Paper 57 Overview: The Origin of Urantia

This paper presents a comprehensive chronology of Urantia's astronomical and geological evolution, beginning with the formation of the Andronover nebula nearly one trillion years ago. It meticulously traces the developmental stages of this nebula through its primary, secondary, tertiary, and quartan epochs, culminating in the birth of our sun approximately six billion years ago as one of over one million suns originating from this single nebular formation. The narrative details how our solar system's planets were created through the gravitational interaction between our sun and the passing Angona system about 4.5 billion years ago—an unusual planetary origin occurring in less than one percent of Orvonton's planetary systems.

The paper further chronicles Urantia's subsequent physical development: the cooling and stabilization of its crust, the formation of the primitive atmosphere, the emergence of the first continent, and the creation of the world ocean, essential preconditions for the eventual implantation of life. This meticulously documented history not only places Urantia's formation within the broader context of universe administration but also establishes the precise sequence of physical developments that prepared the planet for life. From the volcanic activity that dominated the early planetary environment to the crustal stabilization that allowed for continental formation, the narrative provides a revelatory account of Urantia's physical preparation for its role as a life-experiment world, culminating in its official registration in the universe records approximately one billion years ago.

In presenting excerpts from the archives of Jerusem for the records of Urantia respecting its antecedents and early history, we are directed to reckon time in terms of current usage—the present leap-year calendar of 365¼ days to the year. As a rule, no attempt will be made to give exact years, though they are of record. We will use the nearest whole numbers as the better method of presenting these historic facts.

When referring to an event as of one or two millions of years ago, we intend to date such an occurrence back that number of years from the early decades of the twentieth century of the Christian era. We will thus depict these far-distant events as occurring in even periods of thousands, millions, and billions of years.

Urantia is of origin in your sun, and your sun is one of the multifarious offspring of the Andronover nebula, which was onetime organized as a component part of the physical power and material matter of the local universe of Nebadon. This great nebula itself took origin in the universal force-charge of space in the superuniverse of Orvonton, long, long ago. At the time of the beginning of this recital, the Primary Master Force Organizers of Paradise had long been in full control of the space-energies which were later organized as the Andronover nebula.

Precise cosmic chronology places the initiation of the Andronover nebula at approximately 987 billion years ago, when associate force organizer and acting inspector number 811,307 of the Orvonton series, traveling out from Uversa, reported to the Ancients of Days that space conditions were favorable for materialization phenomena in a specific sector of the easterly segment of Orvonton. Subsequently, 900 billion years ago, the Uversa archives record the issuance of a permit by the Uversa Council of Equilibrium authorizing the superuniverse government to dispatch a force organizer and staff to the designated region. About 875 billion years ago, the enormous Andronover nebula number 876,926 was duly initiated. Once the force organizer and liaison staff initiated the energy whirl, they simply withdrew at right angles to the plane of the revolutionary disk, and from that point forward, the inherent qualities of energy ensured the progressive and orderly evolution of this new physical system.

All evolutionary material creations are born of circular and gaseous nebulae, and all such primary nebulae are circular throughout the early part of their gaseous existence. As they grow older, they usually become spiral, and when their function of sun formation has run its course, they often terminate as clusters of stars or as enormous suns surrounded by a varying number of planets, satellites, and smaller groups of matter in many ways resembling your own diminutive solar system.

Eight hundred billion years ago, the Andronover creation was well established as one of the magnificent primary nebulae of Orvonton, attracting little attention from astronomers of nearby universes who merely observed space materializations occurring in the Andronover regions. By 700 billion years ago, the system had assumed gigantic proportions, necessitating the dispatch of additional physical controllers to nine surrounding material creations to support and supply co-operation to the power centers of this new and rapidly evolving material system. At this distant date, all of the material bequeathed to subsequent creations was held within the confines of this gigantic space wheel, which continued to whirl and, after reaching its maximum diameter, to whirl faster and faster as it continued to condense and contract. Six hundred billion years ago marked the height of the Andronover energy-mobilization period, when the nebula had acquired its maximum mass and existed as a gigantic circular gas cloud in the shape of a flattened spheroid. This early period was characterized by differential mass formation and varying revolutionary velocity, with gravity and other influences beginning their work of converting space gases into organized matter.

The enormous nebula now began gradually to assume the spiral form and to become clearly visible to the astronomers of even distant universes. This metamorphosis follows the natural history of most nebulae; before they begin to throw off suns and start upon the work of universe building, these secondary space nebulae are usually observed as spiral phenomena. The near-by star students of that faraway era, as they observed this metamorphosis of the Andronover nebula, saw exactly what twentieth-century astronomers see when they turn their telescopes spaceward and view the present-age spiral nebulae of adjacent outer space.

As the nebula attained maximum mass, its gaseous content began to weaken under gravity control, initiating the stage of gas escapement, wherein gas streamed forth as two gigantic and distinct arms from opposite sides of the mother mass. The rapid revolutions of this enormous central core soon imparted a spiral appearance to these projecting gas streams, while cooling and condensation of portions of these arms eventually produced their knotted appearance. These denser portions constituted vast systems and subsystems of physical matter whirling through space in the midst of the gaseous cloud of the nebula, held securely within the gravity grasp of the mother wheel. However, the nebula had begun to contract, and the increase in the rate of revolution further lessened gravity control, leading to the actual escape of the outer gaseous regions from the immediate embrace of the nebular nucleus. These gaseous regions passed out into space on circuits of irregular outline, returning to the nuclear regions to complete their circuits, a temporary stage of nebular progression soon superseded by the era of sun dispersion as the critical centrifugal stage was reached.

The primary stage of a nebula is circular; the secondary, spiral; the tertiary stage is that of the first sun dispersion, while the quartan embraces the second and last cycle of sun dispersion, with the mother nucleus ending either as a globular cluster or as a solitary sun functioning as the center of a terminal solar system. This evolutionary progression demarcates the distinct phases of Andronover's stellar contributions to the universe of Nebadon.

Seventy-five billion years ago, the Andronover nebula had reached the height of its sun-family stage, marking the apex of the first period of sun losses. The majority of these suns have since possessed themselves of extensive systems of planets, satellites, dark islands, comets, meteors, and cosmic dust clouds. By 50 billion years ago, this first period of sun dispersion was completed, with the nebula fast finishing its tertiary cycle of existence, during which it gave origin to 876,926 sun systems. Twenty-five billion years ago witnessed the completion of the tertiary cycle of nebular life, bringing about the organization and relative stabilization of the far-flung starry systems derived from this parent nebula, though the process of physical contraction and increased heat production continued in the central mass of the nebular remnant.

The quartan cycle of Andronover began 10 billion years ago when the maximum of nuclear-mass temperature had been attained and the critical point of condensation was approaching. The original mother nucleus was convulsing under the combined pressure of its own internal-heat condensation tension and the increasing gravity-tidal pull of the surrounding swarm of liberated sun systems. Eight billion years ago, the terrific terminal eruption began, initiating a period of nearly two billion years during which the final sun disgorgement occurred. Seven billion years ago marked the height of the Andronover terminal breakup, and 6 billion years ago witnessed the end of the terminal breakup and the birth of your sun, the fifty-sixth from the last of the Andronover second solar family. This final eruption of the nebular nucleus gave birth to 136,702 suns, most of them solitary orbs. The total number of suns and sun systems having origin in the Andronover nebula was 1,013,628, with your sun assigned the catalog number of 1,013,572.

Five billion years ago, your sun was a comparatively isolated blazing orb, having gathered to itself most of the near-by circulating matter of space, remnants of the recent upheaval which attended its own birth. Today, your sun has achieved relative stability, but its eleven and one-half year sunspot cycles betray that it was a variable star in its youth. In the early days of your sun, the continued contraction and consequent gradual increase of temperature initiated tremendous convulsions on its surface, with these titanic heaves requiring three and one-half days to complete a cycle of varying brightness—a variable state that rendered your sun highly responsive to certain outside influences soon to be encountered.

The stage of local space was thus set for the unique origin of Monmatia, the name of your sun's planetary family, the solar system to which your world belongs. Less than one percent of the planetary systems of Orvonton have had a similar origin. About 4.5 billion years ago, the enormous Angona system began its approach to the neighborhood of this solitary sun. The center of this great system was a dark giant of space, solid, highly charged, and possessing tremendous gravity pull. As Angona drew nearer, at moments of maximum solar expansion during pulsations, streams of gaseous material were shot into space as gigantic solar tongues. Initially, these flaming gas tongues would invariably fall back into the sun, but as Angona approached, the gravity pull of the gigantic visitor became so great that these tongues would break off at certain points, the roots falling back into the sun while the outer sections became detached to form independent bodies of matter, solar meteorites, which immediately started to revolve about the sun in elliptical orbits of their own.

Subsequent to the birth of the solar system, a period of diminishing solar disgorgement ensued. For another 500,000 years, the sun continued to pour forth diminishing volumes of matter into surrounding space. But during these early times of erratic orbits, when the surrounding bodies made their nearest approach to the sun, the solar parent was able to recapture a large portion of this meteoric material, a natural process that contributed to the stabilization of the solar system.

The gravitational influence of the planets nearest the sun played a crucial role in the early development of the solar system. These planets were the first to have their revolutions slowed down by tidal friction, a process that not only contributes to the stabilization of planetary orbits but also acts as a brake on the rate of planetary-axial revolution. This gravitational effect explains why Mercury and the moon always turn the same face toward their primary bodies.

Similarly, when the tidal frictions of the moon and the earth become equalized in the far-distant future, the earth will always turn the same hemisphere toward the moon, with the day and month becoming analogous in length—approximately forty-seven days.

By 4 billion years ago, the Jupiter and Saturn systems were organized much as observed today, though their moons continued to increase in size for several billion years. By 3.5 billion years ago, the condensation nucleuses of the other ten planets were well formed, and by 3 billion years ago, the solar system was functioning much as it does today, with its members continuing to grow through the capture of meteors.

Throughout these early times, the space regions of the solar system were swarming with small disruptive and condensation bodies. In the absence of a protective combustion atmosphere, these space bodies crashed directly on the surface of Urantia, keeping it more or less heated. This constant bombardment, together with the increased action of gravity as the sphere grew larger, began to set in operation those influences which gradually caused the heavier elements, such as iron, to settle more and more toward the center of the planet.

Two billion years ago, the earth began decidedly to gain on the moon, always having been larger than its satellite but with the difference in size increasing as enormous space bodies were captured by the earth. By this time, Urantia was about one-fifth its present size and had become large enough to hold the primitive atmosphere that had begun to appear as a result of the internal elemental contest between the heated interior and the cooling crust. Definite volcanic action dates from these times, with the internal heat of the earth continuing to be augmented by the deeper burial of the radioactive or heavier elements brought in from space by the meteors.

The study of these radioactive materials reveals that Urantia is more than one billion years old on its surface, though this estimate is too short because the radioactive materials accessible for study represent Urantia's relatively recent acquisitions of these elements. By 1.5 billion years ago, the earth had reached two-thirds its present size, while the moon was nearing its current mass. Earth's rapid gain over the moon in size enabled it to begin the slow theft of what little atmosphere the moon originally possessed.

One billion years ago marks the actual beginning of Urantia history, as the planet had attained approximately its present size and was placed on the physical registries of Nebadon and given its name, Urantia. The atmosphere, together with incessant moisture precipitation, facilitated the cooling of the earth's crust. Volcanic action early equalized internal-heat pressure and crustal contraction, and as volcanoes rapidly decreased, earthquakes made their appearance as this epoch of crustal cooling and adjustment progressed.

The real geologic history of Urantia begins with the cooling of the earth's crust sufficiently to cause the formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete, resulting in a world-wide ocean covering the entire planet to an average depth of over one mile. The tides functioned much as observed today, but this primitive ocean was not salty, consisting of practically fresh water. During this era, most of the chlorine was combined with various metals, though there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to render this water faintly acid.

At the opening of this distant era, Urantia should be envisaged as a water-bound planet. Later, deeper and hence denser lava flows emerged upon the bottom of the present Pacific Ocean, causing this part of the water-covered surface to become considerably depressed. The first continental land mass emerged from the world ocean in compensatory adjustment of the equilibrium of the gradually thickening earth's crust, setting the stage for the planetary physical developments that would eventually prepare the world for the support of life.