• Question: why are we on this planet ?

    Asked by anon-1953 to Donna, Jo, Mark, Stuart, timcraggs on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by cheezybeanz.
    • Photo: Tim Craggs

      Tim Craggs answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      This is a very interesting question. I am not sure it is a question that science can answer! Science can certainly talk about HOW we got here, through various processes probably involving the Big Bang and Evolution, but as to WHY we are here in a broad sense, is really a question for philosophy and religion.

      However, why are we on THIS planet? Well, of all the planets in our solar system, Earth is the only one with the right conditions for us to live. Perhaps you could make a list of what those conditions are, (for example Temperature), and then compare those conditions across all the different planets in our solar system. I would be interested to see your result!

    • Photo: Joanna Buckley

      Joanna Buckley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Earth really works for us, doesn’t it? It’s perfect for supporting us – it’s not too hot or cold, we can breathe, eat crisps, down fizzy drinks, play Wii, have massive bubble baths, go swimming etc etc.

      Life on Earth is good.

      We’re happy on this planet because we’ve evolved to live perfectly in it, we’d not have a good time on Venus, for example. Right where you are now, you’re experiencing 1 atmospheric pressure. On Venus, you’ll experience 90 times this. Basically you’ll pass out and get very bad sunburn. Not good.

      I believe there must be other intellegent life out there on other planets somewhere. There has to be! What do you think? Do you think they’d be like us and what would they make of us?

    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Good question. I believe that we have ended up on this planet, rather than any of the other planets in our solar system, because the conditions are the most favourable for life (at least, our kind of life!).
      Earth has a good amount of water, a good atmosphere and has a good temperature range.

      These conditions allowed life to develop (single-celled organisms), then evolution occurred allowing larger animals to form and eventually people evolved.

    • Photo: Mark Lancaster

      Mark Lancaster answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Because the planet is the right distance from the sun to support life ie it can sustain liquid water and it receives energy (in the form of light) from the sun. Our planet was formed from the debris of exploding stars – this spewed out all the elements upto iron (there is some mystery about how the heavier elements were generated) and conveniently these stars produced quite a lot of carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen-oxygen which is precisely what is needed for life to form water and DNA….

      I don’t think this planet is particularly unique – I expect there are billions of similar planets orbitting similar stars (suns) and so there is probably life on a similar planet – why we happen to be on THIS planet is just luck and I’m sure someone else is asking the same question on another planet.

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