Why is Earth the only planet that sustains life?
It is highly likely that we have found life on Mars already and will find it in other places in our solar system as well — on moons…
Could Earth be the most technologically advanced civilization in the universe? How likely is this scenario?
According to the latest research, the nearest technological civilization in our Milky Way Galaxy might be about 33,000 light-years away, assuming such civilizations tend to exist for at…
If Earth orbited a blue supergiant star at the habitable zone, would going to the beach be a bad idea no matter what? Would people get sunburned within seconds?
No. Sunburn would not be a risk. Ozone layers don’t just shield against ultraviolet radiation, they are also created by ultraviolet. Specifically, ozone layers are created by higher…
If the Earth stopped rotating, would we feel a difference since we’re so used to it spinning at really high speeds?
You would notice the difference for a fraction of a second and then you would cease to notice anything at all….because you would be dead. Imagine you are…
If a gamma-ray burst hit Earth, would we be able to realize it even happened to us due to its speed?
The problem is speed doesn’t matter. We wouldn’t know until after it hit us. Gamma-ray bursts move at the speed of light. No warning system could alert us…
If I shoot a bullet at Earth from the Moon, what will happen when it reaches the Earth?
The .220 Swift remains the fastest commercial cartridge in the world, with a published velocity of 4,665 ft/s (1,422 m/s) and the escape velocity of the MOON is 2,400 m/s so the…
Why can’t the Earth just all be land?
Earth can be just all land, but we wouldn’t be here. It would be inhospitable to complex life. Surprisingly, though, there is a theory that a planet with…
Is everything made on Earth made up of things from Earth?
Nope! There’s actually a really good historical example of this. Before humans knew how to extract iron from iron ore (which occurred around 1,200 BCE) a few groups…
Where is the highest concentration of gold on Earth?
The mines with the highest concentration of gold in the world are rocks around submarine hydrothermal vents around Aogashima in the Izu Islands. The average concentration of gold…
How does the Earth orbit the sun without losing energy?
Physics is hard to understand because it violates everyday observation, intuition, and common sense. Take “Newton’s First Law” as an example. It states that an object in motion…