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A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be or that has been repeatedly tested and has corroborating evidence in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measurement, and evaluation of results.
The result of this process, which lasts for 10 to 100 million years, is the formation of a limited number of Earth-sized bodies. Simulations show that the number of surviving planets is on average from 2 to 5. [2] [21] [62] [66] In the Solar System they may be represented by Earth and Venus. [21]
This forms an important part of the evidence on which evolutionary theory rests, demonstrates that evolution does occur, and illustrates the processes that created Earth's biodiversity. It supports the modern evolutionary synthesis—the current scientific theory that explains how and why life changes
Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.
The obsolete geocentric model places Earth at the centre of the Universe. This list includes well-known general theories in science and pre-scientific natural philosophy and natural history that have since been superseded by other scientific theories.
Another example is Earth's axial tilt, which, due to friction raised within Earth's mantle by tidal interactions with the Moon , is incomputable from some point between 1.5 and 4.5 billion years from now. [104] The outer planets' orbits are chaotic over longer timescales, with a Lyapunov time in the range of 2–230 million years. [105]
French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes was the first to propose a model for the origin of the Solar System in his book The World, written from 1629 to 1633.. In his view, the universe was filled with vortices of swirling particles, and both the Sun and planets had condensed from a large vortex that had contracted, which he thought could explain the circular motion of the plane
Second, the Earth and Moon have the same oxygen isotopic signature (relative abundance of the oxygen isotopes). Of the theories proposed to account for these phenomena, one is widely accepted: The giant impact hypothesis proposes that the Moon originated after a body the size of Mars (sometimes named Theia [47]) struck the proto-Earth a ...