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A series of four disks – illustrations of how Earth might have looked from afar at different epochs – starts on the right with a red and brown molten world just after formation, a cooling Earth with oceans and continents 4.3 billion years ago, a possibly green-tinged Earth inhabited by the earliest life 3.7 billion years ago, and Earth today, blue, green, and white, with oceans, continents, and ice caps.First disk:Earth FormsOur world accreted from a Sun-circling disk of gas and dust about 4.5 billion years ago – then collided with a Mars-sized body about 50 million years later, leading to formation of the Moon.Second disk:Earth CoolsThe surface cooled rapidly, achieving a hot but solid crust, with early oceans and impact basins filled with lava by about 4.3 billion years ago.Third disk:Life BeginsThe earliest life-forms might have appeared during the archean Era some 3.7 billion years ago – or even earlier. Oceans could have been tinged green by iron ions. Life-forms relying on oxygen, and an oxygenated atmosphere, did not arise until much later.Fourth disk:Earth TodayOur world of abundant life, with its oxygen-rich atmosphere, likely would be recognized as habitable from many light-years away. But the presence of oxygen might not have been detectable even as recently as 800-500 million years ago.

Evolving Earth

Our planet passed through stages to become a habitable world.

An illustration in a style similar to a National Parks poster shows a rocky shoreline in the foreground, an expanse of water lapping against it and, on the horizon, the cone of a volcano releasing a white cloud of gas against a sky with dusky light.

Ancient Earth Surface

Illustration of Earth's surface as it might have looked 3.8 billion years ago.

An infographic shows how a planet moving in front of a star in transit tells us different things as does the exoplanet traveling behind its star in an eclipse.

Exoplanet Eclipses and Transits for WASP-18 b

Scientists used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the exoplanet WASP-18 b and its star before, during and after…

WASP-18 b: Animation of an Exoplanet Eclipse

Researchers made a brightness map, tracing the glow from hot regions of WASP-18 b as it slipped behind, and reappeared…

An infographic headlined, Exoplanet WASP-18 b Atmospheric Spectrum and Detection of Water shows a plot of measured emission from the planet, with water molecules, labeled water features. The vertical axis is relative brightness and the horizontal axis is wavelength in microns and it runs from .8, 1.0, 1.4, 2.0, and 3.0. The plotted data points are higher at the far left, then drops to smaller peaks and dips along the plot.

WASP-18 b Atmospheric Spectrum from James Webb Space Telescope

The Webb Telescope directly observed water vapor on WASP-18 b, a gas giant exoplanet, in even relatively small amounts in an…

An illustration shows a yellow-orange exoplanet in a three-quarter view against the star-smattered black of space. The planet's gaseous atmosphere fades from a very bright dayside to a much dimmer nightside and there are subtle bands going north-south. It is at its brightest to the right of center.

WASP-18 b Illustration

WASP-18 b is a gas giant exoplanet 10 times more massive than Jupiter that orbits its star in just 23 hours.…

Video: O TRAPPIST-1, How Lovely Are Thy Planets

We've wanted to study the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope since its Christmas Day launch in 2021.…

An infographic is headlined, Chemical Reactions Caused by Starlight. It shows an illustration of the surface of a reddish exoplanet beneath its star. Light from the star shines into the chemical reaction portrayed in the graphic. Here, you can see molecules interacting and forming new compounds.Photons from WASP-39 b’s nearby star interact with abundant water molecules (H2O) in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.The water splits into hydrogen atoms (H) and hydroxide (OH).The molecules continue to interact in the atmosphere.Hydrogen sulfide reacts with hydrogen and hydroxide in a series of steps. The process strips hydrogen and adds oxygen, eventually producing sulfur dioxide.

Infographic: Chemical Reactions Caused by Starlight

Analysis of the exoplanet WASP-39b identified the sulfur dioxide. Its presence can only be explained by photocemistry.

stars

Exotic Automat Background

stars

Illustration showing a super-Earth, LP 890-9 c, in the foreground, its sister planet LP 890-9 b farther away, both orbiting a red-dwarf star.

Super-Earth LP 890-9 c illustration

Illustration of super-Earth LP 890-9 c