Life on Earth may exist thanks to an incredible stroke of luck — a chemical sweet spot that most planets miss during their formation but ours managed to hit.
A new study shows that Earth formed under an unusually precise set of chemical conditions that allowed it to retain two elements essential for life as we know it: phosphorus and nitrogen. Without a perfect balance of these elements, a rocky planet could appear habitable on the surface yet be fundamentally incapable of supporting biology, according to the study.
