Earth
You live here. Earth is the planet that we live on. 71% of the surface is covered by water, an essential element to life. Our planet has a moon to stabilise it, a size not too big nor too small, at a distance so it's not to hot nor too cold, allowing life to thrive. Such luxuries always have prices. We humans haven't paid yet...
Earth Stats
Average Distance from Sun: 149 598 262 km
Perihelion: 147.09 million km Aphelion: 152.10 million km Mass: 5 972 400 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg (5.9724 septillion kg) Equatorial Diameter: 12 756.274 km Polar Diameter: 12 713.508 km Volume: 1 083 210 000 000 km^3 (1.08321 trillion km cubed) Gravity: 9.807 N/kg Temperature: 70.7 C to -89.2 C Rotation: 23.9345 hours (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.09 seconds) Day: 24 hours Revolution: 365.2422 days (365 days, 5 hours. 48 minutes, 46 seconds) Moons: 1 Type: Terrestrial planet Namesake: none |
Earth Facts
- Earth is the only planet in the solar system known to have life and Internet.
- EARTH HAD A COLLISION IN THE PAST. Man, what's up with the terrestrial planets and huge collisions? Earth's collision is the most important in its history. 4.53 billion years ago, a Mars-sized planet called Theia collided with the young Earth. Debris from Earth and Theia formed glowing rings around our planet, which soon coalesced to form the Moon. The collision also tilted the Earth to the familiar 23.44 degree angle today. This tilt is what causes the seasons and helps evenly distribute the Sun's energy across the planet.
- EARTH'S MOON IS VERY IMPORTANT! Our Moon stabilises Earth. If we didn't have the Moon, a day would be only 8 hours long! Such fast spinning would mean faster winds and therefore more hurricanes and tornadoes. Without the Moon, life as we know it may not have even evolved!
- LIFE HAS BEEN HERE FOR OVER 4/5 OF EARTH'S LIFE, beginning 3.8 billion years ago. No one really knows how it got onto Earth. The first organisms to produce oxygen (which were NOT plants but cyanobacteria, AKA blue-green algae) existed 3.5 billion years ago.
- MASS EXTINCTIONS HAVE OCCURRED. A mass extinction is an event where many many forms of life die out completely. There are six main mass extinctions, depending on what you call a "mass extinction." The first was 2.4 billion years ago. The worst was 252 million years ago, when 96% of life was wiped out by toxic gases and volcanoes. The most famous occurred 66 million years ago, when an asteroid or comet crashed into what is Mexico today and wiped out the dinosaurs. Scientists are certain that the sixth mass extinction is caused by human activity, and is just starting.
- EARTH HAS A MAGNETIC FIELD. Earth's core is divided into two parts - an outer core and inner core, The outer core is made of liquid iron, while the inner core is solid, As the outer core spins, it acts like a magnet and generates a magnetic field. This magnetic field shields us from the worst effects of solar winds. Of the Jovian and terrestrial planets, Venus and Mars are the only ones without a magnetic field.
- EARTH IS THE DENSEST PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. This means that the atoms in the planet are packed the tightest, so if all the planets could somehow be safely dumped into a tub of water, Earth would sink the fastest. It's density is 5.514 g/cm^3.