4.54 billion years
What was here before there was an Earth?
Earth ~4.54 Ga; solar-system solids ~4.567 Ga · The inner solar system · Scientific visualization
Scientific visualization / generated interpretation of a young Earth and Moon system. Not a spacecraft photograph.
First look
What was here before there was an Earth?
Wonder. Then look. This is not a test.
The solar system’s first solids are about 4.567 billion years old.
Earth grew by accretion after that. 4.54 billion years is the usual age we give the planet.
You are standing on the result.
Before there was an us, there was already a planet.
First look is enough. Keep looking is if you want more.
The planet now. The start of this story we cannot photograph.
Photograph
Real observation
Apollo 17, 1972. NASA. Public domain.
Drawing of then
Drawing. Not a photograph.
No camera was there. The age is from rocks and meteorites.
The fastest rewind
From now to Earth forming, then back. Human history is a blink. Microbial Earth is most of the book.
This is now.
Drawing. Not a photograph.
Keep looking
How would we know? Open only if you want the evidence.
Keep looking · Return
From here the whole story can run forward again. Microbes. Oxygen. Animals. Forests. Dinosaurs. Ice. Cities. You. The human story appears almost at the final moment.