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POSTED ONJUNE 1, 2016 BY MATT WILLIAMS

How Was the Solar System Formed? – The Nebular

Hypothesis
Since time immemorial, humans have been searching for the answer of how the Universe
came to be. However, it has only been within the past few centuries, with the Scientific
Revolution, that the predominant theories have been empirical in nature. It was during this
time, from the 16th to 18th centuries, that astronomers and physicists began to formulate
evidence-based explanations of how our Sun, the planets, and the Universe began.

When it comes to the formation of our Solar System, the most widely accepted view is
known as the Nebular Hypothesis. In essence, this theory states that the Sun, the planets,
and all other objects in the Solar System formed from nebulous material billions of years
ago. Originally proposed to explain the origin of the Solar System, this theory has gone on
to become a widely accepted view of how all star systems came to be.

Nebular Hypothesis:
According to this theory, the Sun and all the planets of our Solar System began as a giant
cloud of molecular gas and dust. Then, about 4.57 billion years ago, something happened
that caused the cloud to collapse. This could have been the result of a passing star, or
shock waves from a supernova, but the end result was a gravitational collapse at the center
of the cloud.

From this collapse, pockets of dust and gas began to collect into denser regions. As the
denser regions pulled in more and more matter, conservation of momentum caused it to
begin rotating, while increasing pressure caused it to heat up. Most of the material ended up
in a ball at the center while the rest of the matter flattened out into disk that circled around it.
While the ball at the center formed the Sun, the rest of the material would form into
the protoplanetary disc.

The planets formed by accretion from this disc, in which dust and gas gravitated together
and coalesced to form ever larger bodies. Due to their higher boiling points, only metals and
silicates could exist in solid form closer to the Sun, and these would eventually form the
terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Because metallic elements only
comprised a very small fraction of the solar nebula, the terrestrial planets could not grow
very large.

In contrast, the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed beyond the
point between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where material is cool enough for volatile icy
compounds to remain solid (i.e. the Frost Line). The ices that formed these planets were
more plentiful than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial inner planets, allowing
them to grow massive enough to capture large atmospheres of hydrogen and helium.
Leftover debris that never became planets congregated in regions such as the Asteroid
Belt, Kuiper Belt, and Oort Cloud.
 Artist’s
impression of the early Solar System, where collision between particles in an accretion disc
led to the formation of planetesimals and eventually planets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Within 50 million years, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the center of the protostar
became great enough for it to begin thermonuclear fusion. The temperature, reaction rate,
pressure, and density increased until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. At this point, the
Sun became a main-sequence star. Solar wind from the Sun created the heliosphereand
swept away the remaining gas and dust from the protoplanetary disc into interstellar space,
ending the planetary formation process.

History of the Nebular Hypothesis:

The idea that the Solar System originated from a nebula was first proposed in 1734 by
Swedish scientist and theologian Emanual Swedenborg. Immanuel Kant, who was familiar
with Swedenborg’s work, developed the theory further and published it in his Universal
Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). In this treatise, he argued that gaseous
clouds (nebulae) slowly rotate, gradually collapsing and flattening due to gravity and forming
stars and planets.

A similar but smaller and more detailed model was proposed by Pierre-Simon Laplace in his
treatise Exposition du system du monde (Exposition of the system of the world), which he
released in 1796. Laplace theorized that the Sun originally had an extended hot atmosphere
throughout the Solar System, and that this “protostar cloud” cooled and contracted. As the
cloud spun more rapidly, it threw off material that eventually condensed to form the planets.
 The
Sh 2-106 Nebula (or S106 for short), a compact star forming region in the constellation
Cygnus (The Swan). Credit: NASA/ESA
The Laplacian nebular model was widely accepted during the 19th century, but it had some
rather pronounced difficulties. The main issue was angular momentum distribution between
the Sun and planets, which the nebular model could not explain. In addition, Scottish
scientist James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) asserted that different rotational velocities
between the inner and outer parts of a ring could not allow for condensation of material.

It was also rejected by astronomer Sir David Brewster (1781 – 1868), who stated that:

“those who believe in the Nebular Theory consider it as certain that our Earth derived its
solid matter and its atmosphere from a ring thrown from the Solar atmosphere, which
afterwards contracted into a solid terraqueous sphere, from which the Moon was thrown off
by the same process… [Under such a view] the Moon must necessarily have carried off
water and air from the watery and aerial parts of the Earth and must have an atmosphere.”

By the early 20th century, the Laplacian model had fallen out of favor, prompting scientists
to seek out new theories. However, it was not until the 1970s that the modern and most
widely accepted variant of the nebular hypothesis – the solar nebular disk model (SNDM) –
emerged. Credit for this goes to Soviet astronomer Victor Safronov and his book Evolution
of the protoplanetary cloud and formation of the Earth and the planets (1972). In this book,
almost all major problems of the planetary formation process were formulated and many
were solved.

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For example, the SNDM model has been successful in explaining the appearance of
accretion discs around young stellar objects. Various simulations have also demonstrated
that the accretion of material in these discs leads to the formation of a few Earth-sized
bodies. Thus the origin of terrestrial planets is now considered to be an almost solved
problem.

While originally applied only to the Solar System, the SNDM was subsequently thought by
theorists to be at work throughout the Universe, and has been used to explain the formation
of many of the exoplanets that have been discovered throughout our galaxy.

Problems:
Although the nebular theory is widely accepted, there are still problems with it that
astronomers have not been able to resolve. For example, there is the problem of tilted axes.
According to the nebular theory, all planets around a star should be tilted the same way
relative to the ecliptic. But as we have learned, the inner planets and outer planets have
radically different axial tilts.

Whereas the inner planets range from almost 0 degree tilt, others (like Earth and Mars) are
tilted significantly (23.4° and 25°, respectively), outer planets have tilts that range from
Jupiter’s minor tilt of 3.13°, to Saturn and Neptune’s more pronounced tilts (26.73° and
28.32°), to Uranus’ extreme tilt of 97.77°, in which its poles are consistently facing towards
the Sun.
 A list
of potentially habitable exoplanets, courtesy of The Planetary Habitability Laboratory.
Credit: phl.upr.edu
Also, the study of extrasolar planets have allowed scientists to notice irregularities that cast
doubt on the nebular hypothesis. Some of these irregularities have to do with the existence
of “hot Jupiters” that orbit closely to their stars with periods of just a few days. Astronomers
have adjusted the nebular hypothesis to account for some of these problems, but have yet
to address all outlying questions.

Alas, it seems that it questions that have to do with origins that are the toughest to answer.
Just when we think we have a satisfactory explanation, there remain those troublesome
issues it just can’t account for. However, between our current models of star and planet
formation, and the birth of our Universe, we have come a long way. As we learn more about
neighboring star systems and explore more of the cosmos, our models are likely to mature
further.

We have written many articles about the Solar System here at Universe Today. Here’s The
Solar System, Did our Solar System Start with a Little Bang?, and What was Here Before
the Solar System?

For more information, be sure to check out the origin of the Solar System and how the Sun
and planets formed.

Astronomy Cast also has an episode on the subject – Episode 12: Where do Baby Stars
Come From?

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CATEGORIESASTRONOMY, GUIDE TO
SPACETAGSFEATURED, HOW WAS THE SOLAR SYSTEM
FORMED, NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS, NEBULAR
THEORY, ORIGIN, SOLAR NEBULAR DISK MODEL
(SNDM), SOLAR SYSTEM

5 Replies to “How Was the Solar System Formed? – The Nebular

Hypothesis”

1. Steven

JUNE 1, 2016 AT 4:53 PM

So… the transition from the geocentric view and eternal state the way things are evolved
with appreciation of dinosaurs and plate tectonics too… and then refining the nebular idea…
the Nice model… the Grand Tack model… alittle more? Now maybe the Grand Tack with
the assumption of mantle breaking impacts in the early days – those first 10 millions years
were heady times!

2. Steven

JUNE 1, 2016 AT 5:25 PM

And the whole idea of “solar siblings” has been busy the last few years…
3. Torbjorn Larsson OM

JUNE 1, 2016 AT 6:39 PM

Nice overview, and I learned a lot. However, there are some salient points that I think I have
picked up earlier:

“something happened that caused the cloud to collapse. This could have been the result of
a passing star, or shock waves from a supernova, but the end result was a gravitational
collapse at the center of the cloud.”

The study of star forming molecular clouds shows that same early, large stars form that
way. In the most elaborate model which makes Earth isotope measurements easiest to
predict, by free coupling the processes, the 1st generation of super massive stars would go
supernova in 1-10 million years.

That blows a 1st geeration of large bubbles with massive, compressed shells that are
seeded with supernova elements, as we see Earth started out with. The shells would lead to
a more frequent 2nd generation of massive stars with a lifetime of 10-100 million years or
so. These stars have powerful solar winds.

That blows a 2nd generation of large bubbles with massive, compressed shells, The shells
would lead to a 3d generation of ~ 500 – 1000 stars of Sun size or less. In the case of the
Sun the resulting mass was not enough to lead to a closed star cluster as we can see
circling the Milky Way, but an open star cluster where the stars would mix with other stars
over the ~ 20 orbits we have done around the MW.

[tbctd]

4. Torbjorn Larsson OM

JUNE 1, 2016 AT 6:40 PM

[ctd]

“The ices that formed these planets were more plentiful”.

 The astronomy course I attended looked at the core collapse model of large planets. (ASs
well as the direct collapse scenario.) The core grew large rapidly and triggered gas collapse
onto the planet from the disk, a large factor being the stickiness of ices at the grain stage.
The terrestrial planets grow by slower accretion, and the material may have started to be
cleared from the disk. by star infall or radiation pressure flow outwards, before they are
finished.

An interesting problem for terrestrial planets is the “meter size problem” (IIRC the name). It
was considered hard to grow grains above a cm, and when they grow they rapidly brake
and fall onto the star.

Now scientists have come up with grain collapse scenarios, where grains start to follow
each other for reasons of gravity and viscous properties of the disk, I think. All sorts of
bodies up to protoplanets can be grown quickly and, when over the problematic size, will
start to clear the disk rather than being braked by it.

][tbctd

5. Torbjorn Larsson OM

JUNE 1, 2016 AT 6:42 PM

[ctd]

“But as we have learned, the inner planets and outer planets have radically different axial
tilts.”

Jupiter can be considered a clue, too massive to tilt by outside forces. The general
explanation tend to be the accretion process, where the tilt would be randomized. (Venus
may be an exception, since some claim it is becoming tidally locked to the Sun – Mercury is
instead locked in a 3:2 resonance – and it is in fact now retrograde with a putative near axis
lock.) Possible Mercury bit at least Earth and Mars (and Moon) show late great impacts.

A recent paper show that terrestrial planets would suffer impacts on the great impact scale,
between 1 to 8 as norm with an average of 3. These would not be able to clear out an Earth
mass atmosphere or ocean, so if Earth suffered one such impact after having volatiles
delivered by late accretion/early bombardment, the Moon could result.

Comments are closed.

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 Reference:

PlanetEarth:FactsAboutItsOrbit,Atmosphere&Size
ByCharlesQC i,pace.comContributo|O
. hoS r ctober10,201802:47pmET

 MORE

Credit: NASA

Advertisement

Earth, our home, is the third planet from the sun. It's the only planet known to have an
atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of water on its surface and, of course, life.

Earth is the fifth largest of the planets in the solar system. It's smaller than the four gas giants —
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune— but larger than the three other rocky
planets, Mercury, Mars and Venus.

Earth has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) and is round because gravity
pulls matter into a ball. But, it's not perfectly round. Earth is really an "oblate spheroid," because
its spin causes it to be squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator.

Advertisement

Water covers roughly 71 percent of Earth's surface, and most of that is in the oceans. About a
fifth of Earth's atmosphere consists of oxygen, produced by plants. While scientists have been
studying our planet for centuries, much has been learned in recent decades by studying pictures
of Earth from space.
Earth's orbit
While Earth orbits the sun, the planet is simultaneously spinning on an imaginary line called an
axis that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. It takes Earth 23.934 hours to complete a
rotation on its axis and 365.26 days to complete an orbit around the sun.

Earth's axis of rotation is tilted in relation to the ecliptic plane, an imaginary surface through the
planet's orbit around the sun. This means the Northern and Southern hemispheres will sometimes
point toward or away from the sun depending on the time of year, and this changes the amount of
light the hemispheres receive, resulting in the seasons.

Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, but rather an oval-shaped ellipse, similar to the orbits of all
the other planets. Our planet is a bit closer to the sun in early January and farther away in July,
although this variation has a much smaller effect than the heating and cooling caused by the tilt
of Earth's axis. Earth happens to lie within the so-called "Goldilocks zone" around the sun, where
temperatures are just right to maintain liquid water on our planet's surface.

Statistics about Earth's orbit, according to NASA:

 Average distance from the sun: 92,956,050 miles (149,598,262 km)
 Perihelion (closest approach to the sun): 91,402,640 miles (147,098,291 km)
 Aphelion (farthest distance from the sun): 94,509,460 miles (152,098,233 km)
 Length of solar day (single rotation on its axis): 23.934 hours
 Length of year (single revolution around the sun): 365.26 days
 Equatorial inclination to orbit: 23.4393 degrees

Earth's formation and evolution

Scientists think Earth was formed at roughly the same time as the sun and other planets some 4.6
billion years ago, when the solar system coalesced from a giant, rotating cloud of gas and dust
known as the solar nebula. As the nebula collapsed because of its gravity, it spun faster and
flattened into a disk. Most of the material was pulled toward the center to form the sun.
Other particles within the disk collided and stuck together to form ever-larger bodies, including
Earth. Scientists think Earth started off as a waterless mass of rock.
"It was thought that because of these asteroids and comets flying around colliding with Earth,
conditions on early Earth may have been hellish," Simone Marchi, a planetary scientist at the
Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, previously told Space.com. But in recent
years, new analyses of minerals trapped within ancient microscopic crystals suggests that there
was liquid water already present on Earth during its first 500 million years, Marchi said.
Radioactive materials in the rock and increasing pressure deep within the Earth generated
enough heat to melt the planet's interior, causing some chemicals to rise to the surface and form
water, while others became the gases of the atmosphere. Recent evidence suggests that Earth's
crustand oceans may have formed within about 200 million years after the planet took shape.
Internal structure
Earth's core is about 4,400 miles (7,100 km) wide, slightly larger than half the Earth's diameter
and about the same size as Mars' diameter. The outermost 1,400 miles (2,250 km) of the core are
liquid, while the inner core is solid; it's about four-fifths as big as Earth's moon, at some 1,600
miles (2,600 km) in diameter. The core is responsible for the planet's magnetic field, which helps
to deflect harmful charged particles shot from the sun.
Above the core is Earth's mantle, which is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) thick. The mantle is not
completely stiff but can flow slowly. Earth's crust floats on the mantle much as a piece of wood
floats on water. The slow motion of rock in the mantle shuffles continents around and causes
earthquakes, volcanoes and the formation of mountain ranges.
Above the mantle, Earth has two kinds of crust. The dry land of the continents consists mostly of
granite and other light silicate minerals, while the ocean floors are made up mostly of a dark,
dense volcanic rock called basalt. Continental crust averages some 25 miles (40 km) thick,
although it can be thinner or thicker in some areas. Oceanic crust is usually only about 5 miles (8
km) thick. Water fills in low areas of the basalt crust to form the world's oceans.

Earth gets warmer toward its core. At the bottom of the continental crust, temperatures reach
about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius), increasing about 3 degrees F per mile (1
degree C per km) below the crust. Geologists think the temperature of Earth's outer core is about
6,700 to 7,800 degrees F (3,700 to 4,300 degrees C) and that the inner core may reach 12,600
degrees F (7,000 degrees C) — hotter than the surface of the sun.

Magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field is generated by currents flowing in Earth's outer core. The magnetic poles
are always on the move, with the magnetic North Pole accelerating its northward motion to 24
miles (40 km) annually since tracking began in the 1830s. It will likely exit North America and
reach Siberia in a matter of decades.
Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways, too. Globally, the magnetic field has
weakened 10 percent since the 19th century, according to NASA. These changes are mild
compared to what Earth's magnetic field has done in the past. A few times every million years or
so, the field completely flips, with the North and the South poles swapping places. The magnetic
field can take anywhere from 100 to 3,000 years to complete the flip.

The strength of Earth's magnetic field decreased by about 90 percent when a field reversal
occurred in ancient past, according to Andrew Roberts, a professor at the Australian National
University. The drop makes the planet more vulnerable to solar storms and radiation, which can
could significantly damage satellites and communication and electrical infrastructure.

"Hopefully, such an event is a long way in the future and we can develop future technologies to
avoid huge damage," Roberts said in a statement.
When charged particles from the sun get trapped in Earth's magnetic field, they smash into air
molecules above the magnetic poles, causing them to glow. This phenomenon is known as
the aurorae, the northern and southern lights.
Earth's atmosphere
Earth's atmosphere is roughly 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen, with trace amounts of
water, argon, carbon dioxide and other gases. Nowhere else in the solar system is there an
atmosphere loaded with free oxygen, which is vital to one of the other unique features of Earth:
life.
Air surrounds Earth and becomes thinner farther from the surface. Roughly 100 miles (160 km)
above Earth, the air is so thin that satellites can zip through the atmosphere with little resistance.
Still, traces of atmosphere can be found as high as 370 miles (600 km) above the planet's surface.

The lowest layer of the atmosphere is known as the troposphere, which is constantly in motion
and why we have weather. Sunlight heats the planet's surface, causing warm air to rise into the
troposphere. This air expands and cools as air pressure decreases, and because this cool air is
denser than its surroundings, it then sinks and gets warmed by the Earth again.

Above the troposphere, some 30 miles (48 km) above the Earth's surface, is the stratosphere. The
still air of the stratosphere contains the ozone layer, which was created when ultraviolet light
caused trios of oxygen atoms to bind together into ozone molecules. Ozone prevents most of the
sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation from reaching Earth's surface, where it can damage and mutate
life.

Water vapor, carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun, warming
Earth. Without this so-called "greenhouse effect," Earth would probably be too cold for life to
exist, although a runaway greenhouse effect led to the hellish conditions now seen on Venus.

Earth-orbiting satellites have shown that the upper atmosphere actually expands during the day
and contracts at night due to heating and cooling.

Chemical composition
Oxygen is the most abundant element in rocks in Earth's crust, composing roughly 47 percent of
the weight of all rock. The second most abundant element is silicon, at 27 percent, followed
by aluminum, at 8 percent; iron, at 5 percent; calcium, at 4 percent;
and sodium, potassium and magnesium, at about 2 percent each.
Earth's core consists mostly of iron and nickel and potentially smaller amounts of lighter
elements, such as sulfur and oxygen. The mantle is made of iron and magnesium-rich silicate
rocks. (The combination of silicon and oxygen is known as silica, and minerals that contain silica
are known as silicate minerals.)

Earth's moon
Earth's moon is 2,159 miles (3,474 km) wide, about one-fourth of Earth's diameter. Our planet
has one moon, while Mercury and Venus have none and all the other planets in our solar system
have two or more.
The leading explanation for how Earth's moon formed is that a giant impact knocked the raw
ingredients for the moon off the primitive, molten Earth and into orbit. Scientists have suggested
 that the object that hit the planet had roughly 10 percent the mass of Earth, about the size of
Mars.

Life on Earth
Earth is the only planet in the universe known to possess life. The planet boasts several million
species of life, living in habitats ranging from the bottom of the deepest ocean to a few miles into
the atmosphere. And scientists think far more species remain to be discovered.

Researchers suspect that other candidates for hosting life in our solar system — such as Saturn's
moon Titan or Jupiter's moon Europa — could house primitive living creatures. Scientists have
yet to precisely nail down exactly how our primitive ancestors first showed up on Earth. One
solution suggests that life first evolved on the nearby planet Mars, once a habitable planet, then
traveled to Earth on meteoriteshurled from the Red Planet by impacts from other space rocks.
"It's lucky that we ended up here, nevertheless, as certainly Earth has been the better of the two
planets for sustaining life," biochemist Steven Benner, of the Westheimer Institute for Science
and Technology in Florida, told Space.com. "If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained
on Mars, there might not have been a story to tell."
Further reading:
 How Big Is Earth?
 Earth's Atmosphere: Composition, Climate & Weather
 What Is the Temperature on Earth?
 What Is Earth Made Of?
 How Was Earth Formed?
This story was updated on Oct. 10, 2018 by Space.com Contributor, Nola Taylor Redd.
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AUTHORBIO

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CharlesQ.Choi,Space.comContributor

CharlesQ.ChoisacontributingwriterforSpace.comandLiveScience.Hecoversalthingshumanoriginsandastronomyaswelasphysics,animalsandgeneralsciencetopics.CharleshasaMasterofArtsdegreefromtheUniversityofMisouri-Columbia,SchoolofJournalismandaBachelorofArtsdegreefromthe
UniversityofSouthFlorida.CharleshasvistedeverycontinentonEarth,drinkingrancidyakbuterteainLhasa,snorkelingwithsealionsintheGalapagosandevenclimbinganiceberginAntarctica.

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Science & Astronomy

What Makes Earth Special Compared to Other Planets

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor | July 8, 2008 07:00am ET
This image, taken while MESSENGER was 34,692 miles (55,831 kilometers) above Earth, shows the
Galapagos Islands as tiny specks peeking through clouds. The line dividing day and night cuts through
South America, with night about to fall on the western half of the continent. The large bright spot to the
west of South America is the Sun’s light scattering off ocean waves. Original Image

Credit: NASA/JHU/APL.

Earth is one special planet.

It has liquid water, plate tectonics, and an atmosphere that shelters it from the worst of the sun's
rays. But many scientists agree our planet's most special feature might just be us.

"It?s the only planet we know of that has life," said Alan Boss, a planet formation theorist at
the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, D.C.

Though other bodies in our solar system, such as Saturn's moon Titan, seem like they could
have once been hospitable to some form of life, and scientists still have hope of
eventually digging up microbes beneath the surface of Mars, Earth is still the only world known
to support life.

"So far, we haven't found it anywhere else," said Alex Wolszczan of Pennsylvania State
University, who co-discovered the first planets beyond our solar system. He agreed that life was
Earth's single most impressive characteristic.

None of this is a revelation, but understanding what's special about Earth is crucial for finding
other planets out there and predicting what they might be like.

The fact that Earth hosts not just life, but intelligent life, makes it doubly unique. And the planet's
intelligent life (humanity) has even developed rockets that enable travel beyond the planet, said
Gregory Laughlin, astrophysicist and planet hunter at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"During the last half century, the planet Earth has fashioned together tiny pieces of the metal in
its crust, and has flung these delicately constructed objects to all of the other planets in the solar
system," Laughlin said, adding that these achievements should be counted as an exemplary
trait of our planet.

"From our anthropocentric viewpoint, we naturally separate ourselves from the planet that we
live on, but if one adopts the point of view of an external observer, it is the 'planet' (taken as a
whole) that has done these remarkable things," he told SPACE.com.

Water World

To enable life, this most special of attributes, planet Earth has a number of ideal features. It is
unique among planets in our solar system for having water in its liquid form at the surface, in an
amount conducive to life evolving.

"The most impressive attribute of the Earth is the existence and amount of liquid water on its
surface," said Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley who has
helped discover dozens of extrasolar planets. No one knows why Earth has the exact amount of
water it does, which is relatively small considering that water molecules outnumber silicate
molecules in the galaxy, he said.

"The Earth is remarkable for its precisely-tuned amount of water, not too much to cover the
mountains, and not so little that it's a dry desert, as are Mars and Venus, our 'sister' planets," he
said.

Goldilocks planet

Earth's water is also special in that it has remained liquid for so long. How has Earth been able
to hold on to its oceans while those on other planets freeze or fry?

"Many details as to why Earth is the only planet with liquid water in our solar system need to be
worked out," said Diana Valencia, a graduate student in Earth and Planetary Sciences at
Harvard University. "Certainly the distance to the sun has made it possible. A planet much
farther in would receive too much energy from the sun, and a planet too far out would quickly
freeze."

Our planet's Goldilocks-like "just right" location in the solar system has helped, as has its
system of plate tectonics ? the slip-sliding movements of Earth's crust that are thought to have
created the planet's towering mountain ranges and plummeting ocean depths.

"The fact that Earth has plate tectonics allows for the carbon-silicate cycle to operate over
geological timescales," Valencia said. "With the carbon-silicate cycle, the levels of carbon in the
atmosphere get regulated to keep the surface temperature around that of liquid water."

Plate tectonics and water are inextricably linked. Not only does plate tectonics enable liquid
water to exist by way of regulating the temperature, but many scientists have argued water
enables plate tectonics to happen.
"Without water the planet would be geologically dead," said Caltech's Mike Brown, discoverer of
the newly reclassified "plutoid" object named Eris, which lies beyond Pluto in our solar system.
"Water is what lubricates plate tectonics, which is what leads to the extreme difference between
continents and seafloors, the large amount of earthquakes and volcanoes, fresh mountain-
building. Venus has no water, no plate tectonics, no deep sea floor, no steep mountains, no
continents, probably few earthquakes or volcanoes. A much less geologically interesting place!"

Another "just-right" aspect of Earth is its size: If it was much smaller, it wouldn't be able to hold
on to our precious atmosphere, but much larger and it might be a gas giant too hot for life.

The presence of our big brother planet, Jupiter, farther out in the solar system blocking Earth
from much of the incoming debris, has also helped Earth become a safe haven for life. Jupiter
acts like a giant broom, sweeping the solar system of debris ? rocks as small as cars and as
huge as moons ? that could snuff out life in one fatal blow. This protective effect was particularly
helpful in the solar system's early years, when Earth still got pummeled but, scientists say, not
nearly as bad as would have been the case without Jupiter.

A friendly moon

Life on Earth may also owe a debt to our nearest celestial neighbor, the moon.

Earth's moon stabilizes our planet's rotation, preventing drastic movements of the poles
that could cause massive changes in climate that some scientists think could have
doomed any chance for budding life to form or evolve.

The moon also helpfully pulls the ocean's tides, which scientists suggest might have
been the perfect place for early life to begin evolving to survive on land.

Though Earth has the necessary ingredients for life, it's unclear whether the development of life
here might have been a one-time fluke, or if it's something that happens pretty much
everywhere the conditions are right.

Rare Earth

All of these features make Earth special among known planets near and far.

"You hear all the time how Earth-like Mars is, but if you were taken to Mars you wouldn?t feel
happy there at all," said University of Washington astronomer Don Brownlee, author of the book
"Rare Earth" (Springer, 2003). "It's not Earth-like. And Titan, when the [Huygens] probe landed,
there was all this stuff in the media about how Earth-like it is. Earth-like? It is completely
different. It has all this methane on the surface. Venus has about the same mass [as Earth],
almost the same distance from the sun. But it?s a totally different place ? no oceans, no plate
tectonics ? and it's not a place you would want to be."

So far, we haven't seen any planet outside the solar system come very close to Earth either.
Of the nearly 300 new worlds glimpsed elsewhere in the galaxy, most are "hot Jupiters" ? large
planets that orbit close to their stars, on which life and liquid water are unlikely to exist.

"I doubt that in our galaxy typical stars have planets just like Earth around them," Brownlee said.
"I'm sure there are lots of planets in the galaxy that are somewhat similar to Earth, but the idea
that this is a typical planet is nonsensical."

Brownlee's view may be in the minority, however.

Not-so-special Earth

As our planet-hunting technology improves, many planet hunters expect to find Earth's twin. The
search has led scientists to debate whether Earth is really as special as we think it is.

"In the past 10 years, everything has been pointing in the direction of, 'Hey, the solar system,
which we thought was unique, is not unique at all,'" said Alan Boss.

Boss and many other scientists think it's likely that some form of life exists on some of those
countless other planets out there.

"Certainly there will be other planets that support life," he said. "I think life is actually quite
common. I think we're going to find there are literally billions of them in the galaxy."

 101 Amazing Earth Facts

 The Greatest Mysteries in Science
 Top 10 Most Intriguing Extrasolar Planets
Author Bio

Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

Clara has been SPACE.com's Assistant Managing Editor since 2011, and has
been writing for SPACE.com and LiveScience since 2008. Clara has a bachelor's
degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University, and a graduate
certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find
out what her latest project is, you can follow Clara on Google+.

Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor on

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Earth, our Goldilocks Planet

Description

NASA is searching for evidence of life on other planets. What characteristics make life possible? Water is
essential to all known forms of life on Earth. NASA scientists are looking for "Goldilocks Planets" that
have temperatures not too hot or too cold to allow liquid water. By looking within our own solar system,
we identify reasons neighboring planets and our moon lack conditions for life. Then we look at Earth: how
the presence of liquid water, reflective surfaces such as polar ice caps, and the chemical composition of
our atmosphere all contribute to keeping Earth's energy budget in balance.

Key Learning Points

 A "Goldilocks Planet" is the right distance from its Sun to allow temperatures for liquid water. Not too hot,
not too cold.
 The Sun is our primary energy source. The energy Earth receives from the Sun is in balance with the
energy our planet loses to space:
 - Earth reflects an average 30% of incoming solar energy back to space

- Earth's atmosphere absorbs about 20% of incoming solar energy

- About 50% of solar energy reaches the land and oceans and warms them

- Earth emits 70% of incoming energy back to space as heat (infrared radiation)

 NASA continuously monitors Earth using sensors on satellites, aircraft, and in situ instruments as there is
still a lot to learn about the processes that support life on Earth.
 Venus is too close to the Sun with an atmosphere that is mostly carbon dioxide, thus it is much too hot for
water.
 Mars is the right distance from the Sun, but does not have enough atmosphere and gets too cold at night.
Water is frozen in polar ice caps. Curiosity rover is on Mars collecting samples and has found water in rock,
but so far no evidence of life.
 Our moon is the right distance from the Sun, but without an atmosphere it is too hot in the day and too
cold at night.

This movie gives an overview of NASA's Search for Goldilocks Planets and can be used on its own or
within a docent show as an introduction. The docent show covers Earth's energy budget in greater depth.
You can find a script for the docent show here.

Additional Resources
 NASA Earth's Energy Budget poster
 On-line teaching modules for middle and high school educators and learners:
o Goldilocks Principle: A Model of Atmospheric Gases
o Goldilocks and the Three Planets
o Energy Flow in the Atmosphere

Length of dataset: 5:11

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 Space: Planets and Exoplanets

Dataset Source

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Dataset Contact
NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

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NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Dataset Visualization Developer

NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Keywords

Moon, Planet, Goldilocks, Water, Sun, Habitable Zone, Planetary Comparison, Extras, Space, Mars

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