4.4 billion
The first oceans and possibly also continents form
4.3 billion
The oldest rock – including evidence of life, if any – forms
4.2 billion
Earth gets its first crust
4.1 billion
Intense asteroid bombardment begins
4 billion
Meteor shower melts Earth’s first crust
3.9 billion
The asteroid bombardment draws to a close
3.8 billion
Earth’s crust is regenerated, including new minerals
Imagine a sci-fi version of Romeo and Juliet. The star-crossed lovers live on nearby warring planets; they meet at an interplanetary peace conference and fall in love. But their families would never allow a union during such a time of war, and the unhappy couple are sent into exile in separate galaxies, light years apart. But Romeo and Juliet were both raised as physicists, and between them they find a wormhole that links the two galaxies.
Observed from the outside, each wormhole opening resembles a black hole, one in Romeo’s galaxy, the other in Juliet’s. When the young lovers each plunge into their respective black holes, their families think these star-crossed lovers have ended it all, as in Shakespeare’s original. But in this sci-fi remake, they might enjoy a happy ending. In the wormhole, extreme gravitational fields send Romeo and Juliet through the tunnel between the two openings, landing in each other’s arms at the centre to enjoy their love.
