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4600 BCE
Planetary Accretion
During the first hundred thousand years of this solar system, the dust is colliding into each other and creating little clumps. -
4590 BCE
Core Formation
Earth formed like the other planets. Different materials in its region of space collided. Eventually, the material made a planet. All of the collisions caused Earth to heat up. Rock and metal melted. The molten material separated into layers. Gravity pulled the denser material into the center. -
4530 BCE
Formation of Moon
An asteroid the size of Mars smashed into Earth. The huge amount of energy from the impact melted most of Earth. The asteroid melted too. Material from both Earth and the asteroid was thrown out into orbit. Over time, this material smashed together to form our Moon. -
3730 BCE
Planetary Cooling
All the heat in the core is trying to escape the Earth and the additional radioactive elements are heating even more. That heat plays two important roles: It allows activity in the core like spinning and the molten metal to remain there and it is probably the source of the strong magnetic fields on the Earth. Also, as the heat tried to escape, it broke up the continents and created tectonic plates and the plates moved due to the heat. Other things on the Earth may have created at that time. -
2130 BCE
End of Heavy Bombardment
A lot of violence occurred at that time. Jupiter and Saturn migrated their way towards the inner planets, cleared out a lot more of rocks and others and then migrated back out.