Hey there! Squeaks and I have been reading all the awesome questions you’ve sent us. You’ve asked about animals, the weather, our bodies, and even physics. You’re all so smart and curious, and we love getting these questions!
One question we noticed a lot of you are asking is: Where did the Earth come from? That’s a great question with a really cool answer: It came from a huge cloud in space!
Earth formed billions of years ago, so we don’t have any pictures or videos of it happening. But scientists have figured out what happened based on some clues.
You might already know that the Sun is a star, and Earth is a planet that moves around the Sun. There are other planets like Mars and Venus, too—eight planets in total. Together, the Sun and everything moving around it make up our solar system.
By learning about the solar system and looking at what’s happening around other stars where planets are forming now, scientists have a pretty good idea of where the Sun and planets like Earth came from. It all started as a giant cloud of dust and gas floating in space.
Scientists think that more than 4 billion years ago, this enormous cloud got a strong shock. We don’t know exactly what caused it, but it might have been a nearby star exploding. Whatever it was, the explosion shook the whole dust cloud, and all the dust and gas inside began to move closer together.
Some of the dust and gas in the center squished together, and as more and more dust and gas got squished inside it, the middle of the cloud became very big, thick, and hot. Can you think of what’s in the middle of our solar system that’s very hot? That’s right, it’s the Sun!
The dust at the center of the cloud got squished together so much that it started burning up and became our star, the Sun! Even back then, the Sun was so big and heavy that it could pull things closer to it just by being there. This was because of a force called gravity—the same thing that pulls you back down to the ground when you jump.
Gravity is a force that pulls little things, like us, close to big things, like the Earth, almost like a magnet. It’s always there, pulling us to the ground and keeping things on Earth from floating into space. Billions of years ago, gravity also pulled what was left of the cloud of dust and gas towards the Sun.
The dust and gas slowly began to swirl in a circle around the Sun. It looked a bit like a big disk or a flat circle. It was starting to look a lot more like our Solar System, but the planets were still missing!
Over time, everything in the disk moved into different rings around the Sun. Then, the dust and gases in the rings began to clump together because gravity was pulling them. The clumps of dust and gases started to get bigger and bigger until eight of these clumps basically became baby planets.
Over thousands of years, the baby planets gathered more and more material with their gravity until they became the eight planets of our solar system. Today, each planet still moves around the Sun, just like when it was a young, growing planet.
It’s amazing how much the Earth has changed since then! Everything around us used to just be pieces of dust floating in space, and now it’s this huge, amazing planet with all kinds of incredible things living on it, including us!
There’s always more to learn about the planet we call home and about space, where all the other planets are. Maybe tonight we can get a closer look at some of them through our telescope!
Thanks for joining us and for sending such great questions! If you have more questions about the Earth, space, or anything at all, we’d love to hear them! Ask a grownup to help you leave a comment below or send us an email at [email protected]. We’ll see you next time, here at the Fort!
Gravity Experiment: Let’s explore how gravity works with a simple experiment! Gather a small ball and a larger ball, like a tennis ball and a basketball. Drop them from the same height at the same time. Watch how they both fall to the ground together. Discuss with a friend or family member why you think this happens. Hint: Gravity pulls everything down at the same speed, no matter how big or small!
Create Your Own Solar System: Use clay or playdough to make models of the Sun and the eight planets. Arrange them in a circle to represent how they orbit around the Sun. You can even use different colors for each planet! As you create, think about how gravity keeps the planets moving around the Sun, just like in the story of how our solar system was formed.
Star Gazing Adventure: With the help of an adult, go outside at night and look up at the stars. Try to find a star that looks very bright. Imagine that this star might have its own planets forming around it, just like our solar system did. Draw a picture of what you think those planets might look like. Share your drawing with someone and explain how planets form from dust and gas.
