• Question: How was the earth made

    Asked by Nicole to Alex, Ana, Clay, Keegan, Mark on 28 Apr 2016.
    • Photo: Clay Robinson

      Clay Robinson answered on 28 Apr 2016:


      There are many hypotheses about how this occurred.
      Most of them involve some sort of “big bang” followed by swirling gases condensing into stars and fusion processes that built larger and larger atoms that came together to form rocks and minerals that kept combining and getting larger, and sometimes getting even larger when they bumped into one another.
      But no one has ever observed these things happening because they may take millions and billions of years, and so scientists try to work backwards by applying things they observe now to what they think could have happened then.

    • Photo: Mark Ritchie

      Mark Ritchie answered on 29 Apr 2016:


      This is a tough one because there are lots of theories. The most common one is that after the big bang, expanding gas clouds began to develop clusters of gas molecules which began to get bigger because their gravity attracted more gas molecules. Some clusters, called “protostars” (proto- means “before”)got so big and hot that hydrogen molecules began to combine to make helium, and the energy released was emitted as light and heat, creating what we would call a star. Some stars were also near smaller clusters, called “protoplanets” which were doing their own attracting due to gravity, even as they were attracted to the soon star to be. Because all these clusters were moving at the same time, some went into orbit around the star. Eventually, most of the gas was attracted to the star and protoplanets, forming solar systems.
      If you believe in a Creator, there’s nothing about the above process of gravity and orbit formation that is inconsistent with idea that a Creator made the universe. We can “create” a cake, but we don’t literally put every molecule of the cake in place; instead we put the right ingredients (sugars, starches, fats, water, baking soda) in the right environment (oven temperature) and the cake forms itself following the rules of chemistry and thermodynamics. Likewise, there’s nothing to say that a Creator didn’t set conditions for our universe that allowed the stars and planets to make themselves following the rules of science.

    • Photo: Alexander Taylor

      Alexander Taylor answered on 29 Apr 2016:


      As Mark and Clay mentioned, most physicists believe that the universe was formed by a “big bang.” Galaxies and solar systems formed as gases began to condense, attracted to each other through gravity. The sun, and the planets the orbit it, began to form as gravity pulled these space gases together. Fortunately for us, the elements that formed earth were the right kind and the right proportion to allow for life – hydrogen and oxygen that could become water, iron that gave us a protective magnetic field.

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