Sustaining Life
How is it possible?
What makes a planet habitable?
• HABITABLE - suitable or good enough to
live in
• There are FIVE main factors that make a
planet habitable
– Temperature
– Water
– Atmosphere
– Energy
– Nutrients
Temperature
• Influences how quickly atoms & molecules
move
• Life is limited to a temperature range of
minus 15oC to 115oC (50 F to 239o F)
– In this range, liquid water can still exist under
certain conditions.
Water
• Dissolves & transports chemicals within
and to and from a cell
• Water needs to be regularly available.
– Life can go dormant between wet periods,
but, eventually, water needs to be available
Atmosphere
• Traps heat, shields the surface from
harmful radiation, and provides
chemicals needed for life, such as
nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
Energy
• Organisms use light or chemical energy
to run their life processes.
Nutrients
• Used to build and maintain an organism’s
body.
• All solid planets & moons have the
same general chemical makeup, so
nutrients are present. Those with a
water cycle or volcanic activity can
transport and replenish the chemicals
required by living organisms.
The question remains…
• What makes planet Earth perfect
for being habitable (sustaining
life)?
• Let’s gather some evidence in
order to come up with our
conclusion
Inner Planets
A.K.A.
Rocky Planets
Follow your teacher’s
directions to make a
4-tab foldable book.
Label your foldable as shown below:
Mercury Venus
Earth Mars
Write your information for
Mercury in this box on your
foldable:
Mercury
• small dry, rocky planet
• No evidence of water
• No cycles to transfer nutrients
• closest to the Sun
• thin atmosphere made mostly of oxygen (O2), sodium
(Na), hydrogen (H2), helium (He), and potassium (K)
• Atmosphere made of atoms that bounce off surface
because of solar winds (atoms bounce away from
high temperatures)
• Temperature range: -180o C (-290o F) to 430o C (800o F)
Write your information for Venus
in this box on your foldable:
Venus
• Rocky planet; solid surface w/ cratered and
volcanic landscape.
• thick /toxic atmosphere is made up mostly of
carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen (N2), with clouds
of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) droplets.
• temperatures of almost 480o C (900o F)
• surface pressure 90 times that of Earth
• Evidence of volcanic activity
• No evidence of water or nutrients
Write your information for Earth
in this box on your foldable:
Earth
• Solid surface of mountains, valleys, canyons, plains,
etc...
• an ocean planet: 70% of the surface is covered in
oceans
• atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen (N2), 21%
oxygen (O2) and 1% other ingredients
– the perfect balance for us to breathe and live
• Fresh water exists in the liquid phase
• presence and distribution of water vapor in the
atmosphere is responsible for most weather
• Atmosphere shields us from nearly all harmful
radiation coming from the sun
• Temperatures range from -25o C to 45o C (-13o F to
113o F)
• Cycles such as the water cycle to transfer nutrients
Write your information for Mars
in this box on your foldable:
Mars
• solid surface altered by volcanoes, impacts, crustal
movement, and as dust storms.
• thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide
(CO2), nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar).
• experiences seasons
• ice caps grow and recede with the seasons
• cold temperatures and thin atmosphere do not allow
liquid water to exist at the surface for long
• temperatures range from -153o C to 20o C (-225o F to 70o F)
• what water remains is either frozen in the Martian poles
as permafrost or hidden in deep underground springs
