Earth is one special planet.

It has liquid water, plate tectonics, and an atmosphere that shelters it from
the worst of the sun's rays. But many scientists agree our planet's most
special feature might just be us.

"It?s the only planet we know of that has life," said Alan Boss, a planet
formation theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington,
D.C.
Though other bodies in our solar system, such as Saturn's moon Titan, seem like
they could have once been hospitable to some form of life, and scientists still
have hope of eventually digging up microbes beneath the surface of Mars, Earth
is still the only world known to support life.

"So far, we haven't found it anywhere else," said Alex Wolszczan of

Pennsylvania State University, who co-discovered the first planets beyond our
solar system. He agreed that life was Earth's single most impressive
characteristic.

None of this is a revelation, but understanding what's special about Earth is

crucial for finding other planets out there and predicting what they might be
like.
The fact that Earth hosts not just life, but intelligent life, makes it doubly
unique. And the planet's intelligent life (humanity) has even developed
rockets that enable travel beyond the planet, said Gregory Laughlin,
astrophysicist and planet hunter at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"During the last half century, the planet Earth has fashioned together tiny
pieces of the metal in its crust, and has flung these delicately constructed
objects to all of the other planets in the solar system," Laughlin said, adding
that these achievements should be counted as an exemplary trait of our
planet.
"From our anthropocentric viewpoint, we naturally separate ourselves from
the planet that we live on, but if one adopts the point of view of an external
observer, it is the 'planet' (taken as a whole) that has done these
remarkable things
The major layers of the Earth, starting from its center, are
the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust.
These layers formed as the building blocks of Earth,
known as planetesimals, collided and collapsed under
their own gravity around 4.5 billion years ago. At that time,
the heaviest elements (like iron and nickel) sank to the
core, while the lighter elements (like silicon, oxygen, and
carbon), rose to form the mantle and crust.
The crust itself is composed of many layers, which are the
ones we can see at the surface. Most continents have a
crystalline core, known as a 'kraton'. Every continental
kraton is then draped in many layers of sedimentary,
igneous, and metamorphic rock. The most dramatic
layers, like those in the mountain ranges above Santa
Barbara, are often sedimentary rocks, which formed as
long-gone mountain ranges eroded away and the resulting
sediments were deposited somewhere else on the
continent. A change in tectonic plate motion then caused
those sedimentary layers to be brought up to where we
can see them today.
When volcanoes erupt, the lava that comes out can
spread across broad areas, forming a layer of igneous
rock within the sedimentary layers. Thus, most of the
layering on the Earth's surface is due to erosion and
deposition of mountain ranges, and lava flowing out on the
surface.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is a blanket of air that surrounds the
earth
The earth's atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen
and 1% other gases
The earth's atmosphere is thick enough to trap in just the
right amount of heat
Ozone layer protects life from harmful UV rays

Temperature
Earth is the correct distance from the sun to have a
liveable temperature
The rotation of earth (spinning in circles) makes sure all
areas get an equal amount of time in the sun
Water
The earth has liquid water on its surface - this is
essential for life

Conditions that must exist for humans to live

right temp
right air pressure
water
food
way of getting rid of waste
oxygen
shelter