Abundance of certain elements in Earth dictate whether plate tectonics can happen
Monday, July 20, 2015 - 14:00
in Astronomy & Space
Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone -- a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet's surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star -- in Earth's case, the sun -- this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse.