"About 4.6 billion years ago, a great swirl of gas and dust some 24 billion kilometres across accumulated in a space where we are now and began to aggregate. Virtually all of it—99.9 percent of the mass of the solar system—went to make the sun. Out of the floating material that was left over, two microscopic grains floated close enough togeether to be joined by electrostatic forces. This was the moment of the conception of our planet."

Bryson, Bill (2005) A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition. Random House, New York.