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ATMOSPHERE LENGTH OF A DAY AND YEAR ON EARTH MASS, DENSITY, AND ESCAPE VELOCITY SIZE SPEED TEMPERATURE ON EARTH THE EARTH'S AXIS TILT AND THE SEASONS THE EARTH'S ORBIT THE MOON 34 Essential Facts You Need to Know About The Planet Earth The Earth is the third planet from the Sun in our Solar System. It is the planet we evolved on and the only planet in our Solar System that is known to support life. What is the diameter of the earth? The diameter of the earth at the equator is 7,926.41 miles (12,756.32 kilometers). But, if you measure the earth through the poles the diameter is a bit shorter - 7,901 miles (12,715.43 km). Thus the earth is a tad wider (25 miles / 41 km) than it is tall, giving it a slight bulge at the equator. This shape is known as an ellipsoid or more properly, geoid (earth-like). 34 Essential Facts You Need to Know About The Planet Earth Earth's Circumference at the Equator: 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km) Average Distance from the Earth to the Sun: 93,020,000 miles (149,669,180 km) Average Distance from the Earth to the Moon: 238,857 miles (384,403.1 km) Highest Elevation on Earth - Mt. Everest, Asia: 29,035 feet (8850 m) Tallest Mountain on Earth from Base to Peak - Mauna Kea, Hawaii: 33,480 feet (rising to 13,796 feet above sea level) (10204 m; 4205 m) Point Farthest From the Center of the Earth - The peak of the volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador at 20,561 feet (6267 m) is farthest from the center of the earth due to its location near the equator and the oblateness of the Earth. Lowest Elevation on Land - Dead Sea: 1369 feet below sea level (417.27 m) Deepest Point in the Ocean - Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench, Western Pacific Ocean: 35,840 feet (10924 m) Highest Temperature Recorded: 134°F (56.7°C) - Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California, July 10, 1913 Lowest Temperature Recorded: -128.5°F (-89.2°C) - Vostok, Antarctica, July 21, 1983 Water vs. Land: 70.8% Water, 29.2% Land Age of the Earth: 4.5 to 4.6 billion years Atmosphere Content: 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water Rotation on Axis: 23 hours and 56 minutes and 04.09053 seconds. But, it takes an additional four minutes for the earth to revolve to the same position as the day before relative to the sun (i.e. 24 hours). Revolution around Sun: 365.2425 days Chemical Composition of the Earth: 34.6% Iron, 29.5% Oxygen, 15.2% Silicon, 12.7% Magnesium, 2.4% Nickel, 1.9% Sulfur, and 0.05% Titanium Earth isn't round. Centrifugal force pushes outwards at Earth's equator giving it a slight wasteline. Standing on that equator you would be spinning around Earth's center at 1000 miles per hour. At the poles, however, you would be standing still (and turning in a circle) The rocks you are standing on get recycled. Volcanoes spit them out as magma, they dry, harden, and after a very long time either get sucked down again by plate tectonics or get pushed towards Earth's core by a fresh layer of rocks above. Speaking of magma, the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth's surface was 136 degrees F or 57.8 degrees C in El Azizia, Libya recorded in 1922. The coldest spot was Antarctica's vostok station that recorded a bonechilling minus 128.6 degrees fahrenheit (minus 89.2 degrees C) Gravity is not distributed equally. Although earthquakes are no fun, they are not the only quakes that affect the earth. Moon quakes can actually make a difference in the tides. The Earth's mass is about 5.98 x 1024 kg. The Earth has an average density of 5520 kg/m3 (water has a density of 1027 kg/m3). Earth is the densest planet in our Solar System. To escape the Earth's gravitational pull, an object must reach a velocity of 24,840 miles per hour (11,180 m/sec). Each day on Earth takes 23.93 hours (that is, it takes the Earth 23.93 hours to rotate around its axis once - this is a sidereal day). Each year on Earth takes 365.26 Earth days (that is, it takes the Earth 365.26 days to orbit the Sun once). On average, the Earth orbits 93 million miles (149,600,000 km) from the Sun. This distance is defined as one Astronomical Unit (AU). The Earth is closest to the Sun (this is called perihelion) around January 2 each year (91.4 million miles = 147.1 million km); it is farthest away from the Sun (this is called aphelion) around July 2 each year (94.8 million miles = 152.6 million km). The Earth has an orbit that is close to being circular; its orbital eccentricity is 0.017. (Eccentricity is a measure of how an orbit deviates from circular. A perfectly circular orbit has an eccentricity of zero; an eccentricity between 0 and 1 represents an elliptical orbit.) The Earth's axis is tilted from perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic by 23.45°. This tilting is what gives us the four seasons of the year: Summer, Spring, Winter and Autumn. Since the axis is tilted, different parts of the globe are oriented towards the Sun at different times of the year. This affects the amount of sunlight each receives. At the equator, the Earth's surface moves 40,000 kilometers in 24 hours. That is a speed of about 1040 miles/hr (1670 km/hr). This is calculated by dividing the circumference of the Earth at the equator (about 24,900 miles or 40,070 km) by the number of hours in a day (24). As you move toward either pole, this speed decreases to almost zero (since the circumference at the extreme latitudes approaches zero). The Earth revolves around the Sun at a speed of about 30 km/sec. This compares with the Earth's rotational speed of approximately 0.5 km/sec (at middle latitudes - near the equator). The temperature on Earth ranges from between -127°F to 136°F (-88°C to 58°C; 185 K to 311 K). The coldest recorded temperature was on the continent of Antarctica (Vostok in July, 1983). The hottest recorded temperature was on the continent of Africa (Libya in September, 1922). The Earth's atmosphere is a thin layer of gases that surrounds the Earth. It is composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases. The atmosphere was formed by planetary degassing, a process in which gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen were released from the interior of the Earth from volcanoes and other processes. Life forms on Earth have modified the composition of the atmosphere since their evolution. How fast does the earth spin? The speed at which the earth spins varies upon your latitudinal location on the planet. If you're standing at the north pole, the speed is almost zero but at the equator, where the circumference of the earth is greatest, the speed is about 1,038 miles per hour (1,670 kph). |