Earth

  

U  N  I  V  E  R  S  E

The beginning of everything was about 14 billion years

ago.  Creation.  The Big Bang.  From inside an infinitely

small speck of existence came forth all that we know

of the universe today.  Conventional wisdom among

scientists fifty years ago was that the universe is infinite

and time has neither a beginning or an end.

That idea was thrown out once we discovered that

the galaxies and stars are not static.  Our Milky Way,

along with the trillion other galaxies of the known 

universe, is rapidly moving away from the theoretical

creation point of existence.  Hmm.  What was the

nature of existence prior to the Big Bang?  Anything?

A previous universe, perhaps, that collapsed from 

its own weight into nothing.  Or was there a timeless

existence of null until there suddenly wasn't.

Mathematics won't solve this equation because

we don't know the variables.  What is it we are

dealing with?  Science or philosophy?

S  O  L  A  R      S  Y  S  T  E  M      C  R  E  A  T  I  O  N

The universe had existed nearly ten billion years

before a galactic cloud of dust began to coalesce

into our sun and its entourage of planets, comets

and asteroids.  The four planets closest to the 

sun's gravitational pull - Mercury, Venus, Earth

and Mars - consist primarily of metals and the 

heavier elements.  The gas giant planets -

Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus - consist

mainly of the lighter elements.

The dust cloud itself contains the particles of stars

that exploded once their nuclear reaction had run

its course.  This is a process of renewal practiced

at the galactic scale.  Stars are born from an accretion

of matter in a vacuum.  A nuclear reaction occurs

giving the star a lifespan of energy.  Depleted stars

may explode.  The matter they release is now 

available for new creations... stars, nebula,

galaxies, black holes, dark matter, and more waiting

to be discovered.

M  O  O  N      C  R  E  A  T  E  D      F  R  O  M      E  A  R  T  H

Early in the formation of our solar system, Theia,

a planet nearly the size of Mars, collided with the

still molten Earth.  The enormous quantity of magma

thrown into space resulted in the formation of 

Earth's moon - itself a planetary object almost

the size of Mercury.  It also rotated twice as close

to the Earth as it now does.  We would be startled

by the size of the moon in the sky when it passes

so near to where we stand.  Luner Phobia would

skyrocket.

 H  A  D  E  A  N      E  R  A    -   H  E  L  L      O  N      E  A  R  T  H

The first half billion years on Earth consisted of 

oceans of molten rock bombarded with asteroids.

Eventually the planet cooled enough to have the

beginnings of a crust form on the surface.

Volcanos were then believed to be prevalent.

This was a time of extreme heat, toxic gases

and planetary turbulence.  Nothing from this 

time has survived this period of constant upheaval.

S  T  R  O  M  A  T  O  C  I  T  E   -   F  I  R  S  T      F  O  S  S  I  L  S

It took a billion years from Earth's creation before

the first evidence of life appeared.  A lot had to happen

before there could be life.  The crust the planet needed

to support life required the surface to cool.  Eventually

the thick vapor atmosphere would condense into rain.

After a few million years of rainfall the Earth's surface

will be covered in oceans.  

Here was nature's nursery for invention.

There is no way of knowing how many failed

molecular attempts at producing life occurred

before something clicked and the enterprise

of life was off and running.  Sort of.

It took another half billion years before life

discovered the performance advantage

displayed by cells with a nucleus.  

Random trial and error over a million generations

is the method of genetics, DNA, the molecular

code providing life.

 C  A  M  B  R  I  A  N      E  X  P  L  O  S  I  O  N      O  F      L  I  F  E

For the next two billion years the Earth's oceans

remained a soup of mostly single cell organisms.

Then multicell life appeared about 560 million 

years ago.  Individual cells organize to create

something greater.  The various cells of the organism

had different specialized tasks.  They become

dependent on the whole.  It was the more efficient 

path for survival.

This development brings about an explosion 

of life forms that radiate out through the

Cambrian Era.  The types of organisms

became increasingly specialized, and became

a part of increasingly sophisticated habitats. 

Most every animal type alive today can trace

their creation back to this Cambrian period.

*   *   *   *   *

©  Tom Taylor

 

OVER   EASY

 

 

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