• Question: Why the earth is the only planet with an atmosphere?

    Asked by belendrv to Dervil, Moises, Pramod, Saoirse, Stephen on 7 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Dervil Cody

      Dervil Cody answered on 7 Nov 2016:


      Actually other planets in our solar system do have an atmosphere! It’s just that Earth is the only planet to have an atmosphere which is the right thickness and made up of the right things to support life. Which is good news for us! For example Venus has a thick atmosphere but it’s very hot, whereas the atmosphere on Mars is very thin and cold. Earth is described as being in the Goldilocks zone, because it’s just the right distance from the Sun (neither too hot or too cold!).

    • Photo: Moises Jezzini

      Moises Jezzini answered on 9 Nov 2016:


      Thanks Dervil! Earth is the only atmosphere in our solar system. But there might be other similar planets in the universe. For example, NASA has identified already 348 planets that might be very similar to earth. And plenty more if you relax the condition for a planet to be habitable a little. If you want to check more this website is very cool: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/

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