Our Universe 3D Page #2

one big ocean of lava.

There was no solid crust, no land,

not even water,

just heat, lava and fire.

Comets kept crashing

into that brooding surface,

raising the temperature with every hit.

Eventually, the young planet suffered

a massive collision with something huge,

another planet in the making.

The impact was so severe,

it ripped off a part of the Earth's mantle.

The debris then formed a ring around Earth.

Again through the process of accretion,

this rubble formed the moon

over the course of millions of years.

Earth, on the other hand, was thrown into a

furious rotation by that horrendous impact.

It was spinning so fast,

a day lasted only six hours.

After hundreds of millions of years,

it gradually slowed down again.

Also, the contents of the sun's

protoplanetary disc were finally used up,

having formed the other planets and moons.

Accordingly,

the astral bombardment decreased,

so the surface could cool off.

This led to the formation

of a solid crust of stone.

Still, there were frequent

volcanic eruptions.

They spat out lava and gases,

and the Earth went through many changes.

Huge meteors of ice had

brought water from the depths of space,

which now filled the first oceans.

Over time, an atmosphere was formed.

Vaporised water condensed, and returned

to the surface in the form of rain.

A hydrological cycle was set in motion

and over subsequent millions of years,

evaporation and rainfall eroded

the rocky surface of Earth.

The Earth's first supercontinent broke apart

several times, and slowly,

land masses took the shapes

of the continents we know today.

So there it was, Earth as we know it today.

Along with its silent companion, the moon.

Being the closest astral body to Earth,

the moon has fuelled the imagination

of mankind for millennia.

The idea of aliens on the moon

has been communicated

through paintings, songs and literature.

Even some of the first silent movies

depicted life on the moon. But by the time

man first landed on the moon in 1969,

it was rightly

anticipated that the

astronauts would not

encounter any moonsfolk.

Still, the moon remains truly fascinating.

Earth's companion is the fifth largest moon

in our solar system.

It needs four weeks to

orbit once around Earth,

a fact that is mirrored

in our everyday language.

The word "month" is a derivative of "moon".

Through its gravitational pull,

the moon is responsible for the ebb and flow

of tides in our earthly oceans.

It even influences the navigation and

spawning behaviour of some species of fish

and insects down here.

As far as looks are concerned,

the moon remains a bit dull,

because it is completely

covered in grey dust.

The dust layer is produced

by meteor strikes.

Due to the lack of an atmosphere,

they crash onto the surface of the moon

without any damping,

and are pulverised in the process.

The "moon dust" produced this way

actually resembles sand.

Or, scientifically speaking, regolith.

Despite the lack of water up here,

we still group the moon's surface

into areas of "lands" and "seas".

This is due to the antiquated belief that

the dark areas on the moon contained water.

We now know that those "seas" are

in fact basins of solidified lava.

In the moon's early days,

its core was still molten.

Heavy asteroid hits broke through the crust,

and the impact craters

became filled with lava.

Interestingly enough, the moon is

still geologically active today.

In fact, moon-quakes occur

up to 10 times a day.

Most of these are moderate, but some

reach up to Level 5 on the Richter scale.

Fortunately, the rocks up here

don't seem to mind.

Even if the moon's landscape

is lacking variation,

we still have a great view from here.

Our blue mother planet

rises majestically and

you also get a perfect

view of the stars,

without an atmosphere

or light pollution hindering the outlook,

like it does from Earth.

For the same reason, scientists launched

gigantic telescopes into Earth's orbit.

They make a great addition

to deep-space exploration,

providing answers on the creation

of the universe itself.

Also, they capture stunning images

of stellar nebulae.

A great example is this shot

of the America Nebula

that shows the formation's resemblance

to the North American continent.

The cameras can also register light

that is invisible to human eyes.

In infrared view, for example,

this nebula looks entirely different,

but no less fascinating.

A totally different visual

experience is provided

by the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex,

which is the star factory closest to Earth.

The 300 suns we find here have

an average age of 300,000 years.

That really makes them babies,

from a star's point of view.

After all, the oldest discovered stars have

been around for over 12 billion years.

The Pleiades, also

known as the "Seven Sisters"

are also readily

visible from Earth.

That makes them the subject

of many old scriptures and legends.

These suns were created when dinosaurs

were still roaming the Earth,

about 100 million years ago.

Some experts believe

that our sun also was born

in a dense star-forming region

like the Pleiades,

and moved to its current position

over the course of millions of years.

All this information can be deduced

from today's opportunities to examine

the incredible clockwork that is space.

Early astronomers didn't have that luxury.

In the very beginning,

they had to use their naked eye

to make out the different stellar objects.

One of the brightest in the night sky

was Jupiter,

so the Romans named it after their main god.

As telescopes were invented and improved,

vision got clearer and clearer.

Today, especially thanks to human

space probes likeVoyager,

we have a very good understanding

of this largest planet in our solar system.

The Babylonians called Jupiter

the "King's Star",

and, indeed, it reigns

over its own little realm.

With its 63 moons, some even planet-sized,

it can almost be described

as its own solar system.

When we take a close look at the planet,

the first thing we notice are

the colourful cloud formations.

Jupiter is a gas giant,

meaning that it's almost exclusively

made of gas.

In 1995, the spacecraft Galileo launched

a probe into these clouds.

On the way down, it recorded violent wind

speeds, and a massively growing pressure.

After diving only 100 miles, the pressure

got high enough to crush the probe.

Further down,

there isn't much else to see anyway.

As the pressure gets higher and higher,

the atmospheric gasses are

liquefied without a visible transition.

This means that Jupiter doesn't even have

any defined surface we could land on.

A very distinctive external feature of

Jupiter's atmosphere is the "Big Red Spot",

a gigantic whirlwind with a fixed position.

Its diameter is three times that of Earth,

and it doesn't seem to run out of steam.

After all, its existence was

already recorded in 1664.

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