WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A WORLD TO BE
HABITABLE?
What does it take for a planet to be habitable? Well, that’s a very interesting question,
we live on a planet, but do we really know, why is that possible?
We are ending with our planet and maybe one day we will need a new one, and to
find a new one we must know what makes a planet habitable.
One thing that most people know is needed so that it would be possible to be life on
a planet, is water, we know that water means life, in our case, in the planet we are
living right now, basically everything needs water, plants use water to live and grow,
animal needs it as well, and that includes us humans, even the air contains water.
But because a planet has water it doesn´t mean, that we will be able to use that
water, maybe the water might be contaminated by many things, even unknown
things, that’s why it is very necessary to make a lot of studies.
Most of the living things on Earth have water on their bodies, including us humans,
our body is 70% water, but that liquid on our bodies, starts to get out of our bodies,
sometimes like sweat and sometimes as urine, the water helps us to clean our body,
is really essential for us to live, and when I say us, I refer to most of the living things
on Earth, such as plants, and animals
Maybe we can considerate water as one of the most important things that are
needed so life can be possible, but its not the only thing we need to have on a planet.
A thing we also need to have and considerate, is the solar system in which the planet
is located, and why do we need to considerate this? Well, the answer is simple, first
because we need to considerate the sun, is it a young star? Is it an old star?
It is necessary to know the “age” of a star, because if this one it´s old enough, this
new “sun” will die, and a supernova will form, and that would be a very bad ending.
But what is a supernova? Well, a supernova is one of the biggest explosions humans
have ever seen, a supernova is the explosion of a star, and according to the NASA
all star explosions are really strong, but a supernova won´t just happens because it
wants to, a supernova happens in the last seconds of life of a star, that means that
it happens when a star die.
And maybe people can think its hard to identify a young star from an old star but it
doesn´t really is like that, sometimes you can easily identify each one, by their color.
We also need to verify how close or how far the new planet is from the sun, because
if the planet is too close, this one might be too hot for us, or in the other way, if the
planet is too far, it might be way too cold for us to live in there.
For example, in our solar system, near the sun we have Mercury the temperatures
of Mercury are too high, because is near the sun, and in the other way we have Pluto
that sometimes is not even considerate a planet, is way too far from the sun, and
because of that, its temperatures are too low for us, but at the same time none of
those planets count with what is needed to be habitable.
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A WORLD TO BE
HABITABLE?
Another thing we need to verify on a new solar system, is, the other planets the
system has, it might not be considerate so important, but its important in some way,
if we have big planets near us, this ones can help us avoid asteroids, and with that,
big catastrophes.
An essential factor we need to considerate is that the planet needs to have a molten
metallic core, as it revolves around the star, the nucleus generates a magnetic field
that protects the planet from X radiation and gamma radiation from the star.
Inside the planet we need to have oxygen, maybe if the planet doesn´t count with
enough oxygen, scientist will, find a way to solve that problem, but like with the water,
most of the living things, need oxygen to live, plants produce it and needs it, and
animals including humans, need it so that our system can work, oxygen is even more
important more important than water, we could spend some days without water
before our system starts to fail and we die, but we can´t spend more than a few
minutes without oxygen.
And maybe scientist will be able to solve to problem of the oxygen for us, but that
solution can´t last forever, and this solution would include us humans, but, what
about plants and other animals, we need them to survive it’s the life cycle.
A planet needs to be habitable not only for us humans, we need the planets to be
habitable for animals and plants.
For a new habitable planet, its better to choose one far from the galactic center where
damaging supernova explosions occur.
Most of the last characteristics where take in count considering what humans need,
but, what about the plants?
The plants are very important for us, they provide us oxygen that is very important,
and in some cases, we use them as source of food, another very important thing we
need to survive.
For a planet to be habitable is needed to fertile and must count with a lot of nutrients,
so that plants would help the planet to be even more habitable.
Also, we must take in count the gravity, of this new planet, it has to be similar to the
earth´s gravity, but, why? If there is no gravity or if there’s lack of gravity everything
would be floating around, and it will be difficult and uncomfortable to live on that
planet.
Also, for a planet to be habitable, the planet needs to have a solid surface, must
planets doesn´t have a solid surface, like Jupiter, but to begin with if the planet
doesn´t count with a solid surface it might be difficult for it to have all other things
that make a planet habitable, and even if it does count with the necessary it would
be difficult to stay on there.
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A WORLD TO BE
HABITABLE?
But not only because the planet counts with a solid surface, means that it would be
appropriate, maybe the soil is toxic, or maybe there are a lot of earthquakes, and if
the planet counts with water, that would be even more dangerous.
We also need to check the atmosphere, the atmosphere protect us from the sun,
and from other things that are on the space, of course not all of them, but some of
them, the atmosphere protect us from the sun, and that’s one of the reasons of why
for a planet to be habitable, an atmosphere is needed, but this atmosphere, has to
be safe as well, some of the atmospheres of other planets contain gases, and
elements that can be toxic or dangerous for us.
Also, everything at our planet is based on carbon, so the other planet might contain
carbon, because if is not like that, everything might result toxic for us.
Also, for a planet to be habitable is needed to considerate the weather, maybe on
the planet have all we need, but it has unstoppable thunderstorms, or maybe it has
toxic rains, or maybe tornados can be easily formed.
There are many things that are needed so that a planet can be habitable, its not a
simple thing.
All of us, every single form of life in our planet, has grown, and evolved according to
the conditions on earth, so the best way to explain, what is what a planet needs, is
by saying, that if we are looking for a new planet to live in, the best option, would be
to search, a planet very similar to the earth, plants, animals, and humans all of us,
we have adapt to the earth conditions, we have grown according to earth conditions,
and we started learning according to the earth conditions, the earth has water, we
need the water to survive, so if we want to live in a new planet, this one has to have
water, the earth have oxygen on its air, we use and need that oxygen so that our
system can work, and so that we can be able to live, the earth have many live species
like bacteria, animals, and plants, we need all of them to live, it is the life cycle.
You might not see everything is needed, so that a planet can be habitable, but just
go outside and look around, and you will, see, most of the things that are needed for
a planet to be habitable.
In conclusion there are many things a planet need to be habitable for us, we have
an special way of life, that it needs to be on a special way, to considerate a planet
habitable, this planet needs to have water, a big amount of water like earth, water
that can be useful for our life, it also needs to have enough oxygen for us, so that it
won´t be toxic for us to breath, this planet also needs to be near a star/sun but not
too close or too far, just like Earth, that is near the sun but at the same time is not
too close or too far, the planet also needs to be on a good solar system, with a star
that is not too old, and it also needs to me surrounded by planets that bight help us,
the planet needs to have a good atmosphere, one that can protect us from the syn,
and other space things, and also this atmosphere is needed to be not too toxic for
us, the planet needs to have a good weather for us, and also needs to have a solid
surface so that we can be able to live on there, it needs to have Carbon so that thing
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WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A WORLD TO BE
HABITABLE?
might not result toxic for us, and it needs to have a fertile and good soil so plants
would be able to plants to live there, the planets needs to be habitable not just for us
Humans but also, other creatures, such as animals and plants
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