Hugh Pickens writes "Planetary scientists say there are aspects to our planet and its change that are remarkably strange. In the first place there is Earth's strong alluring field. No one is exactly sure how it works, but it has article to do with the boisterous motion that occurs in the Earth's liquid outer core and without it, we would be bombarded by harmful shaft from the Sun. Next there's plate tectonics. We live on a planet that is constantly garbage lot its crust, limiting the amount of carbon dioxide escaping into the surroundings — a natural way of authoritative the greenhouse effect. Then there's Jupiter-sized outer planets protecting the Earth from monotonous large impacts. But the strangest thing of all is our big Moon. 'As the Earth rotates, it wobbles on its axis like a child's mule top,' says teacher Monica Grady. 'What the Moon does is dampen down that wobble and that helps to prevent extreme climate fluctuations' — which would be detrimental to life. The moon's tides have also made long swaths of earth's coastline into areas of that are habitually shifted between dry and wet, with the proviso a proving ground for early sea life to test the land for its suitability as a habitat. The 'Rare Earth Hypothesis' is one find to the Fermi Paradox (PDF) because, if Earth is uniquely special as an abode of life, ETI will accordingly be rare or even non-existent. And in the absence of verifiable alien contact, scientific opinion will forever remain split as to whether the Universe teems with life or we are alone in the inky blackness."

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