A international group of scientists have proposed that humankind’s impact on the planet has been profound enough, with enough manmade materials deposited in the geological record, to re-define our current era as one shaped by humanity. The proposed name for this new epoch is "the Anthropocene".
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Scientists have discovered the oldest mineral ever found on Earth, provingthat the Earth had oceans and continents just 50 million years after a giantimpact melted the entire planet. An asteroid the size of Mars broke off apiece of the Earth that became the Moon over 4 ? billion years ago. The Moonmade higher forms of life possible on Earth, since its counter-rotationslows down the high-speed winds that would normally sweep along the surface.
Analysis of a tiny zircon crystal found in the ancient and remote hills ofWestern Australia shows that it is a little less than 4 ? billion years old,over 100 million years older than the next-oldest known fragment of Earth,and that it formed only about 50 million years after the asteroid hit.
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