And you’ll never guess what it is.
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00:00Earth tilts as it spins on its axis, but in the wide range of things we find particularly unique
00:09about our planet with regards to habitability, that's not one of the most important things for
00:13life, right? Well, Science Alert reports, according to a new study, a specific axial tilt may be
00:19crucial for oxygen production, one of the building blocks of intelligent life. Billions of years ago,
00:24Earth was much different than it is today. Before the great oxidation event around 2.4 to 2 billion
00:29years ago, there wasn't much oxygen here at all, so the researchers created a model that would allow
00:34them to figure out how cyanobacteria or oxygen-producing ocean life could have come to thrive.
00:39Several factors like increased day length, continental creation, and continental movement
00:43played their part in cyanobacterial proliferation, but axial tilt, in our planet's case, a 23.5 degree
00:50offset from the sun created the seasons, which also had an impact on the oceans, where it created
00:55currents that mixed bodies of water all over the world. Mixing that also shifted and spread out
00:59nutrients, providing food to cyanobacteria, and increasing our world's oxygen production
01:04by double. But tilt may also have a Goldilocks zone. The planet Uranus, for example, has an
01:09extreme tilt, a full 98 degrees offset from the sun, creating seasons that would be far too hectic
01:15for life to survive.
01:17For life to survive.