In fact, the structure and dynamics of our planet have a lot to do with why we’re here. It’s not just that we orbit in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone”—the distance from the sun where everything is Just Right. After all, that Zone is getting a little wider all the time, like a little girl who can’t stop gorging herself on porridge. Earthlings keep finding more and more Terran critters that push the envelope. These  extremophiles live in environments your high school biology teacher would’ve called too hot, too cold, too dry, too deep, too high, too salty, too acid or too basic. Such crazy critters give exobiologists hope of finding the Quantum Meat thriving in similar environments on other worlds. Scientists haven’t quite given up on Martian life, and there’s serious talk about finding the Quantum Meat on the Jovian and Saturnine moons.  Clearly, though, Earth is the Garden Planet of the solar system.

Our understanding of our planet has undergone a revolution in the last century. Far from being just a spinning ball of rock with a hot center, the Earth has emerged as a complex, dynamic creature, with her own elaborate anatomy and physiology. As we examine the makeup of our home planet, we’ll come to a deeper understanding of how her structures and processes nourish and protect us.

We all know that in 1492 Columbus Sailed The Ocean Blue and Proved the World Was Round. But while realizing that the Earth was a Big Round Thing (with American continents) as opposed to a Big Flat Thing (with just Europe and Asia) was a revolution for mapmakers, missionaries and slave traders, it didn’t really advance our understanding all that much.