How come Earth is the only planet in our solar system that has water and living things on it?

Answer 1

It is the only planet that currently has water on it, but there is evidence that Mars used to have flowing rivers of fresh water, much like Earth, though they evaporated millions of years ago. Also, Jupiter's moon Europa as ice floes made up of liquid hydrogen and nitrogen, though the temperature and radioactivity on the surface would make life as we know it impossible.
Earth is the only planet in the solar system where all of the elements necessary to sustain carbon-based, oxygen-consuming life is possible because it is the only place that has an atmosphere capable of reflecting out radiation that would brake down long-chain carbon molecules, amino acids, and DNA. Also, Earth is at a point in the solar system were it can maintain the right temerature and air pressure where all of the water on the surface does not either freeze or evaporate.

Answer 2

All this gibberish about god and ancestral forms, argh.

Anyway. The reason Earth is the only planet with liquid water is because of the energy input from the sun. Earth gets enough energy from the sun to melt water but not enough to boil it or cause a runaway greenhouse effect like what happens on Venus.

The fact that water exists in liquid form seems to satisfy the requirements needed for life to start.

Note that water is quite abundant in the solar system though usually as a solid in comets and some types or asteroids or on the various ice moons. It also seems that there is liquid water on Mars and there is very probably a liquid water ocean under the ice crust of Europa (a moon of Jupiter) so there might be life on Mars or Europa.

Titan might also hold life although life there is going to be very different as Titan is too cold for water and so would have to rely on Methane and Ethane.

Earth though is the only planet in the solar system with abundant liquid water (Mars doesn't have much and Europa isn't a planet) and the only one we know to have life although it seems very likely that if conditions for life are right life will appear so I'd expect any place where life can exist to have life.

Answer 3

Because Earth is the only planet with oxygen and water. The reason being is that it has just the right temperature to grow plants in the soil. The plants give us oxygen.. And It has an active iron core, producing a magnetic field that protects the surface from cosmic radiation. But of course, there is no real answer to that question because there may be life on other planets we haven't studied that much.

Answer 4

We don't know that only earth has life because we haven't look everywhere on every planet and moon. For example, Jupiter's moon Europa has a many miles thick ice cover but may have liquid water beneath it where the core could provide enough heat to let life arise. There are also unproven theories that life could be based on another liquid than water.

As for why earth has liquid water, it is because we are just the right distance from the sun where water doen't freeze entirely, like on many of the moon of the outer planets. And because we have enough gravity and just the right temperature to keep water from evaporating into space as it did on Mercury or into only clouds as it did on Venus.

Answer 5

Goldilocks Zone. *lol* =)) Really, that is what Astronomers call it.

Simply put, every star has a zone around it that is "not too hot" and "not too cold" for water to liquify and stay that way. If a planet is inside that zone its odds of supporting life in general go way up, even if the planet itself is too small to sustain a proper atmosphere....

Take Mars for instance. Right on the *outer edge* of our sun's Zone, and every day we find more evidence of water being present and liquid *still* on some of the planet at least, even if it no longer has a proper atmosphere, and even if much of the planet's surface has become too acidic.

And people wonder why everyone got excited when a meteor *from Mars* was shown to have traces of bacterial life on it... ;)

Venus is also on the inner edge of the Zone but has serious problems, mainly *way* too much carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid vapor in the atmosphere. We know about the greenhouse effects of CO2 in an atmosphere mainly because Venus has so much of it in its atmosphere that the planet's surface is estimated to be at a temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

But I digress. Point is if you are looking for water-based life, you have to track a star's Goldilocks Zone first, find out *where* water can stay liquid, then see if there are terrestrial planets there.

But don't just take my word for it. :)

Answer 6

We cannot be entirely sure about that. Mars was once like Earth, there is no doubt about that and there's a good chance that we'll end up like Mars - a dry, lifeless desert.

Scientists predict that Titan (one of Jupiter's many moons) is just like Earth. However, many planetary predictions have been wrong in the past. People once thought that Venus would be habitable. We know better nowadays.

As for God? Well that is absolutely rubbish. If not in our solar system, statistically speaking there must be extra-terrestrial life in our infinite universe.

Answer 7

Earth is not the only planedt with water--Mars and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, are known to have water.

But conditions on most planets and moons (even those two) are extremely harsh. In most cases, it would be impossible for life (at least as we understand it) to develop. Its possible that primitive life forms did develop on Mars--billions of years ago. Much of the work of the unmanned probes that have been sent to Mars is focused on discovering if this is the case--but so far we don't know. Even if life did exist at one time on Mars, its most likely extinct. But discovering fossil evidence that life did exist there at one time would verify that life can exist elsewhere--and would be a very strong arguement that there may be life on earthlike plantets orbiting other stars.

Answer 8

Because of our distance from the sun, earths rotation, and the inclination of the equator. Probably some other factors also, but those are biggies. Closer and the water boils, further away and it freezes. The rotation evens things out. I won't attempt to tell you why life is here.

Answer 9

WHO TOLD YOU ALL THIS RUBBISH
EARTH IS NOT THE ONLY PLANET RATHER MANY OTHER GALAXIES have their own earth . most astronomists , even myself , believe that there are thousands of earths in this universe
to claim this researches are goin' on constantly for concrete proof regarding that
it is believed that like earth , there are planets which hav atmosphere water , and other similar conditions . earth is not the only blessed one
it is possible yhat the life there might be of different form sustaining in different conditions without earthly elements with some different elements which are still unknown
who knows that might we be reall martians
you can mail me for the purpose so that we can have a detailed chat over this topic . i have large amount of data for this toppic

Answer 10

The Earth got lucky. It is a good size and the proper distance from the sun. There is evidence that Mars once had advanced life on it.