Archaean Earth. Illustration of the Earth as it may have been in the Archaean Eon (3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago) in its early history. At this time there was considerably more volcanic activity on Earth, its crust was beginning to cool and its heat f...

Archaean Earth. Illustration of the Earth as it may have been in the Archaean Eon (3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago) in its early history. At this time there was considerably more volcanic activity on Earth, its crust was beginning to cool and its heat f...

Animation of erupting volcanoes, lava flows and storms on the primordial Earth. The Moon is seen in the sky. At this early stage, the Moon was far closer to Earth than it is now. During the Archaean epoch of the Earth's past, between 2.5-4 billion ye...

Artwork of the early Moon seen from a young planet Earth. The scene depicts a time period a few hundred million years after the Moon first formed. It was much closer to the Earth then, and continues to move away at a rate of 2-3cm per year. The Earth...

An artwork of the early Earth around 3.8 billion years ago, when its oceans were forming. Both the Moon (right) and the Earth are heavily cratered. There are two possible sources for Earth's water: it may have separated out from the rocks shortly aft...

Illustration conceptualizing the formation of the Moon. The left side shows a collision between the early Earth and a smaller rocky protoplanet about the size of modern-day Mars. The right shows the Earth and Moon today....

... planetary systems. The research has shown that enrichment from these retired stars could be a more viable way of heating the early Earth. Illustration created for a press release by the University of Sheffield. ...