Ancient Earth Surface

An illustration in a style similar to a National Parks poster shows a rocky shoreline in the foreground, an expanse of water lapping against it and, on the horizon, the cone of a volcano releasing a white cloud of gas against a sky with dusky light.
June 13, 2023
CreditIllustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lizbeth B. De La Torre
Language
  • english

Earth's surface is show in this illustration as it might have looked 3.8 billion years ago, perhaps when life was just beginning. A better understanding of how life might have arisen elsewhere in the cosmos requires a deep dive into our own origins: how life might have started on Earth.