Today, scientists believe that the main reason the earth has had periodic ice ages is:

Today, scientists believe that the main reason the earth has had periodic ages is that the climate of earth is controlled by the difference in heating of it's surface by the sun. As for example, the equatorial regions are the warmest as the sun is vertically overhead of those areas and the polar regions where the sun is at the extreme angels are the coldest ones.

Explanation:

answer;

d. are made mostly of liquid

explanation;

-the general   composition and structure planets includes; they have a thick gas and liquid layer covering a small,solid core. mostly the gases are hydrogen and helium atmosphere and layers of liquid hydrogen. for instance neptune and uranus are examples of the outer planets, they have a core covered by ice and ammonia.

-neptune's atmosphere is hydrogen and helium with a bit of methane so there is no oxygen to breath and the interior is made up of frozen water and ammonia with a rock and iron core. thus, there is no liquid water or solid surface to survive.