pulled the debris back, and the moon would have never
existed.
Millions of years after this titanic moon forming impact, Earth would have still been
a very different planet from the world we see today.
Where the present-day Earth has oceans of life bringing water flowing across much of
its warm surface, our young planet was still cooling and forming its first solid crust.
The moon was slowly becoming the more familiar grey, object that we see today, although still
dominating the sky with its enormous presence.
And frequent volcanic eruptions spewed out gases, including water vapour and carbon dioxide,
into the atmosphere around Earth.
But this intense time of destruction and creation wasn't over yet, because, towards the end
of the Hadean Eon, the Earth and moon were pelted with even more objects during a period
called the late heavy bombardment.
Around 4 billion years ago, a hail of fiery meteors rained from the sky.
Debris left over from the solar system's formation violently collided with the young Earth over
and over again.
But out of all this devastation, something incredible may have been delivered.
Because this falling debris could have been carrying an important source of water.
Many Scientists believe that the comets and asteroids that slammed into Earth, the moon,
and other inner planets contained a significant amount of water in their minerals, needed
for the creation of life.
There was likely only a small amount of water in each meteorite, but as they bombarded the
earth for over 20 million years, possibly even 200 million years, puddles of water began
to collect.
Then as the ancient planet transitioned from hot and hellish to the similar temperatures
we see today, water vapour within the atmosphere evaporated, forming pools, lakes and eventually
entire oceans, allowing future primitive life to evolve.
This same water is the water we drink today, some of which may have been delivered to us
by ancient drifting comets and asteroids billions of years ago.
It is unlikely that life could have formed and established in the extremely volatile
conditions of the Hadean Eon.
If life had begun to form at this time, it most likely would have been destroyed over
and over again until optimum conditions were in place for it to take a foothold.
The story of life likely began in the time after the Hadean Eon, a period called the
Archean Eon.
However, it is possible that the building blocks necessary for life to exist were formed
at some point during this hellish period.
Meaning the origins of all living things may have begun in an age of fire and destruction,
but also an epic age of creation.
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