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When most people think of the Earth, they think of a rock. A solid ball of stone speckled with water, and people, and trees, and animals, and insects. Most people understand, and yet fail to think about the true nature of Earth when thoughts of the "world" cross their mind.

Yes, the core of the Earth is rock. And that rock is indeed covered with people and animals and plants, some of which have yet to be discovered. But, the atmosphere of our planet is what people don't usually see, because, to most people, the atmosphere is invisible. Take a flight to the moon and peer back at the Earth and you still may not come to grips with the concept that this rock that we live on is covered in things like air.

It isn't until most people actually see the atmosphere become displaced that they realize that it is there. Compared to the vast vacuum of space, the Earth's atmosphere acts more like we would expect liquid to act. It ebbs and flows around the rock that is at the center of the earth. If something large enough were to crash into it, it would splash out into space much like water in a swimming pool does when you make a "cannonball". It is this moving, flowing, churning outer sphere of the Earth that makes this rock inhabitable. Regardless of what's on it, or what it's distance from the sun is, a rock without an atmosphere is not a place we could live — at least not today.

So the next time you think of the Earth, don't just think of the part your feet walk on, think of the layers and layers of air that go on above you, and remember just how fragile, and yet incredibly important, those layers are.

These thoughts were finalized after reading about the asteriod on a possible collision course with the Earth sometime around Feburary, 2019.