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Why is Earth uniquely equipped to support life?
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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
- 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.
- 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.
- Is Earth Unique?
- The Right Size
- The Right Distance from Its Star
- The Right Star
- Liquid Water
- Abundance of Elements
- Rotation
- Tilted Axis
- A Large Moon
- The Right Atmosphere
By the time the first astronauts went into space, science had long established that the Earth is round. Yet, to them, looking back on their home planet from outer space must have been a marvelous sight nonetheless: the blue planet suspended in empty space! To some, Earth might simply be a pale blue dot in the vast cosmos (a term inspired by a pictu...
Any planet to host life must have an atmosphere. If the Earth was smaller it couldn't hold its atmosphere and life couldn't be sustained. Conversely, if our home planet would be significantly larger it would hold on to too much atmosphere. The thick atmosphere in turn would trap too much heat and the planet would become uninhabitable. Because of it...
To host life a planet must be located within the so-called habitable zone: i.e. be placed at the right distance from its home star, where liquid water can exist on the orbiting planet's surface. In our solar system, the habitable zone extends from about 0.9 to 1.5 astronomical units (1 AU being the average distance of the Earth from the Sun) with t...
By providing light and heat, solar energy is an indispensable ingredient for life. But for life to thrive, the planet-star relationship must be the perfect fit. If the sun was hotter, then the Earth would be uninhabitable. On the other hand, with a less warm sun, there would be no liquid water on the Earth's surface, an indispensable prerequisite f...
For life, water in liquid form is essential. Due to its very unique properties, it is the indispensable solvent for all forms of life as we know them. On a planetary scale, the right amount of water is also crucial: it has to be available in abundance, but not so much as to cover all the mountains and leave no land. Water is what lubricates plate t...
Three chemical elements (oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen) make up about 93% of the human body mass. Yet overall there are at least 29 elements that are essential for the human body to function properly. Though alien life need not necessarily be based on carbon molecules as are all forms of life on Earth (science fiction has long imagined alien worlds ...
The rotation of the Earth on its axis causes day and night cycles every 24 hours. If our planet did not rotate, one half would always be bright and warm, while the other would be dark and cold. Instead, as the Earth rotates, each area of its surface gets a turn to face and be warmed by the sun, which affects the weather, agriculture, food, and our ...
Many people believe that in the summer it is hotter because the Earth is closer to the Sun. But that is not the case. Actually, the Earth is closest to the Sun (perihelion) in early January when in the Northern Hemisphere it is winter, and farthest from the Sun (aphelion) at the beginning of July. The seasons instead are due to the Earth's tilted a...
Relatively to its size, the Earth has an exceptionally large natural satellite. This plays an important role in stabilizing our home planet's wobble on its rotation axis. In the absence of such a large moon, a wide range of the Earth's tilt would cause extreme climates: long daylight summers with searing heat and viciously cold perpetual winter mon...
In order to survive, organisms need an adequate atmosphere: not too thin and neither too thick, and of the right composition. Besides providing oxygen, the atmosphere protects life on earth by shielding it from incoming ultraviolet (UV) radiation that could otherwise damage our DNA. The Earth's atmosphere also helps regulate temperatures by prevent...
- 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”.
Apr 21, 2020 · Astrophysicist, Paul M. Sutter shares the reasons why Earth is the perfect planet for humans at Discovery.com.
Apr 17, 2018 · One of the best and most fun trends in conservation is using your observations and actions to help scientists better understand the planet. Citizen science collects data from individuals, and collectively that can track everything from changing migration patterns to declining species, and much more.
