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Why Was the Earth So Hot?

Why Was the Earth So Hot?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.94

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    radioactive, silica, further, contraction, radioactivity, thermal, atmosphere, shortly, billion, gravity, meteor, environment, material, hostile, diameter, earth

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Why Was the Earth So Hot?
By Patti Hutchison 		  
1     The earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago. It looked very different than it does today. There was no land. There were no oceans. There was no atmosphere. Life did not exist.
 
2     Scientists believe the earth was very hot shortly after it formed. It was a mixture of molten minerals and elements. What caused the earth to be so hot? There were likely three sources of heat.
 
3     The first source of heat was asteroids and meteorites. Asteroids are made of either metal or silica. They can range from one kilometer to almost one thousand kilometers in diameter. These asteroids collided with the earth, giving off heat.

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