The missing 500 million: Cosmic bombardment melted Earth's first crust

According to Ars Technica, research suggests Earth's earliest crust melted from a combination of forces previously underestimated. During the Hadean eon—roughly four-point-five billion years ago—the young planet was bombarded by a relentless storm of cosmic debris and asteroids. Scientists now believe these impacts contributed far more heat to the crust than previously thought, not just the radioactive energy from Earth's interior. The finding rewrites how we understand the planet's first solid surface forming.

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