Earth Earth is a small, rocky planet which supports a variety of life!

! As far as we know, Earth is unique from all other planets in this respect. Temperatures at the Earth's center (called the "core") may be as high as 7500 K That's hotter than the surface of the Sun! The Earth is the densest major body in the solar system. This means that it's the most "compact" of all the planets. For example, you have two loaves of bread, both of the same amounts. You smash one loaf of bread flat. Even though both loaves are of the same amount, the smashed bread is *denser* because it is more compact. The Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest known rocks are less than 4 billion years old. Rocks older than 3 billion years are rare. The oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old! Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek or Roman mythology. The name comes from Old English and Germanic language. There are, of course, hundreds of other names for the planet in other languages. Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth largest of the nine planets.

Earth, of course, can be studied without the aid of spacecraft. It was not until the twentieth century that we had maps of the entire planet. Pictures of our planet taken from space are very important! They are a big help in predicting the weather - especially in tracking and predicting hurricanes. They are also extraordinarily beautiful.

The Earth's surface is very young. This means that the Earth's surface has changed a lot from when it was first formed. Erosion and tectonic processes (like earthquakes) destroy, recreate and reshape most of the Earth's surface.

71 % of the Earth's surface is covered with water. Earth is the only planet on which water can exist in liquid form on the surface. Water is essential for life as we know it. The Earth's vast oceans keep temperatures stable - important for life on our planet. Water is also responsible for most of the erosion and weathering of the Earth's continents, a process unique in our solar system.

The Earth's atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is very important. Carbon dioxide helps to maintain the Earth's temperature by way of the "Greenhouse Effect." The Greenhouse Effect warms the Earth's temperature; without it, the oceans would freeze and life as we know it would be impossible.

Besides being the most interesting and unique of all the planets, our Earth is also the most beautiful. From space, the Earth's white clouds, blue oceans and brown lands seem to shine against the black backdrop of our solar system.

Earth is almost a sphere : The Earths shape could be described as an oblate spheroid. Its kind of like a sphere, but the Earths rotation causes the equator to bulge out . What this means is that the measurement from pole to pole is about 43 km less than the diameter of Earth across the equator.

Even though the tallest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest, the feature thats furthest from the center of the Earth is actually Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon : If you could separate the Earth out into piles of material, youd get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actually down at the core of the

Earth. If you could actually get down and sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of the Earths crust consists of oxygen. 70% of the Earths surface is covered in water : When astronauts first went into the space, they looked back at the Earth with human eyes for the first time, and called our home the Blue Planet. And its no surprise. 70% of our planet is covered with oceans. The remaining 30% is the solid ground, rising above sea level. The Earths atmosphere extends out to 10,000 km : The atmosphere is thickest within the first 50 km or so, but it actually reaches out to about 10,000 km above the surface of the planet. This outermost layer of the atmosphere is called the exosphere, and starts about 500 km above the surface of the Earth. As we said, it goes all the way up to 10,000 km above the surface. At this point, free-moving particles can actually escape the pull of Earths gravity, and be blown away by the Suns solar wind. But this high atmosphere is extremely thin. The bulk of the Earths atmosphere is down near the Earth itself. In fact, 75% of the Earths atmosphere is contained within the first 11 km above the planets surface. The Earths molten iron core creates a magnetic field : The Earth is like a great big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom of the planet, near to the actual geographic poles. This magnetic field extends from the surface of the Earth out thousands of kilometers a region called the magnetosphere. Be grateful for the magnetosphere. Without it particles from the Suns solar wind would hit the Earth directly, exposing the surface of the planet to significant amounts of radiation. Instead, the magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the Earth, protecting us from harm.

Scientists think that the magnetic field is generated by the molten outer core of the Earth, where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials. This generates electric currents that create the magnetic field.

Earth doesnt take 24 hours to rotate on its axis : Its actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. This is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to completely rotate around its axis; astronomers call this a sidereal day. Now wait a second, that means a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is. Youd think that time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, day would be night, and night would be day.

Remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1 about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours. Now that sounds like the day we know.

A year on Earth isnt 365 days : Its actually 365.2564 days. Its this extra .2564 days that creates the need for leap years. Thats why we tack on an extra day in February every year divisible by 4 2004, 2008, etc unless its divisible by 100 (1900, 2100, etc) unless its divisible by 400 (1600, 2000, etc).

Earth has 1 moon and 2 co-orbital satellites : As youre probably aware, Earth has 1 moon (The Moon). But did you know there are 2 additional asteroids locked into a co-orbital orbits with Earth? Theyre called 3753 Cruithne and 2002 AA29. We wont go into too much detail about the Moon, Im sure youve heard all about it.

Earth is the only planet known to have life : Weve discovered past evidence of water on Mars, and the building blocks of life on Saturns moon Titan. We can

see amino acids in nebulae in deep space. But Earth is the only place life has actually been discovered. But if theres life on other planets, scientists are building the experiments that will help find it. A new rover called the Mars Science Laboratory will be heading to Mars in the next few years, equipped with experiments that can detect life in the soil on the Red Planet. Giant radio dishes scan distant stars, listening for the characteristic signals of intelligent life reaching out across interstellar space. And new space telescopes, such as the European Space Agencys Darwin mission might be powerful enough to sense the presence of life on other worlds. Natural resources and land use The Earth provides resources that are exploitable by humans for useful purposes. Some of these are non-renewable resources, such as mineral fuels, that are difficult to replenish on a short time scale. Large deposits of fossil fuels are obtained from the Earth's crust, consisting of coal, petroleum, natural gas and methane clathrate. These deposits are used by humans both for energy production and as feedstock for chemical production. Mineral ore bodies have also been formed in Earth's crust through a process of Ore genesis, resulting from actions of erosion and plate tectonics.[152] These bodies form concentrated sources for many metals and other useful elements. The Earth's biosphere produces many useful biological products for humans, including (but far from limited to) food, wood, pharmaceuticals, oxygen, and the recycling of many organic wastes. The land-based ecosystem depends upon topsoil and fresh water, and the oceanic ecosystem depends upon dissolved nutrients washed down from the land.[153] Humans also live on the land by using building materials to construct shelters. In 1993, human use of land is approximately: