Over 4.6 billion years ago, the early Earth emerged from a swirling disk of gas and dust encircling the young sun. This primordial material collided and coalesced, forming larger bodies through the ...

The shape of the Earth's oceans and continents is dictated inexorable movements of the tectonic plates, but where did those ...

A new study shows that the so-called planetesimals that accreted together to form Earth must have been composed of dry, rocky materials. Billions of years ago, in the giant disk of dust, gas, and ...

The leading theory for how the Moon formed was that it was the product of a catastrophic collision between Earth and another planet the size of Mars 4.5 billion years ago, known as the giant impact ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The origins of how life on Earth arose remains a deep existential ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New model suggests an ocean of magma formed within the first few hundred million years of Earth's ...

The formation of the Earth may have looked more like a fast, inevitable landslide than like a slow series of occasional cataclysms, as scientists have long theorized, according to findings published ...

Billions of years ago, in the giant disk of dust, gas, and rocky material that orbited our young sun, larger and larger bodies coalesced to eventually give rise to the planets, moons, and asteroids we ...