Birth of the Earth

2004, Science  -  60 min Leave a Comment
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Our Earth was spinning very fast when it was spit out of the Sun as a molten glob four and one half billion years ago in the initial explosion.

Venus was spinning in an opposite direction when it was spit out and is still doing the same.

The Earth settled down in a very fortunate orbit for the existence of life. At 93 million miles distance from the Sun it receives just about the right amount of radiant energy.

Its spinning has gradually slowed down over these billion of years and is now settled into a comfortable 24 hour rotation at the present time.

It will be millions of years in the future before it slows to a complete halt as our less massive moon has already.

In the days of the dinosaurs when the Earth was spinning faster, the days/night cycles were shorter.

Going back a couple of billion years further, at one time the Earth was spinning so fast that it may have had a ring around it, similar to Saturn.

The Earth was much more oblate at that time, the oceans were more concentrated around the equatorial zones, with much more shallow ocean depths at the poles.

The oceans are still deeper at the equator then they are at the poles and the Earth is still slightly oblate.

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