Earth 98

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the sun and is the only known planetary body capable of harboring life. Earth formed around four billion years ago out of the accretion disk of the sun, becoming a body about 1.3-1.5 times its current size. Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, early in its planetary history, earth suffered a catastrophic impact event with a planet weighing about 1/4 of its mass. This massive impact destroyed the other body, temporarily creating a huge ring system around earth and causing millions of years of meteor activity. Eventually the rings coalesced into the planet's only moon. The moon and the large outer gas giants, now that the "spare" planets of the accretion disk had been destroyed, would protect earth from most other major impact events, but for the next several billion years the planet was bombarded as it had little atmosphere to protect itself and the outer planets were still clearing smaller debris. Life formed about a billion years ago, after billions of years of bombardment by comets and ice and organic rich meteorites. These comets and meteorites had brought water and complex molecules, forming oceans. The planet's volcanic activity had largely subsided, and life formed around volcanic undersea vents in the now-stable and organic-rich oceans. Earth went through several phases of life, each punctuated by a mass extinction, and the most recent mammalian epoch has seen the recent and rapid rise of humans. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Continents

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 * America
 * Meridia
 * Europa
 * Asia
 * Africa
 * Albantia
 * Austeroa
 * Incognita