What is the Greenhouse Effect?

#greenhouse #effect #earth #climatechange #ngscience

The Earth is just one of eight planets in our solar system. But there is one thing that make Earth a really special place...life!
So why does life exist here and not on other planets? There's a few reasons...our atmosphere contains the right balance of essential gases, like oxygen and carbon dioxide.
We also have liquid water and plenty of the sunlight plants need to photosynthesize.
Another important factor is temperature. Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth and has an average temperature of about 460 degrees Celcius.
Mars is further from the Sun with an average temperature of about minus 65 degrees Celcius.

But here on Earth our average temperature is a cosy 15 degrees Celcius.

A big reason for this is Earth's distance from the Sun, something scientists refer to as the habitable zone or goldilocks zone - it's not to cold, it's not too hot, but just right.

Another condition that helps maintain the temperature of our planet is the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect gets its name from...greenhouses. A greenhouse is a structure with glass walls and a glass roof used to grow plants.

The transparent glass allows the light and heat from Sun to pass through while trapping some of the heat inside. This helps to maintain a stable temperature throughout the day and night.

The greenhouse effect keeps the Earth warm in a similar way. The layer of gases that surround the Earth, called the atmosphere, acts as the glass that makes up a greenhouse...and you can think of the Earth as the plants inside. During the day, the Sun's light and heat enters the atmosphere and warms the Earth's surface. At night, the Earth's surface cools and releases heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by special gases called greenhouses gases. These include carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane. Trapping heat from escaping the atmosphere maintains a more stable temperature for life on Earth to thrive!

See our related videos to learn how human activities are changing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the effect this is having on our climate and living things.

Thanks for learning.