The sun and the earth have a long association and are found within a solar system of celestial bodies that may have originated together. A cloud of interstellar gas (solar nebula) was disturbed and collapsed. It heated up and vaporized dust, the center compressed, forming a protostar. The dust in the nebula was gradually concentrated into larger bodies (asteroids and planets) and the sun intensified.
Meteorite impacts on earth can be described as events that recall the early history of the solar system, as planets swept their orbits clean by collecting meteorites. The Sudbury impact happened 1.8 by ago and produced a profound global change on earth. In the Hadean period of Earth’s first 0.5 by, such impacts were common.
Map is from Cannon et al (2009).
Total solar eclipse, July 11, 1991, showing the sun’s corona.
Copyright: Steve Albers NASA
