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- Water. "First, you'd need some kind of liquid, any place where molecules can go react," Seager told OurAmazingPlanet. In such a soup, the ingredients for life as we know it, such as DNA and proteins, can swim around and interact with each other to carry out the reactions needed for life to happen.
- Energy. Second, life needs energy. Without energy, virtually nothing would happen. The most obvious source of energy is a planet or moon's host star, as is the case on Earth, where sunlight drives photosynthesis in plants.
- Time. Scientists have argued that habitable worlds need stars that can live at least several billion years, long enough for life to evolve, as was the case on Earth.
- Recycling. Other researchers have suggested that plate tectonics is vital for a world to host life — that is, a planet whose shell is broken up into plates that constantly move around.
Apr 21, 2020 · 1. We can take deep, cleansing breaths. Known as the Red Planet because of the rust particles in its soil that give it a reddish hue, Mars has always fascinated the human mind. What would it be like to live on this not-so-distant world, many have wondered? One day, astronauts will find out.
- William Steigerwald
- Reuben Westmaas
- The moon: The Earth has a slight tilt and teeters like a top as it spins, which can cause drastic shifts in climate over the course of thousands of years.
- Stable rotation: There's no reason to think that a planet without a stable rotation would be completely inhabitable (actually, some people think such "eyeball planets" could be our best bet for aliens), but the regularity and frequency of day and night on this planet go far to prevent extreme temperatures and encourage life.
- A magnetic field: Our planet is blessed with a strong, stable magnetic field, which staves off the cosmic rays and solar flares that would otherwise fry the planet every now and then.
- Dynamic geology: The cloud of gas and dust that eventually coalesced into the Earth contained enough radioactive elements to keep the core of the planet churning merrily for billions of years.
- Namesake. The name Earth is at least 1,000 years old. All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. However, the name Earth is a Germanic word, which simply means “the ground.”
- Potential for Life. Earth has a very hospitable temperature and mix of chemicals that have made life abundant here. Most notably, Earth is unique in that most of our planet is covered in liquid water, since the temperature allows liquid water to exist for extended periods of time.
- Size and Distance. With an equatorial diameter of 7926 miles (12,760 kilometers), Earth is the biggest of the terrestrial planets and the fifth largest planet in our solar system.
- Orbit and Rotation. As Earth orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 23.9 hours. It takes 365.25 days to complete one trip around the Sun. That extra quarter of a day presents a challenge to our calendar system, which counts one year as 365 days.
- The Milky Way galaxy is suitable for life. In the grand tapestry of the cosmos, the Milky Way stands out as an ideal host for life. Nestled in its sparsely populated outskirts, Earth is shielded from the universe’s more volatile regions.
- The Solar System’s location in the Milky Way galaxy is a safe place. Fortunately for us, we live in the “boring” suburbs of the Milky Way. Our Solar System‘s location in the Milky Way offers a unique shield against cosmic hazards.
- Our Sun is a stable, long-lasting, and metal-rich star. At the heart of Earth’s ability to sustain life is our Sun, a star remarkable for its stability, longevity, and rich metallicity.
- The Earth is just at the right distance from the Sun. Earth’s life-sustaining features owe much to its ideal distance from the Sun, residing in what’s known as the “Habitable Zone” or “Goldilocks Zone”.
Earth is the only planet that has a single moon. Our Moon is the brightest and most familiar object in the night sky. In many ways, the Moon is responsible for making Earth such a great home. It stabilizes our planet's wobble, which has made the climate less variable over thousands of years.
Dec 8, 2023 · This article covers the following 11 reasons that Earth alone, among all known planets, is uniquely equipped to support life: Earth is the right size. Earth is the right distance from its star. The sun is the right star for Earth. Earth has liquid water.
