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The name Earth is at least 1,000 years old. All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. However, the name Earth is a Germanic word, which simply means “the ground.”
A leading hypothesis is that it was formed by accretion from material loosed from Earth after a Mars-sized object with about 10% of Earth's mass, named Theia, collided with Earth. [39] It hit Earth with a glancing blow and some of its mass merged with Earth.
Pangea, supercontinent that incorporated almost all of Earth’s landmasses in early geologic time. Fully assembled by the Early Permian Epoch (some 299 million to about 273 million years ago), it began to break apart about 200 million years ago, eventually forming the modern continents and the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Greeks and Romans named most of the planets in the Solar System after particular gods, and we have kept those names in English. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, all unknown in classical times, were named by the modern astronomers who discovered them, but still after Greek and Roman gods.
- Origin of the Universe. The universe appears to have an infinite number of galaxies and solar systems and our solar system occupies a small section of this vast entirety.
- Origin of the Solar System: The Nebular Hypothesis. Our solar system formed as the same time as our Sun as described in the nebular hypothesis. The nebular hypothesis is the idea that a spinning cloud of dust made of mostly light elements, called a nebula, flattened into a protoplanetary disk, and became a solar system consisting of a star with orbiting planets.
- Hadean Eon. Geoscientists use the geological time scale to assign relative age names to events and rocks, separating major events in Earth’s history based on significant changes as recorded in rocks and fossils.
- Proterozoic Eon. The Proterozoic Eon, meaning “earlier life,” comes after the Archean Eon and ranges from 2.5 billion to 541 million years old. During this time, most of the central parts of the continents had formed and plate tectonic processes had started.
Jun 2, 2024 · Earth gets its name from old English and German words for ground. The name “Earth” is unique among the planets in our solar system. Unlike the other planets named after Roman or Greek gods and goddesses, Earth’s name has a more terrestrial and ancient origin.
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3 days ago · Humans first witnessed Earth as a complete orb floating in the inky blackness of space in December 1968 when Apollo 8 carried astronauts around the Moon.
