SMRTR Science & EngineeringSep 1, 2026Science News

The universe may have been building rocky planets almost from the start

SMRTR summary

Rocky planets may have begun forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang, far earlier than scientists believed. New computer simulations show that when the universe's first giant stars exploded, they created debris fields rich enough in iron, carbon, and oxygen to build Earth-sized planets, possibly with liquid water. These findings suggest habitable worlds could have existed billions of years before the first galaxies formed.

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