In comparison to the other planets of the solar system, the concentration of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere and the presence of liquid water on the surface make our "Pale Blue Dot" stand out - a rare and delicate habitat for life.
Though we're not the most fascinating one that orbits the sun with all of the human activity on our homeworld. In the solar system, there are several other similarly beautiful sites.
Take Venus, for starters. Its atmosphere is unbelievably thick. The air is almost a hundred times denser on the surface than it is on Earth, which renders "sea level" on Venus the equivalent pressure of 3,000 feet underwater.
The air above Venus lock heat, a runaway greenhouse effect in plague proportions. It makes the atmosphere so hot that it is hotter there than on Mercury, despite the sun being closer to the tiny planet.
And there's Saturn with its north pole sporting a hexagon. No joke, we got pictures of it and all. A perfect, legit geometric structure, looking at us like a kind of cosmic joke.
A massive vortex-like hurricane occupies Saturn's north pole, as winds blow around the world at hundreds of miles per hour. But as you travel farther south, the winds fall to more sedated velocities.
Such winds become turbulent at a particular latitude, as faster-moving winds brush into their more slow-moving relatives. In the northern hemisphere of Saturn, the tumultuous motion produces weaker, semi-permanent hurricanes, strung like beads on a chain. These hurricanes mold the jet stream above them and shape it, causing the winds to take on a distinctly six-sided look.
There's no better planet than Saturn if you love geometry No one else possesses such an array of storms in our solar system, which makes the ringed planet a total rarity.
The hexagon isn't the only mystery the Saturnian system has. The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, is enveloped in a dark, unsolvable puzzle.
The atmosphere of Titan is thick - the thickest of any moon in the solar system, by far, and also 50% thicker than the atmosphere of Earth. Mostly it is nitrogen (just like Earth's air) but it still has a small amount of methane and ethane. That gives Titan its distinctive yellow color. And the methane bonds with hydrogen just above the surface, sprinkling a few clouds into the smog.
And quite often the methane forms droplets and falls to the ground, where it collects and absorbs to produce methane streams, rivers, lakes, and even oceans. And if it becomes a little warm, some of the methane will evaporate back into the atmosphere, beginning the process again.
A full cycle, similar to the Earth's water cycle, just a few hundred degrees below zero and with methane to boot.
Titan is the only celestial body that holds liquids on its surface besides Earth itself. Life as we know it needs water, but in this methane oasis at the edge of the solar system, any form of life is not unlikely to emerge.
And any location that could theoretically host life is most definitely special.
