In interstellar space, there are large quantities of dust particles with different types of molecules mixed with gas atoms. Celestial bodies are built from this material. Molecules adhere to the tiny particles of dust forming a thin sticky layer on their surface. When these particles came closer to each other they would collide and coalesce forming loose concentrations of dust with a diameter of up to one centimeter. Once the cloud of interstellar material was set in motion and compressed by a nearby supernova explosion, gravity entered the scene as the fundamental force of preservation and further compression within the rotation-compressed disc. At the same time, the Sun was being formed from gas falling into the center of the disc. The formed particles of dust collided and coalesced. Gravity then became secondary because of the coalescence occurring due to the interaction of electron clouds of atoms that came into direct contact. Over time, chunks with a diameter of about 1 kilometer were built up. These rocky chunks can merge with each other forming increasingly larger bodies – planetesimals. In collisions, they either crash or coalesce into even larger chunks. The largest planetesimals “will catch” most of the remaining planetesimals and this is how planets are formed.
The formation of the Earth began 4,600,000,000 years ago. It is assumed that it took approximately 600,000,000 years for the Earth to reach its current size in the formation process. At that time, rocks were hitting the Earth, creating craters. Radioactivity heated the rocks and melted them. Gasses from volcanoes covered the Earth with a thick atmosphere in which clouds were abundant. Lightning was a common occurrence. Shortly after that, as the atmosphere cooled, the first rains on Earth occurred. Initially, they appeared in the upper layers and on their way down to the Earth they re-evaporated, and after the Earth was cooled sufficiently, the first rains fell on the ground. It rained continuously because volcanoes emitted large quantities of water vapor. Over time, the crust cooled and water gradually condensed forming the vast oceans. The conditions were still harsh, but obviously favourable for the beginning of life. The primordial atmosphere consisted of CO2, CO, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide, which reacted with each other, forming new molecules and organic compounds. The causes of the formation of these organic molecules from the gases in the primordial atmosphere, that is, the energy required for this, were lightning in the atmosphere, shock waves from asteroid impacts, ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and the intense heat from molten rocks.
Organic molecules formed in this manner could survive in such a primordial atmosphere. An atmosphere similar to the present one, rich in oxygen, would have decomposed them into the stable molecule CO2. Organic molecules are essential for the life of all living beings. They can also be found in the cosmos on particles of dust or meteorites.
The molecules of the primordial atmosphere rich in hydrogen decomposed under harsh conditions and later spontaneously recombined into more complex molecules. These molecules were carried into the oceans by precipitation where they dissolved forming “an organic soup” of increasing complexity, until eventually a molecule was formed that was capable of making rough copies of itself by using other molecules in the soup as its resource. That was the predecessor of deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA. Apart from DNA, RNA and proteins were created through the process in which organic molecules became more complex. At this stage, interdependent chemical reactions developed. Enzymes dissolve DNA so it can replicate itself and expose its message for decryption. This message contains the blueprint for the production of proteins. These activities became increasingly complex until life processes were initiated. The first real cells – the carriers of life – were formed.
This process of increasing the complexity of molecules lasted 500,000,000 years. Life emerged in the prehistoric soup, which provided the optimum conditions for its development, namely an abundance of resources and fuel for reactions. It was like a paradise for molecules because there was an abundance without predators.
Suppose we put the age of Earth within a proportional period of 46 years then its early childhood was characterized by “the bombardment” with rocks. Around the age of seven, the Earth’s crust was formed, followed by the formation of simple organic molecules in the atmosphere. Just before its eighth birthday, rains began to fall and oceans were formed. Over the next four years (corresponding to 400.000.000 years in reality) the compounds necessary for life self-assembled and created the first complete cells. Various forms of life emerged and this continues to the present day. Very early on, primitive cells faced a crisis. The source of food (organic molecules) was not renewing, while it was quickly being consumed. The survival of life on Earth could be possible only if the cell itself found a way to produce organic molecules. There was CO2 dissolved in the ocean, water, and solar energy at its disposal. Mastering the process of producing organic molecules from CO2, H2O, and sunlight, known as photosynthesis, was a long-term solution for cells. If the cells had failed in this, they would have consumed themselves and life would have stopped. A by-product of photosynthesis – oxygen – gradually replaced CO2 in the atmosphere, thus changing it. CO2 dissolved in the seas and reacted with the exposed rocks. Carbon atoms transitioned from gas into living organisms, for organic chemistry is based on this element. Increasing amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere dissolved all other harmful gasses from the volcanic primordial atmosphere. Only a small number of CO2 molecules remained in the atmosphere. If CO2 completely disappeared from the atmosphere and transitioned completely into living organisms, plants would face a new crisis, because they would begin to suffocate in oxygen. This possibility is prevented by animal cells. By consuming, i.e. eating, plant cells (cells based on the production of food through photosynthesis) they essentially burned them in oxygen. Through this process, CO2 was being returned to the atmosphere. Even today, life functions on that balance. Plants absorb CO2 exhaled by animals, and animals eat carbon compounds and inhale oxygen.
Oxygen caused another major revolution in life on Earth. Sunrays transformed the O₂ molecule in the upper layers of the atmosphere into a three-atom oxygen molecule, O₃ – ozone. This molecule blocks harmful, short-wave, ultraviolet radiation coming from the Sun.
Living cells could have not survived this radiation and therefore they were given protection by the water in the ocean. Production of ozone in the oxygen-rich atmosphere enabled life forms to invade the land. Just before life emerged from sea to land, unicellular organisms evolved into multicellular organisms. The last few hundred million years – is the era of multicellular organisms. Viewed in the context of corresponding metaphorical 46 years of age, the first cells appeared around the age of twelve. In the forty-second year, plants and animals emerged onto land. A few weeks ago, the first tools were made on the Earth. If the Earth had been closer to the Sun or if its radioactivity had been higher, photosynthesis would have been senseless because organic molecules would still have been produced in the atmosphere, rendering their production within the cell unnecessary. Similarly, in the case of already-formed plant cells, if the thermal conditions on Earth had enabled the release of carbon from rocks where it was present in large quantities, plant cells would have not faced a crisis at all, and therefore there would have been no need for animal cells to exist.
Immediately after Earth’s formation, the hyperactive Sun blew away the atmosphere created by the impact of rocks during Earth’s formation. The Earth received a new atmosphere through volcanos. The heat released by the decay of atoms within the Earth’s crust raises its temperature. 35 kilometers beneath the surface of the continents rocks are partially melted and form a liquid layer. Continents move across this layer. This layer is called the asthenosphere. Although the temperatures are higher at greater depths, the weight of the upper layers transforms molten rocks into a solid, rigid substance. This zone is called the mantle. The Earth’s core is made of iron and nickel. The outer part of the core is liquid. Electric currents flowing through this liquid metal layer generate Earth’s magnetic field.
Some extra-terrestrial magnetic field would create eddy currents on surface layers of the Earth. These currents create a magnetic field around the Earth acting against the external magnetic field. The power of the magnetic field created by the eddy currents would depend on the external magnetic field and the speed at which the Earth would travel through it. The thermal effect of the electric currents would melt rocks on the Earth’s surface. This process would be followed by volcanic activity and the intrusion of igneous rocks into sedimentary rocks on the surface.
Released from the rocks of the Earth’s crust by the warming of the atmosphere, CO2 would allow sunrays to reach the Earth’s surface, but the radiation reflected from the surface would lack the energy required for passing through the CO2 in the atmosphere and leaving the Earth. This would further warm the atmosphere, thus releasing even more CO2 from the ground. This would lead to overheating of the Earth and changes in ocean levels.
Volcanoes release gasses and water vapor which then turns into rain, which dissolves CO2 from the atmosphere, thus preventing the overheating of Earth’s surface. Water from the oceans changes the ground through erosion by flowing water. Another geological force that shapes the ground is the movement of parts of the Earth’s crust.
The Earth’s crust is not monolithic but consists of plates. These plates move. As a result of this movement, one plate slides beneath another. In places where the plates plunge into deeper layers with higher temperatures, the rocks melt and under pressure, a part of this molten material emerges on the Earth’s surface in the form of volcanos.