History of Earth

The history of Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the present
day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main
events of Earth's past, characterized by constant geological change and biological evolution.

The geological time scale (GTS), as defined by international convention, depicts the large spans
of time from the beginning of the Earth to the present, and its divisions chronicle some definitive
events of Earth history. (In the graphic: Ga means "billion years ago"; Ma, "million years ago".)
Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by
accretion from the solar nebula. Volcanic out gassing probably created the primordial
atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen. Much
of the Earth was molten because of frequent collisions with other bodies which led to extreme
volcanism. While the Earth was in its earliest stage (Early Earth), a giant impact collision with a
planet-sized body named Theia is thought to have formed the Moon. Over time, the Earth
cooled, causing the formation of a solid crust, and allowing liquid water on the surface.

The Earth's crust has constantly changed since its formation, as has life has since its first
appearance. Species continue to evolve, taking on new forms, splitting into daughter species, or
going extinct in the face of ever-changing physical environments. The process of plate tectonics
continues to shape the Earth's continents and oceans and the life they harbor. Human activity is
now a dominant force affecting global change, harming the biosphere, the Earth's surface,
hydrosphere, and atmosphere with the loss of wild lands, over-exploitation of the oceans,
production of greenhouse gases, degradation of the ozone layer, and general degradation of
soil, air, and water quality.

History of Stars
In 1584, Giordana Bruno proposed that stars were other objects like our Sun, just much further
away. Astronomers then started measuring changes in the luminosity of stars, and even the
proper motion of nearby stars; they had changed their position since they were first measured
by the ancient Greek astronomers Ptolemy and Hipparchus. The first measurement of distance
to star was made by Friedrich Bessel in 1838 using the parallax technique – 61 Cygnus was
measured to be 11.4 light years away.

In the 20th century, astronomers finally started using photography to image stars, and
techniques were developed to measure the spectra of light coming off them. Theoretical
advances in physics helped explain the different colors of stars and how this matched their
luminosity and temperature.

They were also making observations about the constellations occurring in the sky. During
ancient times, the planets and stars were used for several purposes. For one, they used stars
and planets in order to develop calendars. As early as 5,000 years ago, astronomers explored
the changes occurring in the moon and sun.

A star is born when atoms of light elements are squeezed under enough pressure for their
nuclei to undergo fusion. All stars are the result of a balance of forces: the force of gravity
compresses atoms in interstellar gas until the fusion reactions begin.

History of Galaxies
We've known for centuries that our solar system was located within the Milky Way because the
Milky Way surrounds us. We can see it throughout the year in all parts of the sky, but it's
brighter during the summer, when we're looking at the center of the galaxy. However, to
astronomers in the 18th century and earlier, it wasn't clear that the Milky Way was a galaxy and
not just a distribution of stars.

In the late 18th century, astronomers William and Caroline Herschel mapped the distances to
stars in many directions. They determined that the Milky Way was a disk-like cloud of stars with
the sun near the center.

In 1781, Charles Messier cataloged various nebulae (faint patches of light) throughout the sky
and classified several of them as spiral nebulae.

In the early 20th century, astronomer Harlow Shapely measured the distributions and locations
of globular star clusters. He determined that the center of the Milky Way was 28,000 light years
from Earth, near the constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpio, and that the center was a bulge,
rather than a flat area.

Shapely later argued that the spiral nebulae discovered by Messier were "island universes" or
galaxies (retaining the Greek wording). However, another astronomer named Heber Curtis
argued that spiral nebulae were merely part of the Milky Way. The debate raged on for years
because astronomers needed larger, more powerful, telescopes to resolve the details.

In 1924, Edwin Hubble settled the debate. He used a large telescope (100-inch diameter, larger
than ones that were available to Shapely and Curtis) at Mount Wilson in California and resolved
that the spiral nebulae had structure and stars called Cepheid variables, like those in the Milky
Way. (These stars change their brightness regularly, and the luminosity is directly related to the
period of their brightness cycle.) Hubble used the light curves of the Cepheid variables to
measure their distances from Earth and found that they were much farther away than the known
limits of the Milky Way. Therefore, these spiral nebulae were indeed other galaxies outside our
own.
Different Theories About Universe
Big bang Theory
o It says that the universe was in a tiny ball, and then it exploded and become bigger and
all of the stars and planets came into existence then.
o Nobody knows where the original ball came from.

Big bang theory pt. 2

o This theory is supported by the fact that the universe is continually expanding, and this
theory says that the universe is just constantly expanding.
o In 1965, two scientists discovered a pocket of heat that is thought to be a remnant of the
heat that caused the big bang.

Creationist Theory
o This theory states that a God created the universe in seven days.
o This theory is supported by the bible, but if this is true, the universe would be very
young.
o Some people think that the universe is only 6,000 yrs old, if this theory is proven true.

Intelligent Design Theory

o This theory is an offshoot of the creationist theory. This theory says that something
above God and outside of our knowledge created the universe.
o If this theory is right, what would automatically mean the creationist theory is wrong.
o Some think that if this theory is true, that would mean that aliens are observing us.

Holographic Theory
o This theory states that the entire universe is just hologram.
o If this theory is correct, it would also mean that every living would also be a hologram.
o This theory is far different from all of the other theories because if it is true, all other
theories would be pointless because the whole universe technically wouldn’t exist.

Always Existed
o This theory states that the universe was always here, and will always be here.
o Although not technically a theory, many people believe this theory because no other
theory fully explains their theory.
o This also considered a counter to the creationist theory, as nobody knows for sure who
created God.
History of the Universe

The earliest scientific models of the Universe were developed by ancient Greek and Indian
philosophers and were geocentric, placing Earth at the center of the Universe. Over the
centuries, more precise astronomical observations led Nicolaus Copernicus to develop the
heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System. In developing the law of
universal gravitation, Isaac Newton built upon Copernicus' work as well as observations by
Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler's laws of planetary motion.

Further observational improvements led to the realization that the Sun is one of hundreds of
billions of stars in the Milky Way, which is one of at least hundreds of billions of galaxies in the
Universe. Many of the stars in our galaxy have planets. At the largest scale galaxies are
distributed uniformly and the same in all directions, meaning that the Universe has neither an
edge nor a center. At smaller scales, galaxies are distributed in clusters and superclusters which
form immense filaments and voids in space, creating a vast foam-like structure. Discoveries in
the early 20th century have suggested that the Universe had a beginning and that space has
been expanding since then,[16] and is currently still expanding at an increasing rate.
History of Stars

Stars are huge celestial bodies made mostly of hydrogen and helium that produce light and heat
from the churning nuclear forges inside their cores. Aside from our sun, the dots of light we see
in the sky are all light-years from Earth. They are the building blocks of galaxies, of which there
are billions in the universe. It’s impossible to know how many stars exist, but astronomers
estimate that in our Milky Way galaxy alone, there are about 300 billion.
Some stars shine more brightly than others. Their brightness is a factor of how much energy
they put out–known as luminosity–and how far away from Earth they are. Color can also vary
from star to star because their temperatures are not all the same. Hot stars appear white or
blue, whereas cooler stars appear to have orange or red hues.
By plotting these and other variables on a graph called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram,
astronomers can classify stars into groups. Along with main sequence and white dwarf stars,
other groups include dwarfs, giants, and supergiants. Supergiants may have radii a thousand
times larger than that of our own sun.
History of Galaxies

Galaxies are sprawling systems of dust, gas, dark matter, and anywhere from a million to a
trillion stars that are held together by gravity. Nearly all large galaxies are thought to also
contain supermassive black holes at their centers. In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, the sun is
just one of about 100 to 400 billion stars that spin around Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black
hole that contains as much mass as four million suns.
Before the 20th century, we didn't know that galaxies other than the Milky Way existed; earlier
astronomers had classified them as as “nebulae,” since they looked like fuzzy clouds. But in the
1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that the Andromeda “nebula” was a galaxy in its own
right. Since it is so far from us, it takes light from Andromeda more than 2.5 million years to
bridge the gap. Despite the immense distance, Andromeda is the closest large galaxy to our
Milky Way, and it's bright enough in the night sky that it's visible to the naked eye in the
Northern Hemisphere.

There are three main theories :-

1. The Steady State Theory
2. The Big Bang Theory
3. The Pulsating Theory

The Steady Sate theory: It states that the counting of the galaxies in our Universe is constant
and new galaxies which are forming continuously are filling the empty spaces which are created
by those heavenly bodies which have crossed the boundary lines of observable Universe.

The Pulsating Theory: In this theory it is assumed that there is continuous expansion and
contraction in universe. A word which can replace the above definition is ‘Pulsating’.

Pulsating theory states that it is the possibility that after some passage of time the expansion in
the universe may stop. Then their may be the possibility of contraction. When this contraction
will approaches to a particular size. Again the explosion will take place. As a result of this
explosion the expansion of universe will start again.
Hence it results in a pulsating universe in which there is alternate expansion and contraction of
universe.

The Big Bang Theory: It states that all the matter of universe was present at a single place in the
form of hot and dense fire ball, having a high temperature of nearly 1012K. After the passage of
nearly 20 billion years an enormous explosion took place. All the matter which was
concentrated at one place scattered into space with rapid speed. This scattering was along all
directions. Then this scattered matter took the shapes of galaxies and stars.

According to Hubble’s, the velocity of light and the recession velocities of galaxies become
similar at a distance of 20 billion light years. So, it is sure that these heavenly bodies which are
present at a distance of more than 20 billion light years can never arrive near us. From the
above discussion an observable boundary of the universe is drawn.

If the recession will remain in continuity then large number of heavenly bodies will move away
from us. Hence as a result they will be lost one day. So, number of stars and galaxies will reduce
continuously and a day will come when we will be surprised to see our empty universe.