Description:

9.01 tEarth Formation and Evolution D. J. Stevenson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. , 9.01.1, Introduction, 1, 9.01.1.1, How Should We Think of Earth and Earth Evolution?, 1, 9.01.1.2, History and Themes, 2, 9.01.2, Physical and Chemical Constraints, 4, 9.01.2.1, Important Ideas, 4, 9.01.2.2, Some Useful Estimates, 5, 9.01.3, Commentary on Formation Models, 8, 9.01.4, Commentary on Early Evolution Models, 9, 9.01.5, Outstanding Questions, 10, References, 11, , 9.01.1 Introduction 9.01.1.1 How Should We Think of Earth and Earth Evolution? Evolutionary science is for the most part based on observation and indirect inference. It is not experimental science, even though experiments can certainly play a role in our understanding of processes. We can never hope to have the resources to build our own planet and observe how it evolves; we cannot even hope (at least in the foreseeable future) to observe an ensemble of Earth-like pla