Learn how the Earth was made

An interactive look at Earth's history

This interactive module allows students to explore the science of Earth’s deep history, from its formation 4.5 billion years ago to modern times.

Humans have existed for just 0.004% of Earth’s history

Born from the remains of the molecular cloud that birthed the sun, Earth experienced planetary-scale collisions, asteroid impacts, and lava seas. Life became possible after the planet cooled and formed a thin crust, atmosphere, and oceans.

Watch a visualization of the formation of the planets

The nebular hypothesis proposes that a swirling cloud of gas and dust coalesced into a dense center, forming a star amid nuclear fusion. Lighter elements were blown far from the star while heavier elements remained nearby, serving as primary materials for terrestrial and jovian planets, respectively.

How solar systems form

Learn how our sun, the planets, and other solar system bodies came to be with these videos and an infographic from NASA. Use this resource to visualize how the solar system formed and to model and describe the process.

Take a journey to the Earth's core

This animated video takes you on a journey through the different layers of the Earth's core, with insight into what makes up each shell. Earth's outer core, which is about 1,400 miles thick, is made up of liquid iron and nickel at a blistering...

Early Earth lifeforms likely made energy via mineral reactions, not sunlight

Earth's initial atmosphere was filled with carbon dioxide, methane, and water, with most oxygen locked away in the rocky crust. Over time, bacteria evolved to slowly release that oxygen into the atmosphere by breaking down rock.

How Oceans were formed

Nonprofit organization American Oceans briefly explains the formation of the oceans, which cover over two thirds of Earth’s surface. They were formed by centuries of rain from the condensation of Earth's original gasses.

The solar system formed between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago

Its age is best estimated by studying meteorites from the early formation period of the planetary system, including Erg Chech 002 (4.565 billion years old) and NWA 11119 (4.5648 billion years old). Solar analysis and stellar evolution models estimate the sun's age to be approximately 4.57 billion years.

What did Earth look like when dinosaurs roamed?

The face of the Earth isn’t remotely the same as when the dinosaurs ruled the roost. The passing of millions of years, plate tectonics, and a spotty track record with asteroid collisions have changed the planet’s surface. Use this interactive globe to see what the Earth looked like millions of years ago.

The big problem with the story of the moon's origins

Physics simulations predict the moon should be made mostly of the planet that struck early Earth—but lunar rocks are chemically identical to Earth's own mantle. Every proposed fix to the giant impact hypothesis, from total vaporization to multiple smaller strikes, creates a new contradiction it can't resolve. Howtown takes a nerdy look at the question in this polished 20-minute video.

The cosmic dark ages: before stars existed

The theories behind the Big Bang suggest the process of the universe beginning to the creation of stable, neutral atoms took just half a million years. But the transition from such atoms to star formation took surprisingly much longer, upwards of 100 million years. Why? This deep dive explores the science behind the unique physical composition of the so-called cosmic dark ages.

How the sun heats the Earth

We all know it: Without the sun's heat, the Earth would be uninhabitable. So how does it work? The sun fuses roughly 600 million tons of hydrogen every second, the energy from which bursts out into space—including toward our planet. Our atmosphere...

The formation and breakup of Pangaea altered Earth’s geology and biodiversity

Coming from the Greek words for “all” (pan) and “Earth” (gaia), the supercontinent existed from about 320 million to 195 million years ago. The tectonic activity that split Pangaea into today’s continents may one day bring the continents back together, forming Pangaea Proxima.

Did Mars ever look like Earth?

Mars formed at the same time as the rest of the solar system, about 4.6 billion years ago. Today, Mars is a cold, dry world with a thin atmosphere. However, there is evidence that Mars was once much more habitable, covered in flowing rivers a large bodies of water. Scientists believe over time the planet lost its magnetic field, leading to the loss of atmosphere and ultimately the evaporation of water.

What makes the Earth shake?

Researchers are demystifying the science of earthquakes—from their origins deep within the Earth to the scales that measure their strength. This article, which was part of a series of weekly reports from Cornell University, serves as a guide to...

When it formed 4.5 billion years ago, Jupiter was twice its current size

Its original size was deduced from the orbits of its moons, Amalthea and Thebe. The planet's magnetic field was also 50 times stronger than today, or 400 times stronger than Earth's.

The history of the world map

What did people used to think the world looked like? From the beginning of human history to right before the age of exploration, learn how the world maps were created.

Explore how far you've traveled through space while living on Earth

Using the "Cosmic Odometer," users can enter their birthday and learn how far they have moved through space due to the combined effects of Earth's rotation around its axis, the planet's orbit around the sun, the solar system's trajectory through the Milky Way, and the galaxy's motion through the universe.

Create anything from the elements in Little Alchemy 2

Various ancient cultures believed the most abundant substances in the world were its basic elements: earth, water, air, and fire. We may know better now, but you can make almost anything from those four things. Little Alchemy 2 is a fun, cartoonish game that allows users to create more complex items from simple substances.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Earth’s tilt and orbit cause the sun to create a figure-eight pattern

The shape—called an analemma—can be obtained by photographing the sun from the same location and time daily for a year. The Earth's eccentricity created the analemma's width, and its tilt shifts the sun's height in the sky over the seasons.

How diamonds form in the deep earth

Deep within Earth's mantle, diamonds form from carbon-bearing fluids. The formation of these beautiful gemstones, the only direct samples we have of the mantle, helps scientists uncover how carbon functions deep inside our planet. Understanding this complex process aids in the exploration for new diamond deposits.

See how Stonehenge was built

This short animation shows how human beings managed to lug 30-ton stones over miles of prehistoric English countryside and stand them up The Stone Age engineering involved using giant wooden rollers and carving precisely interlocking tongue-and-groove joints to hold the heavy stones in place.

A short history of space exploration

Let us to take you back through the timeline of space exploration and its rich, fascinating history, starting in 1946, with a rudimentary German military rocket.

Magnetic material in rocks provides evidence of flips in Earth's magnetic field

Volcanic rocks can lock in the direction of Earth's magnetic field as they cool, making them natural recorders of magnetism. Dating rocks and seeing the changing orientation of their magnetic field helps construct a timeline of Earth's magnetic field history.

When did people start making and using glass?

This article details the search for the ancient origins of glass, a now-common item through which archaeologists can spot histories of trade and innovation. Bronze Age glass was made from crushed quartz instead of sand, and artisans could color glass with materials such as cobalt. These trace metallic add-ons have given scientists a vital clue into the origins of glass, which is currently debated as either Egypt or the Near East.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Dirty lightning is a thunderstorm created from friction between rising and falling flows of ash and smoke during volcanic eruptions.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight