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וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה But the earth was The creation of the world was a process rather than a sudden appearing full blown out of nowhere. When with nouns the conjunction is said to be disjuctive. Verse two describes the imperfect condition, ever so much chaos, that the particles were in. For this reason, the waw is perhaps better translated "but". As much as anything else in creation week, the earth had to be formed into a functioning body. As God superintended creation, he seems to have gathered everything into one place. But without a miracle, nothing but scattered quarks littered space with too far apart to interact.  So was the young universe "on its own". The earth is passively defined with the verb הָיָה , in its usual sense of being or existing. Grammatically it is in the "Qal Perfect"--the simple past in most cases. Chaos was everywhere.

הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם The Heavens The first thing God created was what we now call space. The collective name in Hebrew is Ha Shamayim , as in the heading. Dual in form, for the single form  Shamah never being used, is apparently from an old root meaning "to be aloft". However, God names the so-called expanse by this name, so it is to 1:9 that one must go for a definition. Working from the specific to the general, and taking the name as synonymous with the thing named, the expanse ( רָקִיעַ) , that is stretched out fabric of space is the same a s heaven, or the heavens. Usage determines the translation of שָּׁמַ֖יִם. Often it is localized, sometimes it is global, but most often the space occupied by heavenly and spiritual beings. The ancient readers may have expected a tiny unseen world smaller than dust, but the Bible does not reveal anything along those lines. However, they understood that the heavens extended far above the mountaintops. ...

אֵ֥ת Action!! Throughout the Old Testament an untranslated word stands as a messenger and a mediator between the verb and and the direct object. This word is oddly spelled with the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is transliterated "AT", reminding the reader that it is pointing at something. In creation, God is not passive. In fact the natural laws have no creative ability whatsoever. The universe would not exist without the work of the one who is the first and the last, the author and finisher of the faith. The aleph-tau is the equivalent of alpha-omega in the Greek alphabet. It is another way to say our creator is in control.