How do scientists know how old Earth is? Learn how experts have measured Earth's age, and why it is more difficult to pinpoint an exact date.

Water is at the center of one of the enduring questions about how life first formed on Earthr. More specifically, where did the very first water molecules form, and how? In 2020, researchers at ...

Over 4.6 billion years ago, Earth took shape from a spinning cloud of dust and gas surrounding the young sun. Tiny particles within this cloud collided and clumped together, driven by gravity and ...

The moon is unlike anything else in the solar system. So how did our planet end up with such a special moon?

Researchers may have finally cracked the age-old mystery about the origins of Earth's water, and the answer might be related ...

The discovery that helium and iron can mix at the temperatures and pressures found at the center of Earth could settle a long-standing debate over how our planet formed.

How did Earth, alone among the solar system's rocky planets, become the home for life? How, among all this frigid lifelessness, did our planet become warm, hospitable, and life-sustaining? The ...

Earth is so far the only known planet on which life exists—with liquid water and a stable atmosphere. However, the conditions were not conducive to life when it formed. The gas-dust cloud from which ...