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Name:  Ashley
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999


Question:
How did the Earth appear in the sky?


Replies:
Ashley-

If you mean, how did the earth form, the answer is gravitational attraction. Many years ago--about 4.6 billion years ago, in fact-- particles and dust in the solar system accumulated together to form the earth, the sun, and the other planets. The reason that the particles and dust accumulated together is their gravitational attraction for each other.

Normally, when we think of gravity, we think of objects being attracted to the earth. The gravitational attraction of the earth is the most obvious because the earth is the heaviest object around, and therefore has the greatest gravitational attraction. But even small objects have some attraction for each other. Before the earth, the sun, or the other planets existed, there were only small particles in the solar system. These small particles attracted each other until larger objects started to be formed. As more and more material accumulated, these larger objects developed into the sun and the planets, including the earth.

-Grant



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