Vice

The Earth's is covered in water. That’s every last drop in the oceans, inclouds, in icecaps, in your body. And even less of that is fresh water. All that water together would fill a sphereonly 860 miles (about 1,385 kilometers) in diameter. Water is one of the things that makes Earthso special and without it, life as we know it couldn’t exist. Was our home always a waterpark? If not, how did it all get here? What do we really know about Earth’s H-two-Origins? [INTRO] The solar system formed when a cloud of gasand dust collapsed into a swirling disk. And at least some of that cloud was water. In the orbit where Earth would one day be,the young sun’s intense heat prevented water vapor from condensing on its own. But tiny grains of dust acted as ‘condensationnuclei’ to let droplets form. These tiny debris particles coalesced intoour young planet along with the water they carried. As Earth cooled, rocks in the crust reactedwith chemicals in the early atmosphere to create more wa

                     As far as we know, humans are the only livingthings that wear watches. But we aren’t the only ones that can telltime. Earth’s movement sets the rhythms of countlessbiological clocks. The 24 hour solar period winds cellular gearscontrolling sleep, hunger, and metabolism in creatures ranging from jellyfish to elephants. And our 365-and-a-quarter-day journey aroundthe sun regulates cycles of seasons, harvests, and migrations. But the phases of our planet’s nearest neighboralso have a surprising pull on biological rhythms. [OPEN] For many species the moon’s glow is a cuethat’s crucial to their survival. Vampires and emo teenagers aren’t the onlyones who find moonlight romantic. Lots of animals use the 29-and-a-half daylunar cycle to sync up when it comes to finding a mate.    Triggered by the full moon, impalas roar,which in turn triggers all their female mates to begin ovulation. Using a common signal like this ensures everymember of a species goes looking for a partn