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Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula. [4][5][6] Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen.
Earth's rocky core formed first, with heavy elements colliding and binding together. Dense material sank to the protoplanet's center while lighter material built up the crust.
Earth is one of the four inner, terrestrial planets in our solar system. Just like the other inner planets —Mercury, Venus, and Mars—it is relatively small and rocky. Early in the history of the solar system, rocky material was the only substance that could exist so close to the Sun and withstand its heat.
How and when did the early Earth form? Scientists now think the Earth’s story began around 4.6 billion years ago in a disk-shaped cloud of dust and gas rotating around the early sun, made up of material left behind after the sun’s formation.
Key points in Earth’s formation include the initial birth of our planet within the solar nebula, the differentiation into layers, and the dynamic interplay of geological processes that have shaped the Earth we know today.
When the solar system settled into its current layout about 4.5 billion years ago, Earth formed when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become the third planet from the Sun. Like its fellow terrestrial planets, Earth has a central core, a rocky mantle, and a solid crust.
The geologic and biological development of Earth, including its surface features and the processes by which they are created and modified, are discussed in geochronology, continental landform, and plate tectonics.
Scientists think Earth was formed at roughly the same time as the sun and other planets some 4.6 billion years ago when the solar system coalesced from a giant, rotating cloud of gas and...
Earth - Accretion, Formation, Core: As the gas making up the solar nebula beyond the Sun cooled with time, mineral grains are thought to have condensed and aggregated to form the earliest meteoritic material.
The origin of Earth in its present form has long been the subject of intellectual interest, but since the mid-20th century scientists have made particularly significant advances both in concepts and in measurements.