In this article, I write about 5 facts about the Earth.
Introduction
Alien worlds may be all the rage, with their mystique and promise, but the orb we call home, planet Earth, has all the makings for a jaw-dropping blockbuster movie: from the drama of explosive volcanoes. Past meteor crashes and catastrophic collisions between rocky plates to the seeming fantasy of the ocean's deep abysses swirling with odd life and tales of the coldest, hottest, deepest, highest, and all-out extreme spots.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object know to harbor life. Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's especially the Sun and Moon, which is Earth's only natural satellite. Earth orbits around the Sun in 365.256 solar days, a period known as an Earth sidereal years. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis 366.256 times that is a sidereal year that has 366.256 sidereal days.
We are rocketing around the sun at 67,000 mph. Earth is the third planet from the sun and the only world known to support an atmosphere with free oxygen, ocean of liquid water on the surface, and the big one life. Earth is one of the four terrestrial planets like Mars, Venus, Mercury, it is rocky at the surface
Earth is a squashed sphere
Earth is not a perfect sphere. As Earth spins, gravity points toward the center of our planet (assuming for explanation's sake that Earth is a perfect sphere), and a centrifugal force pushes outward. But since this gravity opposing force acts perpendicular to the axis of Earth, and Earth's axis is tilted, centrifugal force at the equator is not exactly opposed to gravity. This imbalance adds up at the equator, where gravity pushes extra masses of water and earth into a bulge, or "spare tire" around our planet.
Earth is on the Move
You may feel like you're standing still, but you're actually moving fast. Depending on where you are on the globe, you could be spinning through space at just over 1,000 miles per hour. People on the equator move the fastest, while someone standing on the North or South pole would be perfectly still.
The Planet has a waistline
Mother Earth has a generous waistline. At the equator, the circumference of the globe is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers). Bonus fact: At the equator, you would weigh less than if standing at one of the poles.
The Planet is recycled
The ground you are walking on is recycled. Earth's rock cycle transforms igneous rocks into sedimentary rocks to metamorphic rocks and back again.
The cycle isn’t a perfect circle, but the basics work like this: Magma from deep in the Earth emerges and hardens into rock (that's the igneous part). Tectonic processes uplift that rock to the surface, where erosion shaves bits off. These tiny fragments get deposited and buried, and the pressure from above compacts them into sedimentary rocks such as sandstone. If sedimentary rocks get buried even deeper, they "cook" into metamorphic rocks under lots of pressure and heat.
Earth is old
Researchers calculate the age of the Earth by facing both the oldest rocks on the planet and meteorites that have been discovered on Earth (meteorites and Earth formed at the same time when the solar system was forming ). Their finding? Earth is about 4.54 billion years old.
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