why is Earth blessed with an atmosphere while other planets like Mars has nearly no air or atmosphere ?
-------------------------------------------------------
answers:
Clive say: One word - gravity. Only one planet doesn't have any significant atmosphere, and that's Mercury. It is no coincidence that it is also the smallest. Mars is the next smallest and most certainly has an atmosphere, though it's a thin one. It's enough for there to be winds that kick up dust and make the sky pink on Mars. ALL planets bigger than Mars have a thicker atmosphere, because they have enough gravity to hold on to it There's no particular blessing about that.
Titan has an atmosphere and it's not even a planet - but it is the largest satellite in the solar system, bigger than Mercury, big enough to hold on to an atmosphere. Again it's all about size and whether that's big enough to have the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
What you could count as more of a blessing is that conditions on Earth, including what the atmosphere is made of, were suitable for life to evolve. Go to any of the other planets and though they have an atmosphere, it's made of the wrong stuff to be breathable, or it's too thin.
Now there's a thing - none of the other atmospheres have any free oxygen in them, or hardly any. Which is no good to any Earth animal, which needs it to breathe. And oxygen is very reactive. It'll combine with just about anything to form an oxide. It makes iron rust, and does the same kind of thing with most other chemical elements. So if a planet has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, like Earth does, you bet there's something there continually making it.
And on Earth, that's plants. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. So they make oxygen, which means there can be animals like us that do the opposite. Plants had to come first. So if we ever discover another planet that has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, it's a very good candidate to have life. Something like plants must be there to make it.
-
aladdinwa say: Because Earth's magnetic field stops the solar wind from slowly stripping away the atmosphere. Mars has no magnetic field.
-
nineteenthly say: Higher gravity.
-
tham153 say: Only Mercury and Mars have atmospheres thinner than Earth's. There is even one moon, Titan, with an atmosphere thicker than Earth's
-
Ronald 7 say: In every way
We were just very Fortunate and should be thankful
-
oldprof say: There are several factors that determine Earth's ability to have an atm. First, it's mass is great enough to develop sufficient gravity pull that the air molecules don't float off into deep space. Second, Earth has a magnetic shield that prevents the solar winds from blowing the atm off the planet. Third, Earth is in the habitability zone where the energy from the Sun is not so high that the atm is boiled off the surface; but it's not so low that the atm liquefies.
-
Been There, Done That. say: It starts with water, which is in very short supply on mars.
-
Anon say: Blessed? Earth is a spherical concentration camp were life evolved a nervous system which has led to perpetual suffering for 600 million years and counting! Our “blessed atmosphere” tortured and killed 70 million people last year. Took more lives than World War II did in 6 years. I’m not even counting trillions of other animals and the billions of people suffering around the word yet still alive.
-
ljave say: tyhlhalw
-
rick29148 say: just lucky ...........................................
-
Clive say: One word - gravity. Only one planet doesn't have any significant atmosphere, and that's Mercury. It is no coincidence that it is also the smallest. Mars is the next smallest and most certainly has an atmosphere, though it's a thin one. It's enough for there to be winds that kick up dust and make the sky pink on Mars. ALL planets bigger than Mars have a thicker atmosphere, because they have enough gravity to hold on to it There's no particular blessing about that.
Titan has an atmosphere and it's not even a planet - but it is the largest satellite in the solar system, bigger than Mercury, big enough to hold on to an atmosphere. Again it's all about size and whether that's big enough to have the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
What you could count as more of a blessing is that conditions on Earth, including what the atmosphere is made of, were suitable for life to evolve. Go to any of the other planets and though they have an atmosphere, it's made of the wrong stuff to be breathable, or it's too thin.
Now there's a thing - none of the other atmospheres have any free oxygen in them, or hardly any. Which is no good to any Earth animal, which needs it to breathe. And oxygen is very reactive. It'll combine with just about anything to form an oxide. It makes iron rust, and does the same kind of thing with most other chemical elements. So if a planet has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, like Earth does, you bet there's something there continually making it.
And on Earth, that's plants. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. So they make oxygen, which means there can be animals like us that do the opposite. Plants had to come first. So if we ever discover another planet that has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, it's a very good candidate to have life. Something like plants must be there to make it.
-
luis l say: All the planets have their own atmosphere and we don't know the life there.
-
rennhackrobert say: Flatulance
-
ngc7331 say: a strong magnetic field
-
poldi2 say: It has to do with distance from the sun and the mass of the Earth.
Mars has a thin atmosphere and Mercury almost none, but all the other planets have atmospheres even thicker than Earth's.
-
Eric say: The Earth is not a planet. We don't know what lies 10 miles below the surface of the Earth, yet you're convinced that we can accurately describe the conditions of celestial objects millions of miles away?
-
Tom S say: There are many factors like mass, magnetic field, temperature (distance from Sun). Mars for instance has lower mass, and no global magnetic field, so it may well have a thicker atmosphere in the distant past, but could not hold on to it. In a general sense it just comes down to variation,
-
timespiral say: The Earth isn't the only planet with an atmosphere. Even Titan which is a moon about the size of Mars that orbits Saturn has a surface pressure greater than Earth's. Earth, however, is blessed by the optimum location in orbit around the sun... not to far to be too cold... and not to close too be hot. Venus and Mars had potential as they are very close to optimal orbits. And it is possible that billions of years ago conditions might have been "blessed" there too. The uniqueness of Earth is that the size of the Moon produces significant tidal impacts on Earth which is a factor in life. The Earth-Moon system might even be considered a double planet. The delicate balance that makes Earth work should awaken people to care more about our planet. All too often we only care about ourselves and kick the can down the road for future generations to deal with. Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell after seeing Earth in the blackness of space rising above the lifeless moon thought heaven was located opposite to where people think... it is Earth. The only place in the universe... at least in our solar system where humans can exist. Only one place... one planet where we can survive.
-
Adullah M say: Because the earth was being created for the homeland of mankind ,that is why.
-
Chris Ancor say: Luck.
-
ioobw say: eoseyiai
-
Clive say: One word - gravity. Only one planet doesn't have any significant atmosphere, and that's Mercury. It is no coincidence that it is also the smallest. Mars is the next smallest and most certainly has an atmosphere, though it's a thin one. It's enough for there to be winds that kick up dust and make the sky pink on Mars. ALL planets bigger than Mars have a thicker atmosphere, because they have enough gravity to hold on to it There's no particular blessing about that.
Titan has an atmosphere and it's not even a planet - but it is the largest satellite in the solar system, bigger than Mercury, big enough to hold on to an atmosphere. Again it's all about size and whether that's big enough to have the gravity to hold on to an atmosphere.
What you could count as more of a blessing is that conditions on Earth, including what the atmosphere is made of, were suitable for life to evolve. Go to any of the other planets and though they have an atmosphere, it's made of the wrong stuff to be breathable, or it's too thin.
Now there's a thing - none of the other atmospheres have any free oxygen in them, or hardly any. Which is no good to any Earth animal, which needs it to breathe. And oxygen is very reactive. It'll combine with just about anything to form an oxide. It makes iron rust, and does the same kind of thing with most other chemical elements. So if a planet has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, like Earth does, you bet there's something there continually making it.
And on Earth, that's plants. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. So they make oxygen, which means there can be animals like us that do the opposite. Plants had to come first. So if we ever discover another planet that has a good amount of free oxygen in the atmosphere, it's a very good candidate to have life. Something like plants must be there to make it.
-
duke_of_urls say: The Earth has a remnant of an atmosphere because its gravity was powerful enough to keep it all from evaporating into space.
The hydrogen and helium were too hard for Earth's gravity to hold onto, though.
-
HookKicker say: In a nutshell - plain dumb luck. A whole series of things had to happen at specific times, and they did.
-
IIIIIII say: Sometimes I think all the other planets around ours- in our solar system- or even in the galaxy- exist just to create some gravitational, magnetic, or other force-of-physics type balance that allows Earth to sustain its atmosphere and life. Science is still working on the question I guess. There are answers in textbooks but in 2019 we are far from conclusive.
-
Funnelweb say: Of the eight planets, only two have less atmosphere than Earth.
In order of the amount of atmosphere they are:
- Jupiter,
- Saturn,
- Uranus,
- Neptune,
- Venus,
- Earth,
- Mars,
- Mercury.
-