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ORIGIN OF EARTH-EARLY THEORIES

The origin of the earth refers to the formation of the planet earth when due to the collapse due to gravity.

The formation of the earth and the other planets of the solar system happened due to the collapse of gravity. It is considered that approximately 4.63 billion years ago the solar system was just a gaseous cloud and dust, it was known as “Nebula”. In this topic, the early theories regarding the origin of earth have been discussed. The “Gaseous Hypothesis of Kant” and “Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace” are going to be discussed here. The “Planetesimal hypothesis of Chamberlin ” is also going to be elaborated in this context. At last, a few FAQs will be discussed for better analysis. 

The early theories of the origin of the earth

The “early theories of the origin of the Earth” explain how the earth was formed. In early theories, many researchers provided their thesis regarding the origin of the earth. There are famous seven early theories of the origin of the earth are “Gaseous Hypothesis of Kant”, “Jean and Jeffery’s Tidal or gravitational theory”, “The Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace”, “Hoyle’s Supernova Hypothesis”, “Schmidt’s Interstellar Hypothesis”, “The Planetesimal Hypothesis of Chamberlin” and “Hoyle’s supernova hypothesis”. The early theories provided basic knowledge about the origin of the earth but are also followed by much criticism. According to different early theories, after the collapse of Gravity the matter started to spin. The centre of the spinning matters is considered as the sun as a centre and the other matters are considered as planets, satellites, meteors and other heavenly bodies. The small particles bounded with gravity with each other and started to move in different particular directions. These directions are considered as the orbit of the different heavenly bodies. 

The gaseous hypothesis of Kant

“Immanuel Kant” was a German philosopher who proposed a self-researched theory of the origin of the earth in the year 1755. The thesis of Kant was mainly based on Newton’s Law of Gravity”. According to the beliefs of Kent the substances were distributed initially and they were made up of solid particles that are cold and unmoving. The particles clashed with each other due to the collapse of the gravity and produced heat and Angular momentum to the objects and they began to spin. After that it evolved into a hot nebula and began rotating of a centre object as a result the strong centrifugal force was generated that produces the rings of matter, after cooling these rings they became planets and satellites. There are a few criticisms in the hypothesis of Kant; it did not mention the source of energy that was the cause of the motion of the heavenly matters. 

 

Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace

The famous mathematician Laplace revised the theory of Kant in 1976. The Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace was introduced for the correction of Kant’s thesis. The Laplace theory says that a solar nebula was situated around the sun and it was made up of mainly Hydrogen, and Helium as well as dust. Laplace said that the development of the disk-shaped clouds was caused by the impact and friction of the heavenly particles.  According to Laplace the formation of the planets are associated with the newly born star the sun and the accretion process of the heavenly particles. Kant’s theory, the “Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace” also has some criticism. In the thesis of Laplace, the origin of the nebula was not explained; the source of the nebula could not be determined by this hypothesis. This thesis is also unable to explain the primary source of the head and motion of the nebula.

Planetesimal Hypothesis of Chamberlin 

The planetesimal hypothesis of Chamberlin is also known as the “Binary theory of Chamberlin”. This theory was given by Chamberlin and Moulton in the year 1900. The theory is that another wandering star came and collided with the sun. After the collision, as per result a Cigar shaped extension formed from the heavenly material and the solar surface got separated from that cigar-shaped extension. The sun projected a hot material called the “Prominences” which is very high in temperature. The particles of these materials started to spin and coalesced and formed the planets. In this process, a huge amount of heat was produced. Moreover, the separated materials slowly cooled down. After cooling down the materials started to condense and formed the planets. The passing star moved away and the sun continued to spin on its own axis. The binary theory fails to explain why only nine planets were formed during the collision of these stars.

Conclusion

The above topic was discussed on the topic of early theories regarding the origin of the earth. The formation of the solar system and its planets consisting of other heavenly bodies was discussed here. The “Gaseous hypothesis of Kant” and “Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace” have also been explained. The “Planetesimal hypothesis of Chamberlin” has also been discussed with their criticisms. At last, a few FAQs have been discussed for the detailed analysis of these theories.