Why is Venus too hot, Mars too cold, and Earth "just right" for liquid water to exist on the surface?

Question

besides distance...

doesn't it have to do with the greenhouse effect & albedo? but i don't even understand what those 2 things are! can you please explain?

Answer 1

Because Venus is closer to the sun and Mars is father away from it, while Earth is right in the middle of the two planets.

Distance from the Sun of Each of the Planets of our solar system:
Mercury - 35,983,610 million miles
Venus - 67,232,360 million miles
Earth - 92,957,100 million miles
Mars - 141,635,300 million miles
Jupiter - 483,632,000 million miles
Saturn - 888,188,000 million miles
Uranus - 1,783,950,000 million miles
Neptune - 2,798,842,000 million miles
Pluto - 3,674,491,000 million miles (no longer considered a planet)
*

Answer 2

1) the greenhouse effect is the trapping of heat by atmosphere. On Earth, the largest greenhouse gas is water vapour in the air. if there was no water vapour in the atmosphere, the Earth would be on average 18 degrees celcius cooler. this would likely cause the Earth to be too cold for life to have formed. 2) Venus is approximately the same size as Earth, and has a large amount of volcanic outgassing that results in Venus having a much thicker atmosphere than Earth. Atmospheric pressure at the surface of venus is 90 times higher than that of Earth. This causes heat (from the sun) to become trapped in the atmosphere, raising the surface temperature to about 400 degrees! 3) Mars is much smaller than Earth, so it has less gravity to hold an atmosphere. Mars' volcanoes also stopped millions of years ago as the inside of the planet cooled. Because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere, there is not as much material to trap heat, it is therefore much cooler than Earth. Albedo is merely a measure of the reflectivity of an object. A mirror would have a very high albedo for example. If an object has a high albedo, it will reflect sunlight rather than absorbing it, it is this absorbed energy which radiates away that gets trapped by the atmosphere, therefore a planet with a high albedo will not heat up as much. Venus has a high albedo because of its clouds, but this is not enough to prevent the massive greenhouse effect on that planet.

Answer 3

Venus is closer to the sun and consists of different materials and has a different atmospheric composition. Mars may have once had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water, that research continues.
Earth has a thick atmosphere and a preponderance of oxygen and hydrogen in the atmosphere. Just lucky I guess. But as we are discovering it is actually very fragile and precarious ecosystem that could be eliminated by an interaction with a large rock from space for a nuclear confrontation, or simply to many humanoids on the surface.

Answer 4

Venus is to close to the sun, Mars is to far, but some scientist say it might have once had life. Earth is just right for us. There are however life at the bottom of the sea living within a few feet of very hot volcano's and life in the coldest spots on earth. So nothing is impossible for life to flourish.

Answer 5

Because of the distance from the sun and that earth has an atmosphere

Answer 6

Very simply, the proximity to the sun. The sun warms the planets

Answer 7

Because of the distance of the sun, and the atmosphere of the planet.

Answer 8

Freak of nature, earth just ended up in the right place.

Answer 9

distance from the Sun, composition of the planet, and atmosphere.

Answer 10

Because Venus is to HOT and Mars is dead and too Cold!!! Why do you answer your own question.