Earth offers exactly the conditions a planet must have to make life possible as we know it. As we find and research more and more planets, will we come across a planet with those same favourable conditions, or even several? Or is Earth very rare, or even unique in its habitability?
A perfect planet for humans
So far, we have not found any other planet that also offers all the conditions like Earth. Earth has the right temperature to have water in liquid form because of its distance from the sun. And because of its atmosphere, which prevents all water from simply evaporating. The magnetic field around our earth, as well as that atmosphere, together protect life from harmful radiation from the universe. The sun in turn is a stable star, without too violent outbursts. And with Jupiter, the Earth has a big brother that catches many meteorite impacts.
Finding, comparing and collecting planets
The more planets we found and studied so far, the more often we came across a planet that also offers some conditions like Earth. Will we soon find one with ALL conditions for life as we know it? Will we find out if the Earth in the universe is unique, rare, a even a little ordinary? The more research we do on this, the better we will be able to determine that.
Different exoplanet missions are good at different approaches within this research. Some map many planets and build a collection, others specialise in revealing small planets and still others study the atmospheres of already discovered exoplanets.
SRON collaborates on large exoplanet missions, such as PLATO and Ariel, as well as technology for new missions in the further future, to expand the collection to find out how special Earth is in the context of the universe.
