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Solar System History How Was The Earth Formed

The documentary starts off with its main purpose, to uncover the birth of the Earth. To be able
to achieve its goal, several evidences that would support the theories were needed. Due to weathering
and various earth activities, getting hold of these evidences isnt as easy as a walk in the park. As a
start, they wanted to know the age of the Earth. Earth-old rocks found on the surface arent very
accessible so they resorted to using meteorites instead. These meteorites are probably as old or much
older than our planet. Knowing the age of these meteorites could help us estimate the most probable
age of the Earth. Carbon-dating made it possible to know the age of these rocks.
Leaving the age of the Earth aside, what scientists were puzzled about was how debris could
clump together to form a planet the size of the Earth were currently living in. Experiments conducted in
space, a zero-gravity environment, gave them the answers they needed. Samples of salt brought in
space showed how minerals behaved in space. The salt particles clumped together and were held in
place by static electricity. With the random rocks forming the Earth, what theyre looking at next is how
the Earths layers came to be. They hypothesized on how the Earth completely melted due to
radioactive and hot rocks which caused the denser elements to go deeper and reached the core and
left the lighter elements floating on its surface.
Back to the age of the Earth, other geologists have found very old rocks on the Earths surface
that can be used to estimate the Earths age. Upon testing, these rocks were more than 4 billion years
old despite being accessible and vulnerable on the surface, pretty much like the meteorites they used.
Studying these rocks would tell them that they couldnt be formed at that time if water wasnt present.
This proved that oceans were already present on our planet for more than 4 billion years ago, much
earlier than what most thought. But where do all these water come from?
Upon studying the meteorites again, they found out that these meteorites had droplets of water
stuck in them. Estimating the number of meteorites needed to fill up the Earth with oceans, it would
take a lot of them. Now that dry land and water are present on Earth, how did life come to be?
Scientists study the meteorites once more and found traces of amino acids on them. These amino
acids are essential to produce protein and are the building blocks of life. Without them, life wouldnt be
possible.
We now found out how life came to be but if you think about the condition of the Earth around 4
billion years ago, present-day organisms wouldnt be able to thrive in such a world. At that time,

microscopic organisms and bacteria were the only ones that could survive. Most of them live off with
the toxic atmosphere that Earth has which is mostly composed of sulfur and other poisonous gases.
The abundant quantity of oxygen which allowed present-day organisms to live came from the
cyanobacteria. These organisms use light and water to live and has oxygen as a byproduct. The
quantity of oxygen in the atmosphere increased overtime and allowed other organisms to form.
That was kind of a summary from what I learned from watching the video. All those evidences
presented in the video really changed some of my assumptions on the formation of the Earth. Water
ACTUALLY came from meteorites and were not formed from the oxygen and hydrogen in the
atmosphere, as I have previously thought. While watching the video, I thought that water may have
come from comets (because they contain organic material and ice) but it wasnt mentioned or even
hinted or considered as a possible cause in the video. Also, I previously assumed that all the oxygen
thats present in our atmosphere today came from plants. Just like cyanobacteria, plants also use
sunlight and water (+carbon dioxide) and has oxygen as a byproduct. Either plants or cyanobacteria
would probably be applicable but we cant confirm that. The behavior of minerals in space was also
new to me. It was the most probable cause of how planets are formed. Earth being a really hot and
toxic planet in its early stages was already known, though. Overall, this documentary gave me a new
perspective on the birth of the Earth. Although not all of these are considered as facts, the evidences
presented were really plausible and could prove useful.