Our Planet : Earth

Prepared by : Roll no.

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What is the external structure of the earth ?

It has been known for more than 2000 years that the Earth is round, but we were able to actually see this much later only when we flew into space. The knowledge of why we do not fall off from the Earth is much more recent. In 1687, a physicis, Isaac Newton, proved that the force of gravity always acts towards the center of the earth, which keeps everyone and everything on the Earth from falling. The Earth is made-up of soil, rocks, and water. The Earth is also surrounded by an air cover called the atmosphere.

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Atmosphere :
The word atmosphere means a gaseous cover enveloping a planet. One-fifth of the atmosphere is oxygen and four-fifth is nitrogen. Like the Earths interior, the atmosphere too is made up of several layers All animals and plants live in the lowermost layer of the atmosphere called the troposphere.

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How do day and night occur ?

The rotation of the Earth on its axis causes the alternation of day and night. The Earth also revolves around the sun. As a result of both these movements, the Earth does not gets continuous light from the sun. One rotation of Earth takes one day. If at 12 noon, the sun is at the highest point in the sky, then after 24 hours, it will come back again to the same position. It was the Babylonians who first divided the day into 24 hours.

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Why does the Earth rotate ?

At the beginning of the universe, there were only gas and dust particles in space. Since objects with physical mass have a mutual attraction, the dust particles agglomerated graduallyto form larger bodies, such as stars and planets. These bodies started rotating at the very moment they collided. After many collisions, the rotations got added up. This the reason for planets including planet Earth, are in constant state of motion in their respective orbits.

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What makes the Earth unique ?

Unlike the other planets of our solar system, life developed into many forms on Earth after its emergence. Liquid water and oxygen for breathing made this possible. Million of species of plants and animals thrive today on land and also in water. Water covers two-thirds of the Earths surface. This is the reason why our planet is called blue-planet. Water is present on other planets as water vapour or ice, but not in its liquid form. Planet Earth is the only one. Till now, scientists have not discovered life in any other place in the universe, but they believe that one day they will do so.

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What would happen if there was no water ?

Without water, there would be no animals or plants, which carry out photosynthesis and release oxygen, and consequently the oxygen content in the atmosphere would go down. Without water all the life-forms present on earth would never have existed

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How did life develop on the the Earth?

The origin of life on the Earth is a fortunate series of events : The Earths distance from the sun was such that its atmosphere and surface cooled down to a moderate level. Liquid water - and not just water vapour - also formed, and formed, and it did not freeze as the sun was not too far away. The action of the UV rays of the sun , the lightining flashes produced by storms, and the countless volcanic eruptions gave rise to new complex chemical compounds. About 4 billion years ago, the first molecules appeared, from which the first unicellular organisms were formed.

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