Sixth Grade
Worksheets
The Formation of the Earth
The Earth's solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago. It formed from a large cloud of gas and dust. Gravity caused these particles to collide and begin to clump together. The sun and planets began to form. Scientist think the sun, rocky planets, and the gas giants formed in different ways. This is how they believe Earth formed.
These collisions of gas and dust particles released a huge amount of heat energy. As the material built up on the surface of the forming planet, the heat was trapped. This raised the temperature of the underlying material. Gravity caused the mass of the overlying material to compress (squeeze together) the material on the interior. This caused more heating.
The layers of the Earth were formed by a process called differentiation. The denser materials sank toward the center. The lighter materials gathered toward the surface.
