Earth

Most of the atoms that make up the Earth and its inhabitants were present in their current form in the nebula that collapsed out of a molecular cloud to form the Solar System. The rest are the result of radioactive decay, and their relative proportion can be used to determine the age of the Earth through radiometric dating.^[126][127] Most of the helium in the crust of the Earth (about 99% of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a product of alpha decay.^[128]

There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not "primordial"), nor are results of radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is continuously generated by cosmic rays in the atmosphere.^[129] Some atoms on Earth have been artificially generated either deliberately or as by-products of nuclear reactors or explosions.^[130][131] Of the transuranic elements—those with atomic numbers greater than 92—only plutonium and neptunium occur naturally on Earth.^[132][133] Transuranic elements have radioactive lifetimes shorter than the current age of the Earth^[134] and thus identifiable quantities of these elements have long since decayed, with the exception of traces of plutonium-244 possibly deposited by cosmic dust.^[126] Natural deposits of plutonium and neptunium are produced by neutron capture in uranium ore.^[135]

The Earth contains approximately 1.33 × 10⁵⁰ atoms.^[136] In the planet's atmosphere, small numbers of independent atoms of noble gases exist, such as argon and neon. The remaining 99% of the atmosphere is bound in the form of molecules, including carbon dioxide and diatomic oxygen and nitrogen. At the surface of the Earth, atoms combine to form various compounds, including water, salt, silicates and oxides. Atoms can also combine to create materials that do not consist of discrete molecules, including crystals and liquid or solid metals.^[137][138] This atomic matter forms networked arrangements that lack the particular type of small-scale interrupted order associated with molecular matter.^[139]