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    Why Is There Life on Earth?
    Why Is There Life on Earth?
    Why Is There Life on Earth?
    Ebook84 pages2 hours

    Why Is There Life on Earth?

    By Andrew Solway

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    About this ebook

    This book explains the conditions that allow life to flourish on Earth, and the possibility of finding life on other planets.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCapstone Young Readers
    Release dateDec 21, 2015
    ISBN9781410985026
    Why Is There Life on Earth?

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      Book preview

      Why Is There Life on Earth? - Andrew Solway

      titlepage image

      EARTH, SPACE, AND BEYOND

      WHY IS THERE

      LIFE ON EARTH?

      Contents

      A Goldilocks Planet

      The Basics of Life: Water

      The Basics of Life: Energy

      The Atmosphere

      Signs of Life

      Conclusion

      Timeline of Planet Discoveries

      Glossary

      Find Out More

      Index

      Some words are shown in bold, like this.You can find out what they mean by looking in the glossary.You can also look out for them in the Word Station box at the bottom of each page.

      A Goldilocks Planet

      In the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, Father Bear’s porridge is too hot, Mother Bear’s porridge is too cold, but Baby Bear’s porridge is just right. The Earth is like Baby Bear’s porridge — just right for life. It is sometimes called the Goldilocks planet.

      What makes Earth such a special place for life? For answers to this question, scientists have looked out into space to see how the Earth is different from its neighbors. Could there be life in the solar system, or beyond? To answer this question, many scientists are studying life at the extremes on Earth. They are learning that life can survive in a far broader range of conditions than had been previously thought.

      Cooking up life

      How did life begin? In 1953, some scientists thought that life began near the ocean surface. They put together some of life’s ingredients from a mixture of simple chemicals that might have been in ancient oceans. However, discoveries since then have led to other theories. Life may have begun on the ocean bed, or in rocks. It may even have come from outer space.

      However life began on Earth, one thing is certain. Without stars that shone and then exploded billions of years ago, there would be no life here at all. Our lives are linked to the solar system, the Sun, and the rest of the Universe.

      Did we come from space?

      Some scientists argue that simple life forms such as bacteria could have fallen to Earth in comets or asteroids, and provided the seeds for life on Earth. This theory is known as panspermia.

      images/img-4-1.jpg

      Butterfly fish swim in a colorful shoal over a coral reef in Hawaii. The shallow, warm waters provide ideal conditions for life.

      The Basics of Life: Water

      Living things can survive in the most unlikely places. But there is a bottom line. Life, at least as we know it, cannot survive without certain basic ingredients.

      Artificial life

      A private research company in the United States has created what news reporters called artificial life. In 2010 the J. Craig Venter Institute built a complete copy of the DNA (the genetic material) from a bacterium (one bacteria), using simple chemicals. They then replaced the DNA of another bacterium with the artificial DNA. The new bacterium is not exactly artificial life, but it is a step along the way. Dr. Craig Venter, the head of the company, said, "It’s a living species now, part of our planet’s inventory of

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