Prehistory
Formation of the Solar System: Birth of the Sun and Planets
The Sun ignited at the centre of a spinning disc of gas and dust, and within tens of millions of years the planets, moons, asteroids and comets had formed.
Era · Before c. 3000 BC
Prehistory
From the formation of Earth and the age of dinosaurs to the first cave art and monuments, before writing was invented.
Prehistory
Formation of the Earth: How Our Planet Was Born
A layered rocky planet with an iron core, a silicate mantle and an early crust emerged, opening the Hadean Eon.
Prehistory
Formation of the Moon: The Giant Impact With Theia
Debris from a collision between the proto-Earth and a planet-sized body gathered in orbit to form the Moon, which has accompanied Earth ever since.
Prehistory
Jack Hills Zircons: Earth's Oldest Known Minerals in Australia
The zircons suggested that solid continental-type crust, and probably liquid water, existed on Earth within about 150 million years of its formation.
Prehistory
Origin of Earth's Oceans: Where the Water Came From
Liquid water collected on Earth's cooling surface, forming the first oceans, which have persisted in some form ever since.
Prehistory
Late Heavy Bombardment: Asteroid Storm on the Early Earth
Large impacts formed many of the Moon's great basins; whether they came in a sudden late spike or as the tail of a steady decline is still debated.
Prehistory
Acasta Gneiss: Canada's 4-Billion-Year-Old Rock Formation
The Acasta Gneiss became the oldest securely dated intact rock on Earth, showing that evolved crust existed by about 4 billion years ago.
Prehistory
Archean Eon: Earth's Early Continents and the First Life
Earth gained stable continental crust, oceans and widespread microbial life, setting the stage for the oxygenation of the atmosphere.
Prehistory
Origin of Life on Earth: How and When Life First Began
Simple single-celled microbes appeared, the ancestors of all living things; how non-living chemistry became life is still unresolved.
Prehistory
Isua Greenstone Belt: Greenland's Ancient Rocks and Early Life
One of the oldest well-preserved sequences of volcanic and sedimentary rock on Earth, central to debates over the earliest traces of life.
Prehistory
Nuvvuagittuq Belt: The Debated Oldest Fossils in Quebec
A Canadian rock belt whose age and possible microfossils remain among the most debated claims for Earth's earliest life.
Prehistory
Pilbara Stromatolites: Evidence of Life 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Fossil microbial mounds in the Pilbara provide the oldest broadly accepted evidence of life on Earth.