During the first 500 million years, our planet was hit by a rain of asteroids that melted the surface of Earth and boiled the oceans. A recent study by geologists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado shows that during the Hadean period, Earth was hit by lots of asteroids that created a volatile environment.
What Earth looked like during its first 500 million years is unknown as we have not found any rocks older than roughly 3.8 billion years, but scientists think our planet was constantly hit by a rain of asteroids that melted the surface and boiled the oceans.
A recent study by geologists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado has attempted to show what really happened during this volatile Hadean period as it is known.
The evidence of all the asteroid impacts was covered up over time by erosion and plate tectonics, so to study the conditions of early Earth, scientists looked to the moon.
They analyzed the frequency of different size craters on the surface of the moon to measure when asteroids of different shapes and sizes made impact. Using this information, they created a computer simulation of the size and frequency of asteroids that may have impacted early Earth including several more than 600 miles wide.
Doctor Simone Marchi of the Southwest Research Institute, who worked on the study is quoted as saying: “We found that the magma oceans were likely to be regional events, so at any given time there were some locations that were calm. That means liquid water could have existed in one place or another throughout the 500 million years of the Hadean period.”
Though it’s also possible that life existed at that time, it would have had to survive some harsh conditions.
