Paper
Formation of the Earth
Published May 1, 1990 · G. Wetherill
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences
303
Citations
14
Influential Citations
Abstract
The origin of the earth is discussed in the context of the formation of the sun and the planets, and a standard model for such a formation assuming gravitational instability in a dense interstellar molecular cloud is outlined, along with the most significant variant of the model in which the loss of the nebular gas occurred after the formation of the earth. The formation of the sun and solar nebulae is addressed, and the coagulation of grains and the formation of small planetesimals are covered, along with the gravitational accumulation of planetesimals into planetary embryos and final stages of accumulation - embryos of planets. It is pointed out that the final stage of accumulation consists of the collision of these embryos; because of their large size, particularly after their further growth, these collisions represent giant impacts. It is concluded that the earth was initially an extremely hot and melted planet, surrounded by a fragile atmosphere and subject to violent impacts by bodies of the size of Ceres and even the moon.
Highly CitedThe Earth was initially an extremely hot and melted planet, surrounded by a fragile atmosphere and subject to violent impacts by bodies the size of Ceres and even the moon.
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