20. If the ozone layer disappears, will the Sun kill us? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

The ozone layer provides protection from too many ultraviolet rays entering the Earth's atmosphere and harming us. Ultraviolet rays are the rays that cause our skin to tan and even burn if we go too long on a warm summer day without putting skin protection on at the beach. Without the ozone layer, life on Earth would suffer some harmful consequences which could cause major increases of skin cancers in humans and perhaps even extinctions in species which could not cope with the higher dose of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. NASA maintains a complete fleet of Earth observation satellites to study the many systems on Earth so we can better understand the consequences of human activity that could damage our fragile ecosystem on the planet. The more knowledge we have, the more we will be able to understand what we must do to ensure the survival of all species on our home planet.

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Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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