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This article reflect things explored quite well in amazing BBC 5-piece documentary Earth: Power of the Planet just few years ago (I envy the guy for being narra

This article reflect things explored quite well in amazing BBC 5-piece documentary Earth: Power of the Planet just few years ago (I envy the guy for being narrator to this show, just see and you'll understand :)) First 4 episodes explore various elements on our planet, but last one is a true gem - it deals with uniqueness of Earth in universe - like Jupiter catching most dangerous asteroids/comets so earth gets just enough catastrophes and not too many, moon stabilizing our orbit (and adding tides which probably helped life to move from oceans), and so on. I love documents about nature, and BBC has produced consistently great ones, but this one stands above all... after seeing it, I do look at many things in nature in a different view. I would put this little gem as mandatory at school for all kids around the world, and you'll have a eco-friendly generation guaranteed.

satuon 12y ago
The fact we're assuming that all of those things are necessary highlights that you can't make a statistic from one case. How do we know which of the conditions on Earth were really necessary and which were neutral to life?
- eru 12y ago
  And which perhaps even detrimental?
- saiya-jin 12y ago
  picking out one of many mentioned in documentary goes along these lines: moon is a remnant of young earth colliding with its twin planet, part of it was absorbed into earth (that's why we have so much iron & melted dynamic core, which btw generates strong magnetic shield protecting us from sun's solar winds). Rest formed moon over time, which is unusually big compared to its parent planet and unusually close (all those stabilizing influences + tides). If we haven't had moon, earth would be "wobbling" on its path around sun frequently, causing very frequent glacial ages. Necessary for life itself? Never said that. Stromatolites and similar single cell organism can survive about anything short of earth being consumed by black hole. Necessary for evolution of complex life and its explosion in variety that we see today, and more importantly our society? I personally do believe so. Just watch the document and then we can discuss.

satuon 12y ago

The fact we're assuming that all of those things are necessary highlights that you can't make a statistic from one case. How do we know which of the conditions on Earth were really necessary and which were neutral to life?

eru 12y ago
And which perhaps even detrimental?
saiya-jin 12y ago
picking out one of many mentioned in documentary goes along these lines: moon is a remnant of young earth colliding with its twin planet, part of it was absorbed into earth (that's why we have so much iron & melted dynamic core, which btw generates strong magnetic shield protecting us from sun's solar winds). Rest formed moon over time, which is unusually big compared to its parent planet and unusually close (all those stabilizing influences + tides). If we haven't had moon, earth would be "wobbling" on its path around sun frequently, causing very frequent glacial ages. Necessary for life itself? Never said that. Stromatolites and similar single cell organism can survive about anything short of earth being consumed by black hole. Necessary for evolution of complex life and its explosion in variety that we see today, and more importantly our society? I personally do believe so. Just watch the document and then we can discuss.