Many Factors Combine to Allow Life on Earth
As we look at planet Earth and the factors that enabled us to be here, we quickly realize that our planet is very special. Here’s a short list: the long-term existence of a protective and oxygen-rich atmosphere; Earth’s axial tilt, stabilized by a single large moon; the ozone layer and the magnetic field, which jointly protect surface creatures from lethal cosmic radiation; plate tectonics, which regulates the levels of carbon dioxide and keeps the global temperature stable; the fact that our sun is a smallish, fairly stable star not too prone to releasing huge plasma burps. Consequently, it’s rather naïve to expect life—at the complexity level that exists here—to be ubiquitous across the universe.
Notes:
Marcelo Gleiser's argument that the many favorable factors that produce life on Earth mean life could be very rare in the Universe.
Folksonomies: science life chance probability
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