• Question: is earth the only planet you can breath on?

    Asked by icecream19 to Amar, Matt on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      Hi Icecream,

      We need oxygen in the air to survive. We have evolved in an environment where there is both carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) and our body uses the level of both to control out breathing.

      Our cells use oxygen to make energy from sugars, so we need that in the air. Our cells create CO2 and need to get rid of this. The body detect the amount of CO2 and changes the rate of breathing to get rid of it. If there is less CO2 in the atmosphere this might make us not breath correctly.

      So to come back to your question. At the moment we haven’t studied the atmospheres of all the planets that we have found in the galaxy. If one was to found to contain oxygen and carbon dioxide in the right amount then we might be able to breath on them. However, there might be other toxic chemical in the air (ammonia) so we might have to wear special safty suits anyway.

    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      As Amar said, we have evolved to breathe the air on our planet. The chances that there is another planet in the whole universe with a similar breathable air is probably quite high, if you consider the Universe to be infinitely large…

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