Delivering ingredients to Earth

Our Solar System condensed from a cloud of gas and dust over 4.6 billion years ago. As the newborn planets settled in their orbits, gravitational perturbations are thought to have disrupted swarms of comets into the inner Solar System, impacting the rocky planets. As well as inheriting ingredients during the planet-forming process itself, comets are also believed to have delivered some of the basic ingredients for life to Earth, leading to life as we know it today.