The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is one of our solar system’s terrestrial planets. It has been around for about 4.54 billion years, making it a very old celestial body! The only thing cooler than that? That Earth also supports life which makes sense since we’re pretty awesome creatures. We are going to cover some interesting Earth facts and answer some common questions we have about planet Earth.
Facts about the Earth
- Earth is Almost a Sphere.
- Earth is the third planet from the sun.
- 70% of the Earth’s Surface is Covered in Water.
- Earth is Mostly Iron, Oxygen, and Silicon.
- The Earth’s interior is composed of four layers, three solid and one liquid.
- A Day on Earth 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds Not 24 Hours.
- A year on Earth isn’t 365 days it is actually 365.2564 days.
- Earth only has one moon.
- Earth doesn’t have any rings.
- Planet Earth is the only known planet to have life.
- Earth’s diameter measures a huge 12,800 kilometers, the fifth-largest planet in the solar system.
- Earth’s age is 4.54 billion years old, give or take 50 million years.
- The Earth is the only planet not named after a Greek or Roman god or goddess.
- 1.7% of Earth’s water is frozen and therefore unusable.
Orbit & Rotation
The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is a 365-day journey that we are all familiar with. However, what many people don’t know about this distance from our average orbital distance of 1.50 x 108 km to light’s travel time is how long it takes for sunlight on average: 8 minutes and 20 seconds!
Earth’s orbit is one of the most circular in all the Solar systems. This means that, while Earth has a small difference between perihelion and aphelion, its position within this orbit makes up for it with varying seasons being experienced throughout the year.
The Earth’s axial tilt is 23.45°, which means that the axis of rotation for our planet isn’t parallel to its orbit around the Sun. The general effect from this angle plus where we are in our elliptical path makes it so there can be times when one hemisphere has more light than another or vice versa – like during summer and wintertime!
The Earth takes approximately twenty-four hours to complete one rotation. This is the fastest among all terrestrial planets, but slower than that of any gas planet!
How Long Does It Take Earth To Orbit The Sun
Earth revolves around the sun once a year. This means that, in 365 days, Earth has made one complete revolution and will be back at its original position on January 1 of next year!
How Far From The Sun Does Earth Orbit
Earth’s orbit is average at 149.6 million km (92,961,500 mi) and a full year orbital around the sun takes 365 days or 1 sidereal year which equals 940 million kilometers traveled by Earth during that time.
How Long Does It Take For Earth To Rotate
The Earth turns once on its axis in 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds while orbiting around the sun every 365 days which is approximately one year!
How Long Is A Year On Earth
The true length of a year on Earth is 365.2422 days or about 365.25 days. We keep our calendar in sync with the seasons by having most years 365 days long but making just under 1/4 of all years 366-day “leap” years and adding an extra day to February every 4th year.
How Long Is A Day On Earth
A sidereal day is a time it takes for a planet to complete one rotation. On Earth, this period of time can be approximately 23 hours and 56 minutes.
Why Don’t We Feel Earth Move?
The Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, and we don’t feel it.
The reason is that you’re moving with the earth at the same constant speed as everything else including oceans and the atmosphere which all move in unison through gravity’s pull from one place to another.
Why Does Earth Spin?
The Earth is spinning because it formed in the accretion disk of a cloud of hydrogen that collapsed down from mutual gravity and needed to conserve its angular momentum. It continues to spin because inertia keeps going after you stop pushing against something.
Earth’s History
The history of Earth stretches back 4,567 million years ago when the solar system was born. The sun had been a cloud of dust and gas before it created planets including our very own planet with its four seasons that change annually due to both the tilt in relation to earth’s axis as well as changes in declination from the Sun.
How Old Is Earth
Earth’s age is 4.54 billion years old, and it could be up to 50 million years older or younger than that!
How Did Earth Get Its Name
The name Earth is derived from both English and German words, “eor(th)e/ertha” and “erde”, respectively, which mean ground. One interesting fact about its name: it’s the only planet that wasn’t named after a Greek or Roman god or goddess!
What Is Earth’s Location In Space?
The Earth is located in the universe and lays within a Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. Within this supercluster, we are among other groups called Local Groups with our own group being known as “The Milky Way.” The second-largest galaxy, also named “Milky Way” resides here on earth – making us quite lucky to be living amongst such beauty!
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the Earth is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace amounts of carbon dioxide. These gases are essential to DNA production and biological energy generation without which life could not be sustained on this planet. Another important gas in the ozone layer known as argon protects our surface from harmful solar radiation by absorbing it before reaching us.
The amazing thing is that the amount of oxygen in our atmosphere, which we breathe to survive, comes from life found all around us. As a byproduct of making sugars and other important substances for plants on Earth (such as chlorophyll), they convert carbon dioxide into something else – like food or water. This means without these green friends living near you right now then there would be much more CO2 than O2 gas molecules floating about!
The remarkable fact is that significant amounts of oxygen present in the atmosphere are due to plant life form here on earth converting atmospheric gases like Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen through photosynthesis- essentially meaning if not for this process happening it’s possible there could have been less Oxygen with higher levels Carbon D.
There are two ways that the Earth’s average temperature is determined. The first way is how much carbon dioxide there is in our atmosphere. This determines if the Earth will suffer from a runaway greenhouse effect like on Venus or not have any at all and be even colder than it already is. This specific amount of CO2 levels was just right to make sure temperatures stay between -88° C and 58°C. As they should range based on what we need them for livable conditions!
Does Earth Have Rings
Earth has no rings.
Does Earth Have Moons
The Earth has a single moon, which is not always the case. There may have been more than one in past times and it’s possible that there was an impact with another planet or asteroid millions of years ago on the far side of our Moon creating this strange terrain.
How Many Moons Does Earth Have
One
How Much Gravity Is On Earth
It’s important to remember that gravity is not a fixed entity, but rather varies depending on location. The nominal “average” value at Earth’s surface known as standard gravity is 9.80665 m/s2 by definition; however, this can change based on the latitude and altitude you are in which leads to variations in gravitational pull from one place to another.
Does Earth Have A Magnetic Field
The Earth has a surface made up of different layers that are chemically distinct and have their own physical properties. The crust is magnetized in some places, while the core generates its own magnetic field to sustain most of the one we measure at ground level.
How Thick Is Earth’s Ozone Layer?
The Ozone layer is about 3 millimeters thick and spread across the Earth’s surface. It prevents most of the suns’ radiation from reaching us, so we can live on our planet without being burned alive.
What Keeps Our Atmosphere Attached To Earth?
The gravity on Earth is strong enough to hold onto our atmosphere. Mars for example has less mass and therefore creates a weaker gravitational pull, which means that the air can escape more easily.
What Is The Atmosphere Of Earth Made Of?
The air in Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen, but it also has other gases like carbon dioxide, neon, and hydrogen. These chemicals are responsible for Earth’s atmosphere is the perfect temperature to sustain life!
Oceans
The Earth’s oceans are the most dominant feature when viewing this planet from space. It is almost unimaginable that there isn’t one single drop of water on any other planet in our solar system, as a liquid never takes over 70% of its surface area as it does here. The Earth truly stands alone among planets!
The Earth’s atmosphere is also important for life, but it may have come first. Liquid water was key to developing living things, and we think it started 3.8 billion years ago in an ocean environment!
The oceans exist due to two sources. The first of these is the Earth itself, which supposedly trapped water vapor during its creation and released it through volcanic activity into the atmosphere where it condensed as rainwater. A second source could have come from comets that once struck our planet carrying substantial amounts of ice upon impact; this caused a release in liquid form on earth’s surface (the ocean).
How Much Water Is On Earth
It’s roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers), according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey, and some 72% of Earth is covered in it – but 97% percent of all this water on our planet isn’t suitable for drinking because it’s salty ocean water!
Where Did Earth’s Oceans Come From
According to this theory, the ocean is formed from molten rocks of the Earth and water vapor. After thousands and years had passed after its formation, the rain finally started falling from cooling earth that was no longer boiling hot like before.
What Is The Coldest Ocean On Earth
The Arctic Ocean is a shallow and cold part of the ocean. It’s bordered by Russia, Greenland, Canada, Norway, and Iceland- making it perfect for fishing!
What Is The Deepest Ocean On Earth
The ocean is vast and deep. The deepest part of the sea, Challenger Deep, lies beneath the western Pacific Ocean in an area called Mariana Trench that runs several hundred kilometers southwest from Guam’s U.S territorial island at its southern end.
What Would Happen To A Human At The Bottom Of The Ocean?
The pressure from the water would force air to exit and enter into a person’s lungs, depending on what is happening. The compressed space in your body will cause any remaining air or pockets of oxygen to be crushed out as you’re being pushed deeper underwater by the weight against you. So until now when we think about drowning it seems like something that happens with little resistance. But there are many physical forces working together beneath us all at once; one pushing down while another pushes up.
Whats Is The Difference Between A Sea And An Ocean?
Seas are the smallest type of ocean and can be found where land meets water. Seas usually take up a shape that is partially or fully enclosed by land, but they do exist on the margins of oceans as well. These bodies of saltwater may have various shapes including elliptical ones like in Puget Sound off Seattle’s coast to more irregularly shaped seas such as those at Baja California near Guadalupe Island.
What Percentage Of The Earth’s Oceans Are Frozen
It may be hard to imagine, but 97% of the Earth’s water is in our oceans. Out of that 2%, some can be found in frozen glaciers and ice caps. Less than 1% percent of all the water on earth is fresh!
What Percentage Of The Earth’s Oceans Have Been Explored
The world’s oceans are a mysterious place. More than eighty percent of it is still unexplored, and the only way to learn more about them is through exploration!
How Much Of The World’s Water Is Frozen And Therefore Unusable?
The world’s water is a precious resource. 68.7% of the fresh water on Earth is trapped in glaciers, 30% of freshwater is in the ground and 1.7% of all our planet’s freshwater ice caps are unusable because they’re frozen solid!
Surface
The Earth’s surface is surprisingly different from other planets in our Solar System. While the majority of its crust lies underwater. What remains on dry land contains no evidence of impacts by small bodies like asteroids and meteors. You may be wondering why this happens? The answer can actually be found with two geological processes: weathering and erosion! These terms are often used together to describe how they work hand-in-hand to erase any signs that an impact might have happened here at some point long ago.
Weathering is the breaking down of surface structures into smaller pieces by the atmosphere and it can happen in two ways: chemically or physically. An example of chemical weathering might be acid rain which gradually eats away at rocks and stones. While physical weathering happens when flowing water picks up boulders. From a river bed to carry them downstream as they erode over time. This type of erosion takes place every day because gravity is constantly pulling on things that are above ground level!
Craters are “smoothed out” through weathering and erosion by being broken apart.
The Earth’s surface has been shaped in many ways over time. One way is through volcanic activity, which consists of releasing molten rock from deep within the earth to resurface or form new landmasses. The elevation and compression that can result as a consequence are evident in our own the Rocky Mountains here on the North American continent!
What Is Earth Made Of
The three different layers of the earth are: The crust, the mantle, and under that is a solid core. This makes up what we know as ‘the Earth’.
What Is Earth Atmosphere Made Of
Earth’s atmosphere is filled with all sorts of gases. Nitrogen, oxygen, and argon are the most common on Earth making up 78%, 21% each respectively. The other 0.1% percent contains trace amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and even neon gas!
What Is The Temperature On Earth
The Earth’s average temperature has been heating up, but it looks like the fever might be coming down. The global mean surface air temperature for that period was estimated to be 57 F (14 C). That would put the planet’s average surface in 2017 at 58.62°F 14.9ºC which is a slight cooling from last year when they were averaging 59°F 15ºC.
What Color Is Earth The Planet
The planet Earth is blue. Mostly because oceans and white clouds scatter the light from our sun, but also due to layers of gas in the atmosphere that filter out other colors such as red or yellow.
Does Earth Have Craters
The Earth’s surface is recycled through plate tectonic activity (and erosion) so it also has few craters. Why does the Moon have more than its share of impact craters? On our planet, meteorite impacts are harder to identify because weathering and erosion makes them unrecognizable
How Many Craters Does Earth Have?
Earth Impact Database is a database that contains an extensive list of impact craters around the world. There are 190 confirmed Earth impacts in this index, and it has been compiled by geologist Dr. Steve Chesley from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory over decades of research on asteroids and meteors!
How Are Craters Formed On Earth?
Craters are created from the outward explosion of rocks and other materials, while calderas are formed when a volcano’s magma chamber collapses inward.
What Are The Highest And Lowest Temperatures On Earth?
The coldest temperature ever measured was -126 Fahrenheit (-88 Celsius) at Vostok Station in Antarctica. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 136 Fahrenheit (58 Celsius).
How Much Does Earth Weigh And How Is This Measured?
The Earth weighs about 13,170,000 trillion pounds. Scientists use the laws of gravity to figure out how much it would weigh if you could put it on a scale!
Interior
Earth’s interior is comprised of three layers: the core, mantle, and crust. The mantle’s outer layer is composed mainly of solid silicate rock while sizable portions are molten metal; it varies in thickness from 6 to 11 km but averages around 2,850 meters thick.
The inner part really only contains two different types. A solid nickel-iron nucleus (the ‘inner’ or ‘solid core’) that measures about 1,410 kilometers across at its widest point. A liquid iron-nickel alloy covering this sphere which flows slowly over many millennia. Through Earth’s magnetic field towards the North Pole. Becoming more intensely magnetized as it does so before finally sinking into an oceanic trench near Hawaii where it cools off again.
Here’s the thing: The Earth is unlike all other terrestrial planets because its crusts are not rigid but in constant motion. This means that two processes can be seen at fault during certain contact points; subduction and spreading. Subduction happens when plates meet violently (sometimes producing quakes) where one plate goes under another while splitting occurs as people move away from each other.
Can You Dig To The Center Of The Earth
The human race has never been able to drill through Earth’s inner core! It is the most difficult of all three layers because it contains solid, dense iron.
What Is The Earth’s Interior Made Of
The Earth’s interior is composed of four layers, three solid and one liquid. The deepest layer is a molten metal ball that could be as hot as the surface of the sun with pressure so high it cannot melt.
What Heats Earth’s Interior
Three sources of heat in the deep earth are (1) when Earth was formed and accreted, which has not been lost; (2) friction heating, caused by denser core material sinking to the center of planet; and 3), decay from radioactive elements.
How Do Scientists Know About The Earth’s Interior
The Earth’s interior cannot be studied by drilling holes to take samples – instead, scientists map it by watching how seismic waves from earthquakes are bent and reflected.
Comparing Earth And Distances From Other Planets
The distances between planets will vary depending on where each planet is in its orbit around the Sun. Sometimes they’ll be closer and other times farther away, but there’s always a reason for that.
How Big Is Earth
Earth is not perfectly round, people. It has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) and it’s because gravity pulls matter into a ball that Earth becomes spherical-shaped.
Is Earth The Smallest Planet
Earth, the third closest planet to the Sun and the fourth smallest in radius with a circumference of 6378 kilometers.
How Big Is Earth Compared To The Sun
The Sun is a hot, bright ball of hydrogen and helium that sits at the center of our solar system. It’s 864,000 miles (1,392,000 km) wide which means it has 109 times as much surface area as Earth!
How Far Is Earth From The Sun
Earth orbits the sun 100,000 times closer than the Oort Cloud. Earth has an average distance of 92,955,807 miles (149,597 km).
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Sun
The sun is approximately 8.3 light minutes from the Earth, meaning that it would take eight and a half minutes for sunlight to reach us here on earth if all of its energy was projected at once in one direction instead of being spread out across the sky like we experience day-to-day. If you were traveling around 200 miles per hour (the equivalent speed as most commercial aircraft) then it would only take about 19 years before you reached our nearest star!
How Big Is Earth Compared To The Moon
The moon is more than one-fourth the size of Earth, with an incredible ratio (1:4) to other planets and their moons. The fifth-largest in our solar system, from this angle it’s hard not to imagine what life could be like on its surface.
How Far Is Earth From The Moon
The average distance of the Moon from Earth is 238,855 miles, which averages about 30 times as far away.
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To The Moon
It takes about 3 days for a spacecraft to reach the Moon. For that time, it travels at least 240,000 miles (386,400 kilometers) which is the distance between Earth and its satellite moon!
How Big Is Earth Compared To Uranus
Uranus, the planet with a radius four times that of Earth’s and 19.8 astronomical units away from our sun is an interesting factoid to know about for your next trivia night!
How Far Is Earth From Uranus
It is fascinating to know that the distance between Earth and Uranus changes daily. The closest they get is 1.6 billion miles (2,600,000 kilometers), but at their farthest from each other – 3.2 million km or 2+ billion miles away!
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Uranus
The Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched on Aug 20, 1977, and it reached Uranus on Jan 24, 1986. So, the nine-year journey to reach Uranus took a total of 9 years and 6 months for NASA’s scientists to explore this planet through its pictures taken by their ship.
How Big Is Earth Compared To Mercury
There are many ways to measure the size of a planet, but one way is by comparing its radius. Mercury has an orbit that stretches 2240 kilometers and at 1/3 Earth’s width; this means Mercury would be only as big as a blueberry on our nickel-sized Earth.
How Far Is Earth From Mercury
The sun, Earth, and Mercury line up 222 million km (138 miles) apart.
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Mercury
It would take about 40 days to get from Earth to Mercury when they’re closest, but this is only if you were able to fly a straight line. Spacecraft follows an orbit that takes less energy than just flying in the shortest distance between planets; unfortunately for us humans, it’s much more complex and will usually end up taking them longer sometimes significantly so!
How Big Is Earth Compared To Venus
The planet Venus is roughly the same size as Earth but it’s just slightly smaller. From an average distance of 67 million miles (108 million kilometers), Venus orbits 0.7 astronomical units away from the Sun and has a radius of 3,760 miles (6,052 km).
How Far Is Earth From Venus
Every 584 days, the asteroid only reaches close to Earth once. It is about 25 million miles away at this point, but it can get as close as 24 million miles.
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Venus
The time it takes for a spacecraft to reach Venus depends on the distance between Earth and Venus. In general, they take approximately 110 days from the launch date or 14 months since 1962 when Mariner 2 took off on August 8th of that year.
How Big Is Earth Compared To Mars
Mars’s diameter of 6790 kilometers is only slightly more than half the size of Earth’s diameter 12750 kilometers.
How Far Is Earth From Mars
The minimum distance from Earth to Mars is an astonishing 33.9 million miles (54.6 million kilometers).
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Mars
The duration of the journey varies because Mars’ and Earth’s orbits are not perfect circles. If taken during one time period, it will take around seven months to arrive but if you travel when they are closer together, the trip only takes six or eight months!
How Big Is Earth Compared To Jupiter
Jupiter is bigger than 11 Earths. If Jupiter was the size of a basketball, our planet would be about as small as a nickel!
How Far Is Earth From Jupiter
Distance to Jupiter is constantly changing because the two planets travel in an elliptical path around the sun. When they’re at their closest point, it’s only 365 million miles (588 million kilometers).
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Jupiter
The Galileo probe traveled to Jupiter in what was surely an exciting journey. After taking two slingshot maneuvers from Earth’s gravity, the six-year voyage finally ended with a successful landing on Jupiter’s surface!
How Big Is Earth Compared To Saturn
The planet Saturn has a radius of 36,183.7 miles (58,232 kilometers), making it 9 times wider than Earth and from an average distance, 886 million miles away (1.4 billion km) is about as big as volleyball when compared to the size of Earth which is only 2 cm wide in this same comparison!
How Far Is Earth From Saturn
934.98 million mi
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Saturn
Voyager 1 was launched in September 1977 and with a gravitational assist from Jupiter swung by Saturn only three years later despite taking the shorter trip. The Voyager 2 took four years to reach its destination, but after it arrived at Saturn it left again for Uranus on August 25th of 1981.
How Big Is Earth Compared To Neptune
Neptune is the final planet in our solar system and has a radius of 15,299.4 miles (24,622 kilometers) which means it’s about four times wider than Earth! If you could shrink earth to be as small as a nickel then Neptune would be roughly the size of your average baseball with an average distance from 2.8 billion miles away.
How Far Is Earth From Neptune
The distance between planets is constantly changing. When Neptune and Earth are aligned on the same side of the sun, at their closest they can be as close as 2.7 billion miles (4.3 billion kilometers).
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Neptune
You’ll have to invest 12 years of your life into this. Fortunately, there’s no good reason anyone would want to go there.
How Big Is Earth Compared To Pluto
Recent measurements obtained by the New Horizons satellite indicate that Pluto is 18.5% as big in diameter as Earth, while Charon is 9.5%. This means their moons Nix and Hydra are roughly a third smaller than Denver, Colorado which spans just over 1 mile wide!
How Far Is Earth From Pluto
The 4.8 billion km distance between Pluto and Earth is equivalent to the time it would take for light to cover that same distance in about four-and-a-half hours!
How Long Does It Take To Get From Earth To Pluto
When New Horizons was launched in 2006, it became the fastest spacecraft to ever leave Earth. It crossed Jupiter’s orbit shortly after and has been traveling over a million miles each day for nine years now. But even then, it took almost 10 whole years before finally reaching Pluto and its moons
