The Earth’s Preserved and Protected Roof:
The Atmosphere

Though we are generally not aware of them, many meteorites fall on the Earth as well as on other planets. The reason why these meteorites, which form giant craters when they fall on other planets, do not harm the Earth is that the atmosphere exerts very strong friction on the falling meteors. Meteors cannot withstand this friction for long and lose immense mass by being burned. Thus, capable of causing great disasters, this danger is averted thanks to the atmosphere.

In the Qur'an, this characteristic in the creation of the atmosphere is explained: "We made the sky a preserved and protected roof yet still they turn away from Our signs." (Surat al-Anbiya: 32)

One of the most important indications that the sky is "a preserved and protected roof" is the magnetic field surrounding the Earth. The top layer of the atmosphere is made up of a magnetic zone called the "Van Allen Belt". This zone is formed by the qualities of the Earth's core.

The core of the Earth contains heavy magnetic elements like iron and nickel. What is more important, however, is that the core is composed of two distinct structures. The inner core is solid while the outer core is liquid. The outer layer floats on top of the inner layer, creating a magnetic effect on heavy metals, which in turn forms a magnetic field. The Van Allen Belt is an extension of this magnetic zone reaching the outer layer of the atmosphere. This magnetic field shields the Earth against possible dangers from space.

One of the most serious of these dangers is the "solar winds". Apart from heat, light and radiation, the Sun sends the Earth a wind made up of protons and electrons moving at a speed of 932 000 miles per hour.

Solar winds cannot pass through the Van Allen Belts, which create magnetic fields at a distance of 40,000 miles from the Earth. When the solar wind, in the form of a rain of particles, runs into this magnetic field, it decomposes and flows around this field.

The atmosphere absorbs most of the X-rays and ultraviolet rays emitted by the Sun. Without this absorption, life on Earth would be impossible.

The atmospheric zones surrounding us only let harmless rays, radio waves, and visible light reach the Earth. If our atmosphere did not have such impermeability, we could neither use radio waves for communication nor have daylight, which is the basis of life.

The ozone layer surrounding the Earth prevents harmful ultraviolet rays from the Sun from reaching the Earth. Ultraviolet rays from the Sun are so charged with energy that they could kill all living things on Earth. For this reason, to make life possible on Earth, the ozone layer is another especially created part of the "preserved and protected roof" of the sky.

Ozone is produced from oxygen. While there are two oxygen atoms in the (O₂) molecules of oxygen gas, there are three oxygen atoms in the (O₃) molecules of ozone gas. Ultraviolet rays coming from the Sun add one more atom to the oxygen molecule to form the ozone molecule. The ozone layer, which is formed by the action of ultraviolet, arrests fatal ultraviolet rays and thus constitutes one of the most basic conditions of life on Earth.

Briefly, if the Earth's core did not have the quality of forming magnetic field, and the atmosphere did not have the structure and density to filter harmful rays, life on Earth would be out of the question. It is, no doubt, impossible for any human being or any other living being to have ordered those. It is evident that God has created those protective features that are critically essential for human life, and that He created the sky as a "preserved and protected roof".

That other planets lack such "preserved and protected roofs" is another indication that the Earth is specially designed for human life. For instance, the entire core of the planet Mars is solid and therefore there is no protective magnetic shield around it. Because Mars is not as big as the Earth, not enough pressure has been generated to form the liquid part of the core. In addition, being the right size alone is not enough for the formation of a magnetic field around a planet. For instance, the diameter of Venus is almost the same as that of the Earth. Its mass is only 2% less than the Earth's and its weight is almost the same as the Earth's. Therefore, both in terms of pressure and for other reasons, it is inevitable that a metallic liquid part should form in the core of Venus. However, there is no magnetic field around Venus, the reason being the relatively slower rotation of Venus as compared to Earth. While Earth completes its rotation about its axis in one day, Venus does so in 243 days.

The sizes of the moon and other neighboring planets and their distances to the Earth are also important for the existence of the magnetic field constituting the "preserved and protected roof" of the Earth. If one of these planets was bigger than its actual size, it would cause it to have a greater gravitational force. A neighboring planet with such a large gravitational force would change the velocity of the liquid and solid parts of the Earth's core and prevent the formation of a magnetic field in its present form.

Briefly, the sky's having the quality of a "preserved and protected roof" requires that many variables such as the structure of the Earth's core, its rotational speed, the distance between planets, and the masses of planets converge at the most correct point.