The Earth, the third planet in the Solar System, is home to a multitude of living organisms. Not only that, but our planet is also surrounded by other planets that orbit the Sun. But what would happen if the other seven planets in our Solar System suddenly disappeared? This is a challenging question; however, if this were to occur, humanity may not survive, and life might not be able to form on Earth.
Assuming all the planets except Earth suddenly vanished, the first noticeable change would be subtle shifts in the night sky. The five remaining planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn – which can be seen at night in our sky, would no longer be visible.
The absence of these planets in the night sky would be immediately apparent to astronomers, but these differences might not be obvious to the average person. However, the changes in the sky would not be the only alterations and certainly not the most impactful.
Earth (1 AU from the Sun) is the largest and densest of the inner planets of the Solar System, and it is also the only planet we know to have recent geological activity, as well as the only planet in the universe known to support life.
If all the other planets were to disappear, it would affect Earth’s orbit around the Sun. While the Sun’s gravitational pull plays a crucial role in keeping our planet in the correct orbit within the Solar System, the other planets also play a significant role in maintaining balance.
According to Zmescience, there would be no way to know how our planet might move without the other planets keeping our orbit in check. We could drift into a region too close to the Sun and risk being scorched by its heat, or we might move to where Neptune and Uranus currently reside, where the temperatures are far too cold for us to survive.
Even if Earth tried to maintain its current orbit, there could still be negative impacts from the absence of the other planets. For instance, Jupiter’s immense gravity acts like a “vacuum cleaner” that attracts wandering planets and comets, preventing them from colliding with other planets, including Earth. Without Jupiter’s gravitational influence, we could see many asteroids and comets collide with our planet over time.
Earth is also the only rocky planet with a liquid hydrosphere and the only planet where plate tectonics have been observed. The atmosphere of Earth is fundamentally different from that of other planets, with the essential free molecular oxygen for life making up about 21% of its atmosphere.
The other planets play a significant role in helping us maintain our orbit around the Sun. This is crucial, as Earth’s current orbit lies within the “Goldilocks Zone.” According to NASA, the Goldilocks Zone, also known as the habitable zone, is the region around a star where liquid water can exist. This is because the conditions in this area are “just right” for life, not too cold and not too hot.
The conditions necessary for life to begin on a planet are already difficult to meet, and in the case of Earth, life would not be able to arise if our “neighbors” were to suddenly disappear.
Life is a characteristic that distinguishes biological entities (e.g., the ability to maintain oneself or transmit signals) from objects that lack these mechanisms or have ceased to function, which are referred to as inanimate or unresponsive. Life on Earth first appeared approximately 4.28 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of oceans around 4.41 billion years ago and not long after Earth’s formation 4.54 billion years ago. Life on Earth may have originated from RNA cells, although life with RNA cells might not have been the first. The mechanisms for the origin of life on Earth remain unclear, but some scientists continue to believe in theories stemming from the Miller-Urey experiment. |
