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A New Picture of the Early Earth

nytimes.com — Geologists now think the planet soon became a cool place of land, seas and perhaps even life. The first 700 million years of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year existence are known as the Hadean period, after Hades, or, to shed the ancient Greek name, Hell.

Who dugg this? Made popular Dec 2, 2008

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  • biocandy, on 12/02/2008, -2/+35Pics or it didn't happen - oh wait
  • liamvictor, on 12/02/2008, -2/+26reminds me of that artwork done with spray cans
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug3z46TR6z0
  • seantubridy, on 12/02/2008, -1/+25Early Earth looked like a bad airbrushed mural on the back window of a pickup truck. All that's missing is the wolf.
  • thegrantman, on 12/02/2008, -0/+16The Sun gained 30% strength in 4.2 billion years?
    I did not know that.
  • annjay, on 12/02/2008, -2/+14Beautiful
  • okyourturn, on 12/02/2008, -0/+12and a sorcerer.
  • Laodicean, on 12/02/2008, -2/+14The picture on the right needs a unicorn in it
  • okyourturn, on 12/02/2008, -0/+10And Christians explain the whole 4.5-billion-year thing how?
  • Jeffler, on 12/02/2008, -6/+16hai gaiz wan 2 trade erfs i liek dat 1 betta. i hurd dat it is so gorgeous, that it makes your troll internet user change his writings from webspeak to correct english!
  • okyourturn, on 12/02/2008, -0/+1050% believe that the world was created 6000 years ago? That's ***** scary.
  • maz2331, on 12/02/2008, -0/+9Yes - and it will grow even more over the next 4 - 5 billion years and grows to a size somewhere between the orbit of Venus and Mars.

    Being inside of the Sun itself - now there is some real global warming.

    All flippant comments aside, the Sun has increased output over time.
  • kvgirard, on 12/02/2008, -1/+9It drank sunny delight
  • DigSomeMore, on 12/02/2008, -1/+9Very cool, artistic renderings...
  • maz2331, on 12/02/2008, -0/+8No, not quite.

    I think Carlin put it best: "The planet is fine, the people are *****."
  • ashlocke, on 12/02/2008, -2/+9Wow, I didn't expect it to look that awesome when it was finished.
  • chuckDontSurf, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7And a scantily-clad chick with huge boobs.
  • ngmcs8203, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7Must be photoshopped if there's no Dinosaur Jesus.
  • seantubridy, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7...and a sorcerer, yeah.
  • scoottie, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7What about Middle Earth?
  • TSK05, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6"Yes - and it will grow even more over the next 4 - 5 billion years and grows to a size somewhere between the orbit of Venus and Mars."

    Not during its main sequence period (which would be like an age of 1 to 79 for humans assuming the average person dies at 80). It will grow to a size of somewhere between the orbit of Venus and Mars only when it becomes a red giant which is just before it becomes a white dwarf (the final state of the sun) - the final several hundred million years of its lifetime (quite short on a time scale of its life time, ~12 billion years).

    What I'm trying to say is that the sun growing to a size of "somewhere between the orbit of Venus and Mars" is not the result of the same process that causes it to increase in luminosity ("strength") now. Ok, well it is generally - fusion. But it becomes a red giant when the sun runs out of hydrogen to fuse, it increases in luminosity gradually during its life time for a different reason (I describe that in a post below).
  • extravagant, on 12/02/2008, -3/+9nice pics!
  • inactive, on 12/02/2008, -2/+8Yeah But I don't see a Burger King or Arby's in either pic so I think they are both Hell... I am just saying is all.
  • JYoungest1, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6Why are you guys burying him, I almost spit my beer out!










    /makes sure everyone knows hes drinking subtly
  • Transporter2000, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6or dolphins jumping over a rainbow...
  • TSK05, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6Check out this animation: http://janus.astro.umd.edu/astro/stars/SunsLife.ht ...

    (By the way, to be exact, it's not "strength", it's luminosity - that is, total power output in watts).
  • ClevelandBrown, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6You're a terrible painting.
  • nerdherder, on 12/02/2008, -1/+7That looks really amazing. I think it would have looked nicer without the arm-like things around it though.
  • TSK05, on 12/02/2008, -0/+6Follow up on above:

    The reason for this increase in luminosity is as follows: the sun (and all other stars) fuse hydrogen into helium at their cores (this is where they get their energy from, that is, their power output, ie their luminosity). Helium amount at the center increases gradually with life time (hydrogen there gets fused into helium). Helium does not fuse until a 100 million K (more than regular temperature at the core). This means that there are less reactions running at the center as the star continues its life. Because of this, the star contracts but because of that contraction temperature increases again (more pressure = higher temperature). Increase in temperature results in an increase in fusion reactions. The contraction overcompensates for decrease in fusion rates and the final result is that fusion rates increase more than they are decreased due to helium build up. More fusion = greater power output = greater luminosity.
  • smurfz, on 12/02/2008, -3/+8Wonderful pictures!
  • hooah212002, on 12/02/2008, -0/+5Don't forget the Virgin Mary.....
  • inactive, on 12/02/2008, -2/+7Gallup polls put that number at almost 50%, unfortunately.
  • fallingdamage, on 12/02/2008, -1/+6"It is commonly hypothesized that almost immediately, a Mars-size object about 4,000 miles wide hit it — a true cataclysm that vaporized much of the object and Earth. Some of the debris ejected into orbit became the Moon. The molten Earth cooled quickly, probably within a few million years"

    Interesting. Thats what the Sumerians believed.

    The firmament. Planet X passing between Neptune and Uranus (the greater and lesser waters) and hitting Uranus, breaking off a chunk of itself, the debris of which became the asteroid belt, and a larger piece that then hurled itself toward earth to create the moon and the oceans. (which might be explained by the horrible scarring one of Uranus' poles.)
  • mywhitenoise, on 12/02/2008, -0/+5totally looks like something you'd see at a novelty/hemp shop Downtown.
  • Gemfinder, on 12/02/2008, -0/+5By denying it.
    It's God testing your faith.

    Myself, I have faith in wolf-riding, unicorn-hunting sorcerers.
  • jblaze5779, on 12/02/2008, -1/+6Wow early earth looks just like my Lisa Frank folder from 1st grade!
  • saadkamal, on 12/02/2008, -3/+8pretty awesome
  • mnortei, on 12/02/2008, -0/+4and my axe
  • okyourturn, on 12/02/2008, -0/+4http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n53/laurita_221 ...
  • Jeffler, on 12/02/2008, -2/+6Only hard core fundines believe in that, I'd wager 95% of Chrstians outside of the US, and probably about 50 inside of the US agree with science but still believe in god (yes, that is possible)
  • RadiatedAnt, on 12/02/2008, -0/+4its been proven that you don't need any real art skill to make those 5 minute spray paints, I used to watch the bums near the bridge sell em for 5 bucks to the people that would get close enough to watch. I used to be impressed untill I saw that it wasn't all that it was cracked up to be :/ and that fire nonsense is just for show.
  • ChileanGoD, on 12/02/2008, -1/+5Is it me or the illustration on the right went a little too far into the epic artistic orgy?
  • ncapone, on 12/02/2008, -1/+4I wish I could see more paintings like those; I've always been curious how early Earth really looked.
  • WarnerK, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3He just learned that to legitimize getting high.
  • joand315, on 12/02/2008, -2/+5Fascinating article! Wow!
  • chuckDontSurf, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3"Early Earth" sounds like a Flanderism.
  • jeffkee, on 12/02/2008, -1/+4This is so sack religious, God created the earth and its life. It's definitely not something that took 4.2 Billion years, and there was no earlier life-form that survived it all. God created it, maybe not in 7 days, but certainly a much shorter time than that. A time when the sun's output was 30% lower? Come on. The Sun is constant.

    /s
  • skinturtle, on 12/02/2008, -2/+5Tomorrow they will take another wild guess.
  • RadiatedAnt, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3I must be hungry cause I was daydreaming pizza as soon as I read "the crust was too thin"
  • Rudegar, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3add a prancing unicorn in the one to the right and i saw a poster just like it back in the 80's
    had velour on it too
  • mhjeon, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3gorgeous
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