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-------------------- 2486 - EARTH - Third Rock from the Sun
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- Of the 4 rocky planets in our Solar System Earth is by far the most dynamic. It may surprise you to learn that Earth has everything going on to constantly change our environment. We are used to the 4 seasons and things being peaceful ,serene, and repetitive.
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- This is definitely not true in the bigger scheme of things. Constant change has meant constant adaptation and could be one of the reasons life has evolved on Earth. Especially, intelligent life.
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- We have tectonic plates shifting the land and the ocean floors. We have a large magnetic field charging and discharging for the Solar Wind. We have a tilted axis that wobbles. We have an orbit the wobbles to putting us above and below the galactic plane during our 250,000,000 year orbit around the galaxy. We have a large Moon that tugs on us. We have water currents and air currents in constant convection moving temperature and energy around the planet.
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- The dynamics were much worse in the beginning, so you could say things have calmed down. 4,600,000,000 years ago Earth was a bunch of dust circling a new star. The dust all eventually merged into spherical balls due to electrostatic, magnetic, nuclear and gravity forces. The dust balls got bigger and the biggest in our orbit was Earth.
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- It took millions of years, and millions of orbits to clean out all the other dust balls and rocks that were in our orbit with us. This was a period of significant bombardment from asteroids. The biggest asteroid that smashed into Earth splashed enough Earth crust into orbit to form our Moon which is ¼ the size of Earth.
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- More bombardment came from comets in the outer solar system that were pulled in by the Sun’s gravity. These were giant, dusty snowballs that were likely responsible for bringing the oceans of water to our planet.
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- The Sun was much hotter in the beginning and most likely all of Earth’s intrinsic water had evaporated before the comets came. The Moon has lost most of its water due to its weaker gravity and no atmosphere. Some remains as water ice.
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- The Earth was fortunate to be able to have the conditions needed to retain its water. In fact, water likely covered the entire Earth. The continents later rose out of the oceans with the plate tectonics. The spinning Earth had to rebalance itself and with the water for lubrication the continents shifted around and piled up on each other.
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- Earth is still cooling off to this day. Our plate tectonics, volcanoes, and earthquakes are essential to the Earth releasing its internal heat. If these changes were not going on Earth would heat up like a pressure cooker and molten Earth would turn itself inside out to release the heat. Venus is doing this exact thing every 500,000,000 years because is solid molten and has no plate tectonics.
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- Earth has a solid core surrounded by molten iron. The rotating charged particles in the iron crate a dynamo that generates a large magnetic field surrounding the Earth. This magnetic field protects the Earth and its atmosphere from the constant bombardment of the Solar Wind and Cosmic Rays.
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- The Earth rotates on tilts axis at a tilt of 23.4 degrees, varying from 21.5 to 24.5 degrees over time. When the Earth is closest to the Sun in its elliptical orbit the northern hemisphere is actually pointed away from the Sun. The Earth’s axis of rotation points north but it too is rotating. Today the Earth’s axis points to the North Star, Polaris but it will point to other stars in its 10,000 year precession.
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- When the North Pole is tilted closest to the Sun we get 6.8% more light energy. When we are closer to the Sun due to our elliptical orbit we get another 6.8% more light energy. If all these variables add up at the same time the Earth receives 20% more light energy.
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- The Sun’s energy itself is changing in its light energy. It has several cycles of its own that you can learn about in Review 383 “Could Our Sun Be a Variable Star?” . Today we are considered to be in a normal warming trend. Global warming is claimed to be exacerbating this warming trend with human burning of fossil fuels and putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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- Our weather and ocean currents are caused by the uneven and cyclical heating and cooling of our planet. Wind and water are constantly trying to balance the temperatures moving hot to cold in a multitude of directions.
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- The Earth’s rotation adds more to this mixing of convection currents as they move around the globe. Life on Earth has had to adapt to all of these changes in its evolution:
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------------ 4,600 million years ago the planet formed
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------------ 4,000 million years ago single cell life appeared. It relied on methane for energy and oxygen was toxic to these cells.
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------------ 3,000 million years ago photosynthesis start to use carbon dioxide for fuel and to produce oxygen as waste. The oxygen killed off all the methane cells. Bacteria spread everywhere. Plants spread through out the oceans, mostly blue-green algae.
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------------ 600 million years ago animal life oxygen breathers appeared.
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------------ 500 million years ago fish appeared.
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------------ 400 million years ago insects appeared.
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------------ 200 million years ago mammals appeared.
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------------ 2 million years ago humans appeared.
------------ 50 million years from now the Sun will begin expanding as a Red Dwarf star. Its increased heat will begin evaporating our oceans. The increased water vapor in our atmosphere will cause a thermal runaway until all the oceans are evaporated. Plate tectonics will stop because there is no water to lubricate them. Volcanism will stop. Internal heat will build up and the Earth will turn its molten self inside out.
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------------ 4,600 million years from now the Red Dwarf radiation will blast away our atmosphere. The Earth will orbit the Sun as a burned cinder. The Sun will become a white dwarf. And, microbes could still be living inside the Earth.
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- Other reviews on this subject:
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- 382 “Could Our Sun Be a Variable Star?”
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- 381“ Our Closest Star”
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- 533 “ Why the Sun will become a White Dwarf”
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- November 16, 2019 2486 829
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--- to: ------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------ “Jim Detrick” -----------
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--------------------- Saturday, November 16, 2019 --------------------
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