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Summary
"Birth of Planet Earth" explores the remarkable journey of our planet from its fiery beginnings in a turbulent solar system to becoming a haven for life. The documentary delves into the harsh conditions of early Earth, the influence of Jupiter's migration on solar system formation, and the monumental impact event that birthed the Moon. It highlights Earth's survival against cosmic odds, how life began and evolved, and the delicate balance maintained through its climate system. Engagingly narrated, the film poses questions about Earth's uniqueness among countless solar systems.
Highlights
A young, fiery solar system gave birth to worlds, including Earth, against overwhelming odds 🌟.
The collision with Theia not only changed Earth but led to the formation of the Moon 🚀.
Jupiter's gravitational influence prevented more Super Earths from forming in our solar system 🌌.
Photosynthesis marked a significant evolutionary advance, turning sunlight into life-sustaining energy ☀️.
The Moon plays a vital role by stabilizing Earth's tilt and climate over eons 🌕.
The documentary ends with a profound inquiry into Earth's place in the galaxy full of possibilities 🤔.
Key Takeaways
Earth's survival amid the chaos of a young solar system is nothing short of miraculous 🌌.
Jupiter played a crucial role in shaping our solar system by influencing planet formation 🪐.
Theia's collision with Earth was a pivotal event that led to the creation of the Moon 🌕.
Life's emergence might have stemmed from volcanic vents or hot springs, essential for photosynthesis 🌿.
Earth's magnetic field and life itself play key roles in maintaining the planet's habitable state 🌍.
The carbon cycle powered by life is vital to balance Earth's atmosphere and climate 🌏.
Overview
Imagine a young solar system bursting with fiery chaos, where worlds are born and obliterated. The documentary uncovers the fragile and wondrous journey of Earth, from swirling dust clouds in the Milky Way to the intricate dance of cosmic events that spared it from annihilation. From Jupiter's massive gravitational pull helping to sculpt our solar neighborhood to the dramatic Theia impact that forged the Moon, Earth's past is a testament to survival against cosmic odds.
Early Earth, tempestuous and volatile, now stood with newfound stability thanks to the Moon. Meanwhile, the surfacing of life and photosynthesis helped maintain a delicate atmospheric balance, safeguarding our planet from the harsh solar flares that ravaged neighbors like Venus and Mars. It's a tale of life conjuring energy from sunlight, breathing stability into our carbon cycle, and surviving natural cataclysms.
In a galaxy teeming with stars and potential planets, the film questions Earth's place in this vast universe. Is our planet's habitable allure a commonplace occurrence or an exceptional twist of cosmic fate? With breathtaking visuals and compelling narratives, "Birth of Planet Earth" encourages us to ponder Earth's singular nature amidst the infinite possibilities of the cosmos.
Birth of Planet Earth || 4k Transcription
00:00 - 00:30 (dramatic music) - [Narrator] In the fiery beginning of our young solar system, world's are born. And obliterated. (dramatic music) Gas giants stir chaos and a young Sun vents its rage.
00:30 - 01:00 (dramatic music) How did Earth survive against all odds? (dramatic music)
01:00 - 01:30 Gazing down from space we marvel at Earth's bountiful oceans, its continents, and
life giving atmosphere. We ask how did our planet begin? How did it come support life? And life to support Earth? (intense music)
01:30 - 02:00 The story of Earth starts within a giant spiral galaxy, the Milky Way. At 100,000 light years across
the galaxy is a cauldron of swirling dust clouds and glowing gas. (intense music)
02:00 - 02:30 This simulated view shows
a 50 million year span, a cosmological blink of an eye. (intense music) In that time millions of stars die in powerful explosions called supernovae, shown here as flashes of light.
02:30 - 03:00 (intense music) They seed the cosmos with
the stuff of planets. Carbon, silicon, iron and more. (intense music)
03:00 - 03:30 One explosion has packed
enough punch to send a nearby cloud of stardust into collapse. (intense music)
03:30 - 04:00 Huge volumes of dust and
gas stream into its core. (intense music) This cloud is about as
cold the universe gets. But the tighter it's packed
the more it heats up. (intense music)
04:00 - 04:30 A storm erupts at its center, a vast raging hurricane of
dust, gas and ice crystals. (intense music) In its eye temperatures soar, a star ignites and our Sun is born. (intense music) The Sun is being fed by
a slowly spinning disk.
04:30 - 05:00 The cradle of our solar system. Within the disk planets take shape in a long violent process. It starts with dust gathering
into sand-like grains. (intense music)
05:00 - 05:30 They form pebble sized objects within clouds of loose gravel. (intense music) Over millions of years gravity draws them together to form rocks,
ice balls and boulders.
05:30 - 06:00 (intense music) These objects coalesce
into miniature planets, or planetesimals. One such body, the primordial Earth, is growing steadily, but it's
fate hangs in the balance. (intense music)
06:00 - 06:30 We once thought that planet formation followed a predictable pattern. Our planetary neighbors bear this out with their nearly circular orbits. And the neat division between
gaseous outer planets. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus.
06:30 - 07:00 And Neptune. And rocky inner planets. Mercury. Venus. Earth. And Mars. This division originates
soon after a star ignites. The young Sun produces
hot winds that drive lighter hydrogen gas to
the outer part of the disk.
07:00 - 07:30 Beyond a point called the
ice line large gas planets grow quickly by sweeping up
gas pushed out by the Sun. The dusty inner region,
devoid of gas and ice, is where rocky worlds like Earth form. This is not necessarily how
most solar systems end up.
07:30 - 08:00 (intense music) A new generation planet finding telescopes has found that gas planets
the size of our Neptune commonly patrol the inner zones. (intense music) Jupiter sized giants
have been found orbiting so close to the star
that hot stellar winds are stripping them of gas.
08:00 - 08:30 (intense music) Then there's a class of large rocky planets called Super Earths. How did those planets get there? Why did our own inner
planet stay so small? Much of what we know
about the formation of our
08:30 - 09:00 solar system comes from
asteroids that haven't changed since they formed
almost 5 billion years ago. Most are so small that they simply burn up in our atmosphere. (intense music) A few larger ones survive the fall. Scientists have been able to
dig these planetary shards by measuring molecular
variations called isotopes,
09:00 - 09:30 in particular metals. They appear to come from two
distinct asteroid populations that formed in the inner
and the outer solar system. Something must have driven
a wedge between these two regions, preventing
the objects from mixing. (intense music) If this great divider
was the young Jupiter it had to have grown quickly.
09:30 - 10:00 It would have cut off the flow of matter into the inner solar system,
staling the formation of large rocky planets, or Super Earths. Jupiter would then play
a central role in one of the most impactful chapters in the history of our solar system. (intense music)
10:00 - 10:30 Scientists have used
super computers to model Jupiter's rise by
simulating the interaction of dust, gas, ice and boulders
in the early solar system Each flash marks a collision. Each ring tracks the orbit
of a would be planet. (intense music)
10:30 - 11:00 Giant Jupiter forms on the periphery, its orbit shown in blue. (intense music) As it grows Jupiter succumbs to the gravitational pull of
the inner solar system. It begins to spiral toward the Sun. (intense music)
11:00 - 11:30 Scientists call Jupiter's
big move the grand tack, named for the term a
sailboat takes into the wind. (intense music) Along the way Jupiter plows
through clouds of cosmic debris. (intense music)
11:30 - 12:00 What it doesn't swallow it
flings out of the solar system. (intense music) The closer Jupiter draws toward the Sun the more cosmic
clutter it clears away. (intense music) The simulation tracks Jupiter all the way into the orbit
of present day Mars.
12:00 - 12:30 (intense music) Jupiter's grand tack has further reduced the mass of
the inner solar system. Now any planet's that form
there will be relatively small. (intense music) In time another giant planet, Saturn,
12:30 - 13:00 grows large enough to
pull Jupiter back out. (intense music)
13:00 - 13:30 Earth, at that time, would have been an embryo of the planet it
would one day become. (intense music) With Jupiter's departure, Earth and a few dozen hungry competitors are free to scour the inner
solar system for scraps. (intense music)
13:30 - 14:00 Which ones will survive depends on the luck of the cosmic draw. (intense music) Over the 50 million years
since Jupiter departed the inner solar system the roller
derby of planets goes wild.
14:00 - 14:30 (intense music) As the remaining planets
tug on one another their orbits destabilize. Collisions between them are inevitable. (intense music)
14:30 - 15:00 What's left is a handful
of would be worlds, including the planets we know today, and at least one other. (intense music) Its existence was deduced in
the wake of one of the most celebrated milestones in the
history of human exploration. (dramatic music)
15:00 - 15:30 On July the 16th, 1969
Apollo 11 blasts off. (dramatic music)
15:30 - 16:00 In 13 launches the US
heavy lift launch vehicle, the mighty Saturn 5 rocket, never failed to safely
deliver its payload. (dramatic music) Six times in the four
years from 1969 to 1972
16:00 - 16:30 Apollo space craft drifted down
over a pocked lunar surface. (soft music) 12 astronauts climbed out to experience the Moon up close. They set up experiments. Made measurements. And collected rocks as they walked,
16:30 - 17:00 or drove across the alien terrain. (intense music) The world cheered as the
astronauts returned to Earth. Their exploits symbolized
a spirit of optimism.
17:00 - 17:30 A bright ray of hope in a troubled time. They were the first, and so far the last, humans to travel beyond
Earth and land another world. (soft music) Few suspected at the time
that the rocks they brought back to Earth would spur a
chain of major discoveries
17:30 - 18:00 about the Moon and Earth. Back in NASA labs scientists
found that rocks from the Moon have much in common with those from Earth. In particular they share
forms of oxygen regarded as blood types for solar system bodies. (soft music) The two bodies share a
common and violent history.
18:00 - 18:30 That history is written
across the lunar surface. The Moon is pocked with large old craters, surrounded by concentric rings. You can see them in this
image of the Mare Orientale
18:30 - 19:00 captured recently by NASA's
lunar reconnaissance orbiter. The rings suggest that a giant impacter came down on a roiling,
red hot liquid surface, sending ripples outward. (soft music) The astronauts encountered
relatively light rocks strewn about the landing sites, probably forced to the
surface by heavier material
19:00 - 19:30 as it sunk down into the magma. They also picked up rocks
eventually nicknamed creep, for the constituents potassium, rare Earth elements and phosphorus. These rocks of a type called Anorthosite are a product of a molten surface. What had turned the Moon
into an ocean of molten rock? And what is the connection to Earth?
19:30 - 20:00 The most widely accepted
theory takes us back to a time four and a
half billion years ago. (intense music) At this time Earth may harbor
volcanoes on its surface, with a thin toxic atmosphere. (intense music)
20:00 - 20:30 Our planet has sofar withstood the on slot of planet formation. It now awaits the test of its life. (intense music) Another planet, about half
its size, is closing in. This is Theia, a world
have might have been.
20:30 - 21:00 Instead its journey ends here
as it bears down on Earth. (intense music) Imagine the view from
Earth as the ultimate
21:00 - 21:30 threat looms large on the horizon. (intense music) Theia rocks Earth to the core. (intense music)
21:30 - 22:00 The impact sheers away
a third of our planet but instead of destroying
Earth, Theia becomes part of it. A computer simulation
captures the first 24 hours. Debris unleashed by the
collision envelopes Earth in a dense atmosphere of vaporized rock.
22:00 - 22:30 The cloud coalesces into a
ring, a belt of molten rubble. (intense music) Much of the orbiting debris
rains back to the surface, but within a century
what's left gathers into
22:30 - 23:00 a single wondrous body,
Earth's companion, the Moon. (thoughtful music)
23:00 - 23:30 After the impact our planet
is left spinning rapidly, on a slightly tilted axis. (thoughtful music)
23:30 - 24:00 The Moon orbits much closer
to Earth than it does today, for its surface our world
would have filled the sky. (thoughtful music) As the Moon gradually slips
into a more distant orbit its exerts a drag on Earth,
that slows our planet's spin, and steadies its tilt. (thoughtful music)
24:00 - 24:30 The Moon serves as a
reminder of the cataclysm that almost spelled the end of our planet. (thoughtful music) But from here on it would
be a welcome constant, a source of stability, and ultimately, beauty.
24:30 - 25:00 (thoughtful music) But the violence was by no means over. Unlike Earth, where erosion
and geological events have erased all traces
of the distant past, the Moon holds a record of
the battering that followed.
25:00 - 25:30 The myriad craters that
line the lunar surface tell of time up to 4 billion years ago, when Jupiter and Saturn hurled a barrage of objects toward the inner solar system. A recent study draws on
the sizes and number of lunar craters to model the
impacts endured by Earth.
25:30 - 26:00 At least four impacts would
have been large enough to remake the surface of our planet and to radically alter
the course of its history. (intense music) Smashing into a crust rich
in radioactive uranium and potassium, they tore these elements from the planet and sent them into space. (intense music)
26:00 - 26:30 This process, called impact erosion, left a crust that would cool more quickly when the impacts finally died down. Less disruptive impacts
are thought to have carried in massive amounts of water, or released water bound to
minerals deep below the surface. (thoughtful music)
26:30 - 27:00 Half a billion years after
the birth of the Moon, Earth has become a world of water. It seas span every horizon,
broken only by volcanic islands. (waves rumble)
27:00 - 27:30 The Moon, still in close orbit, whips up tides that lash
rocky volcanic shores. (thoughtful music) Earth's atmosphere is a mix of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide,
laced with water vapor.
27:30 - 28:00 Land and sea are rich with chemicals, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron and more, that came with the damn
of the solar system. (thoughtful music) The Earth has what it needs to
accomplish its ultimate feat, to nurture life. But there's a problem.
28:00 - 28:30 (thoughtful music) Its water is slowly disappearing. (intense music) The young Sun, while
dimmer than it is today, is prone to powerful flares. (intense music)
28:30 - 29:00 They strike the Earth's upper atmosphere. When a solar particle hits
a water molecule, H2O, it can blast it apart. Lightweight hydrogen wafts into space, while heavier oxygen sinks to the surface and binds with rocks. (thoughtful music) We now know what a devastating
effect this can have.
29:00 - 29:30 Spacecraft observations
show that Mars, long ago, harbored ample stores of water. (thoughtful music) Its surface is etched
by the meandering paths of ancient rivers and lined with sediments laid down on
lake and ocean beds.
29:30 - 30:00 Mars today is a lifeless
world, graced with a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere, there
is little or no water left. (thoughtful music) Using special sensors orbiting
spacecraft have documented the ongoing loss of water
in Mars's upper atmosphere, stripped by solar radiation. (thoughtful music)
30:00 - 30:30 Scientists have observed
this same process of work on Earth's sister planet, Venus. (intense music) The result, Venus's atmosphere
today is a witch's brew
30:30 - 31:00 of noxious chemicals, including
thick sulfurous clouds. (intense music) Down at the surface Venus's
atmosphere is choked with high concentrations
of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas
that traps the Sun's heat.
31:00 - 31:30 (intense music) CO2 has turned Venus into a cauldron. With surface temperatures of
almost 500 degrees Celsius, Venus is the hottest
planet in the solar system. (intense music)
31:30 - 32:00 This hostile environment is
reinforced by active volcanoes that dot its surface, spewing
sulfur and carbon dioxide. (intense music)
32:00 - 32:30 How did Earth avoid such a grim fate? For one, our planet
has a protective shield that both Venus and Mars lack. (intense music)
32:30 - 33:00 It's a magnetic field
that deflects the most powerful waves of radiation
the Sun can throw at us. Generated by the exchange
of heat between Earth's core and its crust, this magnetic
field is a legacy of rapid surface cooling early
in the planet's history. It's just our first line of defense.
33:00 - 33:30 (volcano rumbles) Another line of defense began
to simmer away across the surface of our planet as
early as 4 billion years ago. Life. (soft music)
33:30 - 34:00 Long standing theories see life's crucible in the stirrings of
undersea volcanic vents. Heat and chemical reactions
over long periods of time produced proteins and nucleic
acids, the chemistry of life. (soft music)
34:00 - 34:30 More recent ideas point to
hot springs and other volcanic features that dotted the
land masses of early Earth. (soft music) No one knows exactly how or where
34:30 - 35:00 life gained its first foothold. (soft music) What we know is that it did emerge and that it spread thanks
to a key breakthrough, the ability to turn sunlight into energy. (soft music)
35:00 - 35:30 Photosynthesis, the process
that fuels plant life, made its first appearance in simple bacteria over 3 billion years ago. (soft music) Using one of the world's
most powerful super computers scientists have sought to
model its chemical secrets.
35:30 - 36:00 (soft music) Step one is to capture sunlight. Passing through a transparent
membrane to the center of the bacteria we encounter
a cluster of spherical pods.
36:00 - 36:30 Each one is equipped with special sensors designed to harvest solar energy. When a photon hits it excites rings of chlorophyll molecules. (soft music) This energy is transferred
across a family of proteins, the machines of life.
36:30 - 37:00 (soft music) Down the line electrons and protons carry the energy through a chain
of chemical reactions. (soft music) The energy driving these
reactions came from the Sun. The cell must now convert it into action.
37:00 - 37:30 It's the energy stored in
protons that gets things moving. (soft music) Streaming into watery
spaces within the cell they flow toward a towering
molecular structure. As they enter their electrical charges turn a protein like a crank.
37:30 - 38:00 This turning motion initiates
a chemical reaction, one that is essential
to all life on Earth. Two molecules join to
form a third called ATP, shown in in blue. It is the universal energy currency in every cell that has ever lived.
38:00 - 38:30 Like a biological battery
ATP stores energy captured from the Sun, repackaged
in a stable form that the cell can now use to break down food, to power locomotion, to
fuel reproduction, to live. (soft music) ATP made it possible for microorganisms
38:30 - 39:00 to flourish and evolve. (soft music) As bacteria gave rise to plants, a more advanced form of
photosynthesis released a byproduct. Oxygen. (soft music)
39:00 - 39:30 This new supply of free
oxygen surpassed the amount absorbed by the
land and the oceans. In the atmosphere it bound with hydrogen, preventing its escape into space while forming a new molecule of water. (soft music) This process would gradually stem the loss of Earth's oceans,
though not completely.
39:30 - 40:00 A recent study concluded
that our planet has still lost up to 25% of its
original stores of water. (soft music) Across the surface of our
planet water began to work in tandem with life, the Sun and geology to power a remarkable planetary engine.
40:00 - 40:30 The climate. (soft music) The climate is driven in part by the unevenness of solar heating due to the cycles of day and night, and the seasons. (soft music)
40:30 - 41:00 These factors moderate
global temperatures, sending warm tropical
winds toward the poles and cold polar air toward the equator. (soft music) Tides and currents mix cold water from the deep with the warm surface. Solar energy is trapped in
the atmosphere by water vapor,
41:00 - 41:30 along with carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that ruined Venus. What keeps CO2 in check is the special ingredient that
sets Earth apart, life. (soft music) The oceans are chalk full of it. (soft music) Microscopic phytoplankton take in CO2
41:30 - 42:00 driven into the ocean by waves or drawn up from the deep by currents. (soft music) They send the carbon atoms on
a journey up the food chain. Phytoplankton get eaten by zooplankton, like these Radiolarians,
a creature that dates back to a time over 500 million years ago, when life exploded across Earth's oceans.
42:00 - 42:30 Moving up in scale Copepods
are tiny bug like crustaceans, and the single largest
source of protein in the sea. Octopus larvae are part of
a vast zoo of creatures, smaller than the tip of your finger. (soft music)
42:30 - 43:00 They get eaten by small fish and they in turn by larger creatures. (soft music) At each step in the food chain the carbon that began as part of
a diffused gas in the air is passed onto larger
and larger animals. The larger the body, the
greater the mass of carbon.
43:00 - 43:30 (soft music) From whales down to tiny phytoplankton, marine life is part of a
global system of removing CO2 from the atmosphere then
gradually releasing it back.
43:30 - 44:00 (intense music) The key to this carbon cycle is Earth's ability to store it long term. (intense music) A NASA satellite is tuned
to read chlorophyll, a chemical tracer for plant growth. In sync with the seasons
plants take in vast amounts of carbon dioxide while releasing
the oxygen we breathe.
44:00 - 44:30 On land carbon finds
its way into the ground when plants and animals die and decay. The Earth too gets into the act. (intense music) Exposed rocks take in CO2 when it rains, erosion sends it into the oceans.
44:30 - 45:00 (intense music) If it becomes part of
the marine food chain carbon rich matter can sink all the way to the sea bottom
in the form of waste. (intense music) In time carbon rich
sediments can turn to oil, or to rock, like limestone. Carbon can return to
the environment if rocks
45:00 - 45:30 become exposed or if the
Earth begins to erupt. (intense music) Every year over 100 million
tons of carbon dioxide are spewed into the oceans
and atmosphere by volcanoes. (soft music)
45:30 - 46:00 Acting on time scales of
a day to millions of years the carbon cycle has helped
to make our planet habitable. Its success depends on life itself. (soft music) Earth today, endowed with
ocean, atmosphere and land.
46:00 - 46:30 With light and warmth. With life that's bountiful and in balance. (soft music) As we study the intricacies
of what makes our planet tick we marvel at what it
took to achieve all that. (intense music)
46:30 - 47:00 The aftershocks of supernova. (intense music) The violence of Jupiter. (intense music) A chance collision.
47:00 - 47:30 (intense music) And the gift of a moon. (intense music) Of water and life. (intense music)
47:30 - 48:00 The more we're able to
reconstruct our planet's past the more singular it seems. That is until we realize how many other solar systems are out there. (intense music) We ask, is Earth just one of countless habitable worlds in a
galaxy bursting with life? Or is it a wondrous twist of fate?
48:00 - 48:30 A remarkable convergence of
chemistry, energy and chance? Our planet became a paradise, but is it the only one? (intense music)