The Mass of the Earth and the Planet’s Magnetic Field
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The size of Earth is no less important for life than are its distance from the Sun, its rotational speed, or geographical features. Looking at the planets we see a great range of sizes: Mercury is less than a tenth the size of Earth while Jupiter is 318 times bigger. Is the size of Earth as compared with other planets “coincidental”? Or is it deliberate? When we examine the dimensions of Earth we can easily see that our planet was designed to be exactly as big as it is. American geologists Frank Press and Raymond Siever comment on Earth’s “fitness”: And Earth’s size was just about right -not too small as to lose its atmosphere because its gravity was too small to prevent gasses from escaping into space, and not so large that its gravity would hold on to too much atmosphere, including harmful gases. In addition to its mass, the interior of Earth is also specially designed. Because of its core, Earth has a strong magnetic field whose role in the preservation of life is vital. According to Press and Siever: The earth’s interior is a gigantic but delicately balanced heat engine fueled by radioactivity …Were it running more slowly, geological activity would have proceeded at a slower pace. Iron might not have melted and sunk to form the liquid core, and the magnetic field would never have developed…if there had been more radioactive fuel and a faster running engine, volcanic gas and dust would have blotted out the Sun, the atmosphere would have been oppressively dense, and …
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