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Hello there! My name is Earth 

and I'm going to tell you a story 

about how I got here. It's a very 

fun story about different planets 

and stars and how all of this 

matter floating in space came 

together to make our solar 

system.

Let's start from the beginning.

Everything started with 

a small, infinitely dense, 

ball of energy. This took 

place at an estimated 

date of 13.7 billion years 

ago.

This ball of energy expanded in 

every direction, making the 

universe we know today.

After the big bang, pure energy turned into 

matter and began to start the chain 

reaction that would make everything that 

we see around us.  

After all the commotion and 

confusion in the many years after 

the big bang, stars began to form. 

Those stars would explode and 

make the different elements that 

make up the planets in our solar 

system.

Now that I told you about the big 

bang, let me tell you the theory 

about how our solar system was 

made. 

It is estimated that our solar system began 4.6 

billion years ago. Scientists believe that our solar 

system was created after our sun formed, and the 

excess gas and matter that was left started to swirl 

around the sun and make planets. A theory suggest 

that a trigger, such as a shock wave from a super 

nova explosion, started a chain reaction that would 

begin the formation of our sun and the swirling of 

the matter in our solar system. The swirling matter 

would then create the planets we know and love.

The star in the middle of our solar system is called 

the sun. All other planets in our solar system orbit 

it. The sun is made of hot plasma which is the 

nuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. Our sun 

was made when hot gases at the center of a 

molecular cloud started to pull towards each 

other with the forces of gravity. The sun has 5 

layers and it has a magnetic field. 

The four inner planets all formed 

around the same time out of rocky 

matter that was as hot as 2000K, 

while in the outer solar system, it 

was a cool as 50K.   Only matter 

with a very high melting point 

would have remained solid in the 

inner solar system. The rest would 

have vaporized. The outer planets 

are made up of light gases and 

liquids that are in a gaseous state. 

This is Mercury, it is the closest planet to the sun 

and the smallest planet in our solar system. Mercury 

has a large iron core and a small upper mantel. Its 

atmosphere is made up of atoms that are blasted 

off the surface by solar wind from the sun. 

Scientists think the reason why Mercury doesn't 

have any more layers is because they were stripped 

away by a collision with another planet or not 

allowed to form because of how close it is to the 

sun.

The next planet in our solar system is named Venus. 

Venus is close in size to me and has an iron core. It has 

a thick atmosphere that   is 90 times as dense as my 

atmosphere. Venus is the hottest planet with a surface 

temperature that is 752F. Venus has lots of volcanoes 

that allow it to keep its atmosphere even though it's so 

close to the sun.

Next up is me. I am Earth. I'm the third planet from 

the sun and the densest of the four inner rocky 

planets. I am 1AU from the sun and I am the only 

known planet to have life. I formed about 4.5 billion 

years ago and life appeared on my surface about 1 

billion years after my formation. 

I have several tectonic plates and 

I am the only known planet to 

have tectonic movement. My 

diverse biosphere makes many 

forms of life possible and I will be 

a habitable for what scientists 

believe to be the next 500 million 

years to 2.5 billion years. The 

formation of my moon is still 

debated. One widely accepted 

idea is that a planet 1/10th the 

size of me collided with me and 

shot matter into space that turned 

into my moon.

Up next, we have my good friend Mars. Mars also goes 

by the name "the red planet" because of the red color 

is has from iron oxide, rust, on its surface. Mars has 

two moons that orbit it and icy poles that were believed 

to harbor simple lifeforms once. Mars's core is no 

longer molten, like mine, which means it has no 

magnetic field to protect is from the solar wind, which 

can strip a planet of its atmosphere.

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