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The Earth is destroyed by the Sun at "high noon", though animals and plants come to an end by 5:00 am, meaning that the time that Earth can remain habitable to animals is very short, lasting only just 1 billion years, with the present day being the halfway point through that relatively short time.
At long irregular intervals, Earth's biosphere suffers a catastrophic die-off, a mass extinction, [9] often comprising an accumulation of smaller extinction events over a relatively brief period. [10] The first known mass extinction was the Great Oxidation Event 2.4 billion years ago, which killed most of the planet's obligate anaerobes.
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
The first eon in Earth's history, the Hadean, begins with Earth's formation and is followed by the Archean eon at 3.8 Ga. [2]: 145 The oldest rocks found on Earth date to about 4.0 Ga, and the oldest detrital zircon crystals in rocks to about 4.4 Ga, [34] [35] [36] soon after the formation of Earth's crust and Earth itself.
If Earth is not ejected during a stellar encounter, then its orbit will decay via gravitational radiation until it collides with the Sun in 10 20 (100 quintillion) years. [110] If proton decay can occur and Earth is ejected to intergalactic space, then it will last around 10 38 (100 undecillion) years before evaporating into radiation. [111]
A new study is shedding light on how and why Neanderthals died out. The predecessor to humans today, Homo sapiens, vanished about 42,000 years ago. ... With more cosmic radiation heating Earth ...
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They may have lived as early as 4.28 Gya (billion years ago), relatively soon after the formation of the oceans 4.41 Gya, not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 Gya. [ 78 ] Early micro-fossils may have come from a hot world of gases such as methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide , toxic to much current life. [ 230 ]