Be thankful for Earth's magnetosphere, a natural protective magnetic bubble. Our sun steadily emits light, energy and a constant flow of particles called the solar wind that bathes the planets as it travels out into space. Larger eruptions of solar material, called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, occur too, which can disrupt the atmosphere around a planet. Some planets, such as Venus, don't have protective magnetospheres and this can be bad news. See what happened when a powerful CME ripped into Venus' atmosphere: http://go.nasa.gov/1DoUPhC