7. Write a 5-7 sentence paragraph about why life as we know it has only been found on Earth.

It was one of the most important changes to have happened to the Earth's atmosphere and it was the reason why today we can breathe life-giving oxygen. And yet the Great Oxidation Event has remained a mystery – until now.

Without oxygen, life on Earth would not exist as we know it. It has provided the supercharged air that has fuelled an explosion in the diversity and size of all living organisms, from the smallest shrimp to the biggest dinosaur.

About 21 per cent of air is oxygen, a vital ingredient for living organisms to carry out the most efficient method of converting food into energy using aerobic respiration. Yet an oxygen-rich atmosphere did not always exist, and the explanation for how it came about has eluded generations of scientists.

Now a team of researchers led by Kurt Konhauser of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, has come up with a convincing explanation for why oxygen suddenly began to accumulate in the early atmosphere of the Earth about 2.7 billion years ago, when life consisted of nothing more complex than single-cell microbes.

Explanation:

trust