Long before the formation of Earth, the universe was a vast expanse of liquid. Just one second after the Big Bang, it was filled with a sea of intense light and particles.
This primordial substance was a mix of quarks, the fundamental building blocks of matter, and gluons, massless particles that hold quarks together.
In the last two decades, scientists have successfully recreated this quark-gluon plasma and have been studying its remarkable properties.
Research indicates that the strong interactions between quarks and gluons cause this plasma to flow like water. This unique liquid, characterized by its low viscosity and minimal resistance to flow, diverges from any known substance in science.
As the universe continued to expand, this plasma cooled gradually, morphing into a hot, dense ionized gas that trapped and scattered light for the next 370,000 years.
Within this haze, the first elements began to form, primarily the lightest ones: hydrogen, helium, and lithium.
It would take another 10 billion years for what we recognize today as oceans to materialize. When Earth initially formed, its surface was too hot for liquid water to persist.
Scientists believe that between 4.4 and 3.8 billion years ago, water vapor in the atmosphere began to condense into rain.
Even at this early stage, surface temperatures remained well above the boiling point of water. However, high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) led to increasing atmospheric pressure, paving the way for the formation of Earth’s first oceans.
There is ongoing debate about the origins of Earth’s water.
One leading theory suggests that water was delivered to Earth by ice comets and asteroids, while other scientists propose that it evaporated from the rocks. It is likely that both mechanisms contributed to the emergence of Earth’s primordial oceans.
This article addresses the question posed by Roger Prasser via email: “What was the first ‘ocean’ actually like?”
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