Abstract: Earth system science is a science produced in response to the needs of The Times. It has revolutionized the way of thinking and working paradigm of earth geoscientists. Since its emergence, there have been controversies about whether it is a science and what potential applications it has. Using the method of literature review, this paper analyzed the essential characteristics of Earth system science, including its conceptual connotation, theoretical system, and relationship with geoscience, and summarized the methods and technologies of Earth system science. In view of the different problems to be solved, the paper puts forward the prospect of application of Earth system science in three fields: deep earth process, interactions between lithosphere and outer spheres, interaction between outer spheres. The analysis showed that the Earth system science is not only a natural science view based on geoscience and Systems theory, but also a set of advanced working method system to quantify the interactions of various Earth spheres, which is the key to reveal the mystery of the interactions of Earth spheres and solve the habitability of the earth.