On September 26, 2017 our class discussed the origin and evolution of the earth. The earth is very special because we have water, a habitable climate and complex life. Why does the earth have all these features? Why is there no life like ours found in our solar system? One might find microbial life; however, there is no complex life. According to the big bang theory, 14 billion year ago the universe expanded exploding rapidly at first and then slowed down. After 4 million years stars start to form; however, most of the universe is dark energy. Most of the energy is not atomic matter. 4% of the universe is made up of atoms. How did things like hydrogen and oxygen come to be? Clouds collapsing form these elements. Inside the stars things like hydrogen and helium are made. The sun was a cloud that stopped collapsing. In 10 billion years sun will burn out. If a star doesn’t burn for a long time there is no complex life. Red super giant stars are so big that when they collapse they make elements all at once because they are so hot. However, the stars stop at iron, because the other elements are to heavy. The heavier elements are made in process called neutron capture. When the super red giant collapses clouds of dust filled with elements. Everything in you was made inside of a star. We are all just made out of stardust. How do planets form from these big giant stars? How do you make a planet out of dust? The small particles stick to each other. Gravity isn’t strong enough at first to bring these particles together. Overtime the particles start to stick together. When there isn’t enough stickiness the particles bounce off of each other. How was planet earth formed? The earth is 4.6 billion years old. How was the moon formed? Why do we have the moon? Apparently a mars size planet whacked the earth. This collision caused material to splatter off. Mantle material creates the moon.Where did water on earth come from? The most likely theory is that the ocean came e out of the earth. Perhaps it was frozen? Or perhaps the earth sweats out the water. Although it seems like the earth has a ton of water, the water content of the earth is a tiny .02% of its mass. In bulk the earth is very dry. What about the earth’s atmosphere? How could it be that the atmosphere is at just the right temperature that water can condense out? What about plate tectonics? Why are there only plates on earth? We don’t know when plate tectonics started. It is magnificent miracle that the earth exists, that it has such complex life and it has all of these things that maintains complex life such as water and an atmosphere. One can try their best to discover how these things came about; however, the truth is that no one will ever know how all these things came about. It is magical, that’s for sure.