The Origin of Life

The year is 2009. You and your friends live in a variety of places.
Some live in apartments, others in homes, trailers and many other
places. All around you both inside and outside, there are other life
forms. These life forms live in caves, trees, under rocks, in ponds and
puddles and in many other places. All of us, both friends, and
creatures share a larger home. This home is the planet Earth.

How did we all get here? It is the job of a biologist, or someone who
studies life, to learn where life came from, how it developed, and to
try and determine how life will continue to develop. Biologists today
are not completely sure how life began on Earth, but after many years
of studying life forms, they have come up with guesses. We call these
guesses theories.

The most commonly accepted theory is the theory of evolution. This

fascinating tale begins with a very big bang (an explosion).

The Big Bang and Evolution

According to this theory, about 15 billion years ago, the Universe was
nothing more than a very small speck of mass. This speck was
probably no bigger than the head of a pin. Everything in the Universe,
all the galaxies, stars, planets, and even the matter making up your
body was squished up tightly in this tiny space.

Eventually, after a very long time, this speck exploded. All of a

sudden, in a giant flash of unimaginable heat and power, the Universe
was born. Over a period of billions and billions of years, the Universe
became what we see today. Slowly stars began to form, and around
these stars, planets formed.

In a quiet galaxy known as the Milky Way, a yellow star was formed,
which would come to be known as the Sun. Around that star, nine
planets were formed. One of those planets, the third in distance from
that star, was a small rocky planet called Earth.

About 4.6 billion years ago our Earth looked very different than it does
today. Instead of the beautiful blues, greens, and whites of today, it
would have looked red and orange. The surface of our planet was
covered in oceans of hot lava. Instead of breathable oxygen, the
atmosphere was made of a mix of deadly poisons.

For the first 500 million years, the Earth would remain as a giant
lifeless ball of fiery lava. For another 300 million years after that, it
would be too hot for liquid water to form. Finally, after 800 million
years, an unimaginably long period of time, our home planet cooled
enough for liquid water to begin to form. Everywhere rains began to
fall, filling the lower portions of the Earth with water, forming lakes,
oceans, and rivers.
Still, there was no life.

So how did life

arrive on Earth?

Biologists believe that the process that created life is something

called evolution. Earth's ancient oceans were filled with the chemicals
needed for life.
It is believed that life began on the shores of these ancient oceans, in
pools of water called tidal pools. Over many millions of years, as the
ingredients of life splashed around in these pools, possibly helped by
lightning strikes, they formed the first cells.
A number of very important advances in evolution allowed life to
become what it is today.

The Big Bang and Evolution - Evolution Continued?

Evolution continues today. The plants and animals we know today will
be very different in the future. Who knows what creatures will evolve?
Who knows how Humans will evolve? Even our own offspring may
look very different millions of years from now.

Hello Earth - Origins of our Planet

These are difficult questions to answer. The Earth is our home world.
Before the Earth existed, there were no people. This means that there
was no one around to witness its creation. However, scientists like
geographers, are able to make guesses about how the Earth came to
be. These guesses are called theories. A theory is a guess, based on
evidence. These guesses are made by scientists who study clues, to
understand new things about the world and universe around us.

What clues do scientists use to understand the creation of our

home planet?

The best clues that scientists have, are found in the study of distant
young stars, and the new planets forming around them. By studying
these young stars, they can catch glimpses of the creation of their
new baby planets, and of their young planetary systems.

We can draw pictures of each one, and do our best to lay them out in
order from youngest to oldest. By doing this, we can get a pretty good
idea of how planetary systems develop. We see that the youngest
planets develop around their parent stars in a giant cloud of dust and
gas.
As the planets get older, we see that they get larger and larger, by
collecting dust and gas from that cloud.

As the planets age, they start to cool down, and their surfaces
become hard. Eventually some are cool enough to allow liquid water
to form, creating oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. Other planets do
not form liquid water, because they remain too hot, or the liquid water
eventually freezes, because the planets become too cold. However,
for a very small group of lucky planets, the temperatures remain just
right to allow their water to remain a liquid.

Today, our planet is neither young, nor old. The Earth is a middle-aged
planet. It has cooled sufficiently to allow liquid water to form, but has
remained warm enough to sustain life, and to keep the water from
freezing.

The mountains, valleys, hills, streams, rivers, and lakes that we see
today are always changing. Over millions of years, new mountains
form, and older mountains get worn away. Lakes form, and then
disappear.

The Earth has many billions of years left before it will be destroyed by
the aging Sun. During these billions of years, it will continue to
change, and evolve. The Earth we know today will not be the same
Earth that others know millions of years in the future.