Earth is Unique, but is it Really One of a Kind?
Earth is such a beautiful planet. With all of its’ oceans, plants, animals and land. The variety of life on Earth is what makes it so special. Actually, the fact that Earth has life at all already makes it unique! Earth is the only known planet that can support life (for now at least). Astronomers have been studying deep space looking for another planet with any life at all, but the technology isn’t advanced enough to know whether or not they have found one in their many candidates! Although there are people who disagree, there is evidence that shows there must be another planet like Earth in our universe, or at least another planet with life.
One of the reasons that this Earth-like planet is hard to find is the time delay between what we see from Earth and when things actually happen in deep space. In Bauman’s article after explaining how a Utah astronomer watched a supernova explode through his home telescope, he talks about the time delay by “assuming the latest estimate of the distance to the Fireworks …show more content…
For a planet to be at the right temperature and support life it needs to be in the “Goldilocks zone”. The Goldilocks zone is the area the planet needs to orbit its star for it to be at the right temperature to support life and have liquid water. In Chown’s book he talks about how “water is critical for life” for many reasons. It “provides a medium in which life’s chemicals can come together and interact” and also, rain “washes out sulfur dioxide from volcanoes, preventing the buildup of sulfuric acid clouds”. Venice does not have liquid water, but it has a lot of volcanoes which lead to its toxic atmosphere. Astronomers can use our entire solar system to study which of Earth's qualities are actually needed and which don’t have to be
Earth is such a beautiful planet. With all of its’ oceans, plants, animals and land. The variety of life on Earth is what makes it so special. Actually, the fact that Earth has life at all already makes it unique! Earth is the only known planet that can support life (for now at least). Astronomers have been studying deep space looking for another planet with any life at all, but the technology isn’t advanced enough to know whether or not they have found one in their many candidates! Although there are people who disagree, there is evidence that shows there must be another planet like Earth in our universe, or at least another planet with life.
One of the reasons that this Earth-like planet is hard to find is the time delay between what we see from Earth and when things actually happen in deep space. In Bauman’s article after explaining how a Utah astronomer watched a supernova explode through his home telescope, he talks about the time delay by “assuming the latest estimate of the distance to the Fireworks …show more content…
For a planet to be at the right temperature and support life it needs to be in the “Goldilocks zone”. The Goldilocks zone is the area the planet needs to orbit its star for it to be at the right temperature to support life and have liquid water. In Chown’s book he talks about how “water is critical for life” for many reasons. It “provides a medium in which life’s chemicals can come together and interact” and also, rain “washes out sulfur dioxide from volcanoes, preventing the buildup of sulfuric acid clouds”. Venice does not have liquid water, but it has a lot of volcanoes which lead to its toxic atmosphere. Astronomers can use our entire solar system to study which of Earth's qualities are actually needed and which don’t have to be