Where+can+we+live?

It has been questioned for years, questioned by scientists, astronomers, even the common people, where can we live if the global warming of Earth continues. The answer to this question takes research and knowledge of each planet in the solar system. You must know the surface, the atmosphere, and the area of each planet. The surface of the planet should be solid and wide, the atmosphere may not be filled with gases, and the area must be far away from the sun as possible. With these three things in mind, finding another home for civilization can found more quickly.  Mercury is the planet closest to the sun and has no moons of its own. Because Mercury is so close to the sun, people on Earth can never get a good enough glance at the planet. Much of recent astronomers get their information about Mercury’s surface from the space probe, Marina 10. This space probe traveled to space about three times in the years 1974 and 1975 to take photographs of the planet. Unfortunately, Marina 10 captured pictures that only had half of Mercury’s surface. Because of this, many astronomers still don’t know much about the rest of Mercury. Although these photos were not very high quality pictures, they showed that this planet has many flat plains and craters on its surface. Mercury has an extremely thin atmosphere. It is so close to the sun, that during the day, the side facing the sun sometimes reaches to temperatures of 430 degrees Celsius. Since this planet has almost no atmosphere, at night all the heat escapes into space and the temperature drops to 170 degrees Celsius. This gives Mercury a greater range of temperature than any other planet in the solar system. Also, because Mercury is so close to the sun it is unsuitable for civilization to live on. Usually after sunsets, you may see a bright object in the west. This object is Venus. When Venus shines like that it is called the “evening star.” Venus is also called the “morning star” when it rises before the sun early in the morning. It is also called Earth’s twin because they are so similar in their size, density and even the internal structure of Venus is similar to Earth’s. Venus takes about 7.5 Earth months to revolve around the sun and it takes 8 Earth months to rotate on its axis. Venus rotates from east to west, the opposite direction that the other planets and moons in the solar system rotate. This rotation is called retrograde rotation. This is from the Latin words meaning “moving backward.” The atmosphere of Venus is thick, much different from Mercury’s. The thick atmosphere is so thick that every day on this planet is cloudy and is never sunny. You are unable to breathe on Venus because the atmosphere is filled with carbon dioxide and you are only able to survive on the planet for 23 minutes, which makes Venus unsuitable to live on.  Mars is mostly known as the “red planet” because of the slightly reddish tinge it appears to have when you see it in the sky. The atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide and has only 1% the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. In the year 1877, an astronomer, Giovanni Schiaparelli said that he witnessed long, straight lines on the planet Mars, which he called canale, or channels. He was proven correct and false in 1890 by Percival Lowell, another astronomer, who announced that these channels were water canals. Both of these theories were false and the two men were mistaken. Because Mars’ axis is titled, it has seasons just like Earth does. Even though Mars is like Earth in some ways, its atmosphere is filled with carbon dioxide and is not a safe place to live.  Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system; it is actually 300 times as massive as Earth. Its atmosphere is also thick and made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. It also contains many colorful bands and many swirl-like clouds. It also contains an interesting feature known as its Great Red Spot. This is a giant area of swirling clouds many times bigger than Earth. In this Great Red Spot there appears to be a storm similar to a hurricane that has been going on for centuries and is still continuing. Jupiter was discovered to have four moons. The names of these moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.  Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar system. It has a thick atmosphere made up mainly of hydrogen and helium, like Jupiter. Saturn’s atmosphere also contains clouds and storms, but compared to Jupiter they are less dramatic. Also, Saturn is the only planet that is less dense than water. Saturn, as we all know, has beautiful rings that are made up of chunks of ice and rock, each that travel on its own orbit around Saturn. These rings are broad and thin and are usually compared to compact discs. Saturn has five moons, Titan, the largest one, Tethys, Iapetus, Dione, and Rhea.  Uranus is about four times the stage of Earth, but is still much smaller than Jupiter and Saturn. It is also twice as far from the sun as Saturn. Because of this, Uranus is one of the colder planets. The planet was discovered in the year 1781, by the astronomer William Herschel. He found an object that did not appear to be a star. With the help of other astronomers, Uranus became a new planet. Uranus’s axis is tilted at an angle of 90 degrees. It rotates from top to bottom instead of side to side, which is what most of the planets do. Its five largest moons have craters that show that the moons have obviously been hit by rocks or other damaging objects in space. These moon’s also have lava flows on their surfaces. This suggested that material has erupted from inside each moon.  Neptune is even farther from the sun than Uranus is. The planet Neptune was discovered as a result of a mathematical prediction. Astronomers believed that there must be another planet that has been unseen whose gravity was affecting Uranus’s orbit. In the year 1989, Voyager 2 flew back up to space again only this time to visit Neptune. The Voyager 2 captured photos of Neptune and found a Great Dark Spot. Although five years later the spot was gone. Other smaller spots and regions of clouds on Neptune seemed to come and go very easily as well. There are eight moons revolving Neptune.  Pluto, the smallest planet in the solar system, and its single moon, Charon, have solid surfaces and masses much less than that of Earth. Pluto is less than two thirds the size of Earth’s moon. Since Pluto’s moon, Charon, is more than half the size of Pluto, many astronomers consider it to be a double planet rather than a planet and a moon. They revolve around the sun once every 248 Earth years because their distance from the sun is so great. Clyde Tombaugh, an American astronomer, discovered Pluto in the year 1930. He began his discovery by studying a large object that had been affecting Neptune’s orbit. He had also spent 10 months looking at many images before he found Pluto. Although Pluto was found in 1930, Charon was found in 1978 by the astronomer James Christy. When he was studying the images of Pluto, he noticed that Pluto had a bump, which turned out to be Charon. Because Pluto is so small, many astronomers believe that it should not even be an official plant. If Pluto wasn’t the largest object revolving around Neptune and wasn’t found first out of the other objects, there wouldn’t be a planet named Pluto.  The answer, which is to our opening question obvious, is Mars. Mars is the most similar planet to Earth. It is a safe environment for civilization to live on as their second home. Also Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, has the suitable conditions for life to live there if the global warming on Earth continues the way it is now. Although there is a debate whether the global warming on Earth is as bad as some people believe. The debate is not solved and won’t be until we see what the future holds for us and whether we have to move to Mars or Jupiter’s moon, Europa.