{"id":14324,"date":"2025-05-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=14324"},"modified":"2025-05-06T07:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T07:26:51","slug":"how-earth-was-formed-planetary-collisions-moon-origin-geological-history-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/how-earth-was-formed-planetary-collisions-moon-origin-geological-history-may-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"How was the Earth built?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\n The Earth formed in a ring of debris around the Sun, like the one around Vega, a bright star, in this artist\u2019s conception.\n NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n Alexander E. Gates<\/a>, Rutgers University – Newark<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n \n\n

Curious Kids<\/a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you\u2019d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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How was the Earth built? \u2013 Noah, age 5, Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

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It isn\u2019t easy to figure out how the Earth was built, because it happened 4\u00bd billion years ago, and no one was there to watch. So scientists have had to look at what the Earth looks like now and at all of the other planets, moons and debris in the solar system. <\/p>\n\n

They\u2019ve concluded that the Earth was built in the same way that you would build a big snowball to make a snowman. The mass that would become our home rolled through planetary debris \u2013 rocks floating in space \u2013 for more than 100 million years, adding more and more material, until it grew into a full-size planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

How do scientists like me<\/a> know this is what happened? First, studies of the size, composition and location of asteroids and comets<\/a>, many of which are as old as the Earth, indicate that 4\u00bd billion years ago the solar system looked the way Saturn looks today<\/a>, with rings of space rocks orbiting around the Sun. There\u2019s still one such ring around the Sun \u2013 it\u2019s called the asteroid belt<\/a> and lies between Mars and Jupiter, with the Sun\u2019s gravity holding the rocks in orbit. <\/p>\n\n

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