• 8 years ago
1. Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
Earth's average distance from the Sun is 149,597,890 km (92,955,820 miles) or one astronomical unit (AU). Located between Venus and Mars, some people have called it the "third rock from the Sun."
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Full Earth - NASA
Full Earth. NASA
2. Earth is the fifth-largest planet.
The diameter of our planet at the equator is about 7,926 miles, but that's not the whole story. Earth is not a perfect sphere but is slightly flattened at the poles. That means Earth's diameter measured around the North Pole and the South Pole is about 7,899 miles.
SeaWinds Global Coverage with Detail of Hurricane Floyd - NASA/JPLQuikScat
SeaWinds Global Coverage with Detail of Hurricane Floyd. NASA/JPLQuikScat
3. Earth is the only planet known to harbor life.
All of the things we need to survive are provided under a thin layer of atmosphere that separates us from the uninhabitable void of space. Earth is made up of complex, interactive systems that are often unpredictable. Air, water, land, and life - including humans - combine forces to create a constantly changing world that we are striving to understand.
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Pacific Ocean Surface Winds from QuikScat - NASA/JPL/QuikScat
Pacific Ocean Surface Winds from QuikScat. NASA/JPL/QuikScat
4. Earth has an atmosphere that sustains life.
Earth's atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide, and water. This atmosphere affects Earth's long-term climate and short-term local weather; shields us from nearly all harmful radiation coming from the Sun; and protects us from meteors as well - most of which burn up before they can strike the surface.
Earth - Pacific Ocean - NASA/JPL
Earth - Pacific Ocean. NASA/JPL
5. Earth is mostly covered in water.
While the word "Earth" is often used as a synonym for "dirt", seventy-one percent of our planet's surface is covered with water. It is the only planet where it exists in its liquid form on the surface. This is probably part of the reason that Earth is (so far) the only planet known to contain life.
World Globes, Shaded Relief and Colored Height - NASA/JPL/NIMA
World Globes, Shaded Relief and Colored Height. NASA/JPL/NIMA
6. Early philosophers thought Earth was the center of the universe.
Although Aristarchus of Samos, in the 3rd Century B.C., figured out how to measure the distances to and sizes of the Sun and the Moon, and concluded that Earth orbited the Sun, this view didn't attract followers until Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish astronomer, published On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres in 1543.
Global Images of Earth - NASA/JPL/Johns Hopkins University
Global Images of Earth. NASA/JPL/Johns Hopkins University
7. Earth has four distinct seasons.
The reasons for the seasons stem from the fact that Earth's axis of rotation is tilted more than 23 degrees. Seasons changes as the tilt of the planet's axis changes during its revolution around the Sun and different hemispheres get different amounts of sunlight.
Pictures of the Moon - Moon Color Composite - JPL
Pictures of the Moon - Moon Color Composite. JPL
8. Earth has one natural satellite
Earth's Moon (called Luna) orbits at a distance of 384,000 kilometers. However, there are thousands of small artificial satellites which have been placed in orbit around the Earth. Also, asteroids 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29 have complicated orbital relationships with our planet. However, they're not really moons, the term "companion" is being used to describe them.

Because of its size and rocky composition, the Moon has also been called a terrestrial planet along with Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. It has no atmosphere, but there is water ice in some deep craters. The moon is the only solar system body that humans have visited.
South Polar Projection of Earth - NASA/JPL
South Polar Projection of Earth. NASA/JPL
9. Earth has a magnetic field
Our planet's rapid spin and molten nickel-iron core create its magnetic field, which the solar wind distorts into a teardrop shape. The magnetic field does not fade off into space, but has definite boundaries. Just like the field around a magnet, ours is also polarized. When charged particles from the solar wind become trapped in Earth's magnetic field, they collide with air molecules above our planet's magnetic poles. These air molecules then begin to glow and are known as the aurorae, or the northern and southern Lights.

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