Of all the planets near the Sun, why only Earth has 3/4 water?

Question

Of all the planets near the Sun, why only Earth has 3/4 water?

Answer 1

i believe its because the planets besides earth that are close to the sun are at such a high temperature that the water evaporated. but im sure that was billions of years ago.

Answer 2

Earth rules.

Answer 3

location location location  

Answer 4

Earth doesn't have 3/4 water.  It's mostly iron and silica (and most rocks contain oxides so there is a considerable amount of oxygen).  The surface is 2/3 - 3/4 water because of its shape.  If it was perfectly flat (well, round... you know what I mean) it would be 100% water.  If it was shaped differently it could be closer to 50% or even 25% water (say, if it was mostly flat with some really deep trenches).  There are other objects out there, for instance enceladus or europa, that probably have more water than earth.

But the reason we have a fair amount of liquid water is because of our distance from the sun - as someone else said, it's the "Goldilocks Zone"

Answer 5

That is the Great mystery; the basis for all our life, civilisation and even the fact that we both are communicating like this on the Net. Life as we know and the water (3/4) as we know are taken for granted so much so that there are thousands of stupid questions that inherently start with the assumption 'yes, everywhere else either on Mars or Titan the conditions are same as here'.

It is a coincidence of several factors of Astronomy with joint probability extremely low, some mutually contradictory. The scientific community is looking for another replica of this situation over the universe, drawing a blank till today. Even a life environment with some other fluid(and the conditions to support) replacing water, Silicon based instead of Carbon based and so on have been speculated with results 'nil'.

Long ago I read a report (a book) on the proceedings of international meet to discuss 'Drake's formula' for SETI (Search for Extra Terrestial Intelligence) at Baku, Azerbaijan, may be in 1968. Though the event was not publiced by the imbecile global media, I am of the opinion that the event should have been given equal prominence with the Olympics. It is this the dissemination of knowledge that will intellectually enrich us like Oxygen does to the life processes.

Answer 6

Because we are awesome.

Plus there is water on Mars. :]

So they can join our awesomeness.

Answer 7

Well, Enceledus and Europa seem to be 100% covered in water. It's just all frozen, but it's still water.

Mercury - too small to hold an atmosphere, especially that close to the source of the solar winds - the Sun blows gasses away from it.

Venus: So hot that the water was split into hydrogen and oxygen gas and then blown away by the solar winds long ago.

Earth: Magnetic field protects it from solar winds, and is near enough to be warm, but not so near that it suffers Venus's fate.

Mars: No magnetic field - solar wind erodes most of the atmosphere. Low pressures cause water to evaporate / sublimate and be blown off with the rest of the atmosphere

That's it in a nutshell.

Answer 8

we have a legit atmosphere.

Answer 9

that's why so many scientists spend their lives researching other planets.

miraculously we're the only planet within PERFECT distance of the sun to support life.

or...at least human life depending on what you wanna believe.

Answer 10

The earth resides in what is known as the goldilocks condition zone in our solar system. As in the story of goldilocks, one soup was too hot, the other was too cold, but one was just right, earth falls into a similar circumstance. Mercury is so close to the sun that it orbits around it every 88 days. The temperatures of mercury are hot enough to melt lead (Pb).In face, the sun's solar wind has stripped mercury completely of its atmosphere, and therefore, mercury experiences DRAMATIC temperature days daily. Venus is also WAY too hot. It has a very THICK atmoshere, and therefore absorbs so much heat (which is plentiful being so close to the sun) that no life can possibly exist. Earth, however, has a stable atmosphere that is not too thick (although global warming is making it thicker) and not too thin. The atmosphere absorbs the perfect amount of sunlight, and refelct the perfect amount of sunlight, thus keeping the temperature on earth stable for human survival. It is believed that mars also, under some circumstances resides in the goldilocks zone, but is too cold for liquid water. The reason mars is cold is because its atmosphere has eroded away by the solar wind. With little atmosphere, mars is not able to trap enough heat to make it warm enough for liquid water. If mars could somehow get a thicker atmosphere, like that of earth, but not as thick as venus, it could most likely sustain even more that 3/4 water because there is proof that there is large amounts of frozen ice beneath mars's soil. In fact, before mars' atmosphere eroded away, it had large amounts of running water in forms of lakes, streams, and oceans

HOPE I HELPED>>> Good Luck!

Answer 11

ask NASA